Of course you’ve seen this guy. My personal favorite French import. My picks for tonight star Jean Reno , known to Americans as that guy from Godzilla, that guy from The Pink Panther , and Leon.
Reno was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He was lucky to meet and collaborate with Luc Besson early in each others careers, and was in Luc’s first movie. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, was the Best Man at his freakin’ wedding. And, he’s got range. Just take a look at tonight’s recommendations: There’s action, comedy, romance, drama….he’s like the everyman of France, a french Tom Hanks who can also pull off an action role. Yeah, that’s it.
Without further ado:
Wasabi (2001)
Think “Luc Besson’s French Dirty Harry” in “ Quite Possibly the Greatest French-Language, English-Subtitled, Japanese Action-Comedy of All Time. ” Jean gets a sidekick in this one named ‘Momo’ (Michel Muller) who does a great job as comic relief and foil to Reno’s Detective Hubert.
The detective gets some well timed vacation and travels to Japan to see an old flame, and gets more than he planned for. The plot is good if somewhat predictable, but it does not really matter. The film is character driven, and nearly every scene can stand on it’s own.
If you’re into Japanese culture, then you’ll like how the movie is almost entirely set in Japan. Plenty of action and comedy, this is one you’ll mention to your friends.
The US DVD release contains a dubbed English track if you don’t like subtitles.
Jet Lag (2002)
A while back after watchin Ronin I was wondering if Jean had any romantic-comedies out there, and I found this.
I seem to remember reading that they filmed each scene in both languages to avoid dubbing, so there are actually both French and English versions of the film. Thank you, Alaine.
A very mature comedy about two professionals, a beautician (Juliette Binoche) and a chef (Jean Reno), forced to share the last hotel room in the city during an airline strike. Both Reno and Binoche are stars of French cinema and their talents really carry this movie despite a mediocre plot.
A must see for Reno fans.
