Along the way, the Frenchies cross paths with an uptight Brit ( Guillaume Gallienne), his undersexed wife ( Charlotte Le Bon) and their over-anal servant ( V alérie Lemercier), resulting in lots of cultural clashes and commentaries on the age-old cross-Channel rivalry. There’s even a national Asterix theme park, which, like its titular hero, has tried its best over the years to thwart an ongoing alien invasion (in this case, by Mickey Mouse and the folks at Disneyland Paris).īased on Asterix in Britain and Asterix and the Normans, the scenario-co-written with Tirard regular Grégoire Vigneron-takes a few cues from Alain Chabat’s Cléopâtre as it follows Asterix ( Edouard Baer, the third actor to take on the role after Clovis Cornillac and Christian Clavier) and Obelix (series stalwart Depardieu) from their isolated enclave in Brittany to the heart of England circa 50 B.C., where reigning Queen Cordelia (Deneuve) is hoping the two Gauls will rescue her nation from a siege by Julius Cesar (Luchini) and his army. With a purported budget of €60 million ($78 million) and a cast of French film heavyweights including Gérard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve and Dany Boon, Britannia should see big numbers in all Francophone territories, although they won’t reach the heights of 2002’s Mission Cléopâtre, which remains both the best and highest domestic grosser of the bunch.Īlongside Hergé’s Tintin, writer/illustrator René Goscinny and artist Albert Uderzo’s Asterix series is undoubtedly the most beloved bande dessinée in French history, with 300-hundred-plus million copies of the 34-book series sold in dozens of different languages, and three previous movies raking in a combined total of 30-plus million local admissions. PARIS - Proving that the law of diminishing returns dates at least as far back as the Roman Empire, Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia ( Astérix et Obélix: au service de Sa Majesté) is a rather floundering fourth addition to the widely popular French comic book comedy franchise.ĭirected with a pop-ish sensibility by Laurent Tirard ( Le Petit Nicolas), this effects-heavy, 3D-outfitted installment–in which the mighty Gallic duo bring their magic and mustaches across the channel to save the Queen from Cesar’s army–features a few decent gags and non-sequiturs amid an otherwise redundant storyline that begins to waver by the second act, and then just keeps on coming.
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