Don't Die Too Hard!

"Dis 'Hard'" was what the posters for this movie read, a "clever" french play on the American film "Die Hard". La Tour Montparnasse is a blatant spoof of "Die Hard" by the two incredibly popular French comedians, Eric and Ramzy. I'm not sure there is an American equivalent to these guys, but Martin Lawrence comes to mind. Eric and Ramzy combine to create the "mis-matched" comedy pair: one tall, the other short, one loud, the other shy. Although this pairing has been done over and over and over again, Eric and Ramzy are good natured and playful and are enjoyable to watch.

The film, on the other hand, isn't so easy to watch. La Tour Montparnasse is the sole "skyscraper" in Paris, the natural setting for a French "Die Hard" knockoff. The movie starts off with Eric and Ramzy playing window washers on the side of the building. They are wasting time spitting off the building and trying to flirt with the women inside the building. Within 3 minutes of this movie, you have a rough idea of the intelligence behind it. It is dumb. It is childish. It has pretty low production value. But, there are some decent gags.

The scenes I thought were quite funny was a matrix spoof (yes, it's pretty topical humor) and an incredible spoof of Bruce Lee's "Game of Death." This joke probably flies by most of the audience (I think I was the only one laughing in the theater) but it is hilarious. There is also a decent "Speed" spoof at the very end of the film.

The negatives to the film? It is pretty dang homophobic. Apparently in France it is still okay to have homophobia in the films, but I found it a little jarring. There is a constant banter between Eric and Ramzy about "gayness." The production values for the film are also quite low, but considering comedies usually aren't huge budget blockbusters anyway, it's not such a huge deal. Maybe the most blatant problem is the film's tendency to act like "Scary Movie": it comes off as a series of gags with no real connection between them. The plot is thiiiiiiin and it serves only to bridge the gags or spoofs in the film.

Overall, I would give the film a middle of the road 5. It's not great, it's not terrible, and any Bruce Lee fan should definately watch the great spoof near the last half hour of the film.