Movies

After You Came In, We Didn't See You Leave (1984) One of two comedies Jerry Lewis made in France. Here he is teamed with French actor Philippe Clair and much of the humor seems to be based on their status as "pieds noir" if that is the correct pluralization, half-breed and/or foreign born and viewed as not a real Frenchman. The first half is pretty dreadful, setting up Lewis' circumstances as a half-assed half-american private detective whose mother operates a health club for big women. Once he runs into Clair, a childhood friend, the story takes a surprising Tunisian Nationalist and strongly Anti-American turn which ups the interest value considerably. Mistaken for Sicilian gangsters they are plunged into a shooting war between the pasta and cous-cous interests, who bomb each others' restaurants to attain culinary supremacy. Meanwhile the American hamburger interests (with their torture chamber and lion pit) wait to swoop in and conquer the remnants. Remarkable scene of small boys in American flag shirts trying to ride rebellious donkeys, which apparently was meant to be vaguely insulting. Actually gets pretty good by the end. 5/10 for cultural education.

10,000 BC (2008) Roland Emmerich's epic prehistoric fantasy/romance. As usual with this guy, a very nicely dressed string of every possible cliche. Worth seeing just for the first shot of mammoths dragging stone blocks to the top of the super-pyramid. Those mopey prolonged death scenes get pretty wearing, and the female protagonist looked like a "hollywood indian" from the 1930s - a white girl with a wig on. But, they really came through with the mammoth stampedes. 6/10