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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Iznogoud is a hard comic book to be made into a movie. The stories are about 8 pages and they more or less fallow the same formula - Iznogoud the great vizier gets idea how to kill the good Caliph (usually involving some magical objects or gimmick) and after few faild atemps the plot turns against him and he end-up turn into a frog or nail, or something.The movie starts pretty interesting with a pseudo-bollywood musical number that explains Iznogoud goals and creates the Arabian night setting. Sadly the next 40 minutes or so, are a mess of different Iznogoud plots, sadly all handle poorly. The plot to turn Caliph into a frogs turns out to be a dream, the plot with two Genies was pointless, and the plot to turn Caliph invisible was so forced. The only good part was when Izngoud thinks that Caliph actually dies. The second half when the main plot finally kicks in is a little bit better and there are some funny jokes now and then, but overall predictable. There are some jokes I don't get. For example - at one point the magic frog escape from Izngoud. During the movie they keep showing the shots of the frog when they cut to the palace, and while I was thinking it is building up to something at the end... nope, it was pretty pointless. As a whole this movie is not bad - Visuals are fantastic, few jokes made ma laugh out-loud, musical numbers are OK and you can tell that the cast had fun with it, but at the same time the plot is either predicable or makes little sense, there are plenty of pointless moments and overall they could done a much better job.

The first 20 minutes or so of the movie are terrible. But the rest of the movie is acceptable, even though the songs are not that great. The movie is actually better for kids than adults, even if there's some sexual innuendos and a bit of nudity. Jacques Villeret is great even if his character is not well developed. Michaël Youn is terribly annoying in the first half of the film and it only gets a bit better in the second half. But the two genies are great! The movie reminded me of Astérix, that came out a few years ago, if only that it's not as good.Seen in Toronto, at the Royal Cinema, during Cinéfranco, on April 9th, 2006.72/100 (**)

This was the last movie of Jacques Villeret who died 28 January 2005, he was funny as Le Calife Haroun El Poussah. It was very similar to the cartoon if you remember it. Michaël Youn was excellent as Le grand Vizir Iznogoud and he totally embodied the character. Youn's talent as a performer was cleverly used in the movie as he was part of the band Bratislava Boys. Oliver & Kad (Olivier Barroux & Kad Merad) were excellent in their comedy routines as always. A short appearance of Elie Semoun, Laurent Baffie, Vincent Desagnat, Pascal Sellem and Ariel Wizman were just funny as they all represent the elite of French comedy right now. This was a good movie in the cartoon comedy genre. It was much better than I expected.

This movie is based on an old (mid 70's) french graphic novel once famous for its humour, based both on situations and on strange and funny characters name (as the main character, Vizir Iznogoud). The adaptation to cinema is a total failure. Braoudé, the writer, totally lacks of imagination. Based on the graphic novel, a continuous flow of gags, hilarious situations, references to classical movies and/or political situation are waited for. But nothing, or quite, happens. A few bad jokes, often predictable (such as the gate in the middle of the desert), a bad copy of "Asterix - Mission Cleopatra" ancient/modern conversations (the flying carpet described as a brand new car), some poor references to the movie "Pretty woman", and that's all folks! 10 (bad) jokes in a 1h30-long movie, it's poor, especially when this movie is supposed to be a comedy. I watched it in a movie-theater in a small town in France. Except, sometimes, a six-year old boy, nobody laughed! Maybe Braoudé should try another job, something which doesn't involved imagination and creative skills...