Stars: Dany Boon, Andrew Dussollier, Omar Sy, Dominique Pinon, Julie Ferrier, Nicolas Marie, Marie-Julie Baup, Michel Cremades, Yolande Moreau, Jean-Pierre Marielle
Running time: 104 mins
Rating: ★★★★

THE hero of the new film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of Amelie and Delicatessen, is Bazil (Dany Boon) who’s orphaned when a landmine kills his father and suffers further when he’s caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting.

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He’s left with a bullet lodged in his brain and the knowledge that it could be dislodged at any moment. One false move and he could be dead.

Out of hospital, he finds himself homeless until adopted by a band of scavengers and secondhand dealers living in an Aladdin’s cave in a junkyard.

They have names like Remington, Calculator, Elastic Girl and Mama Chow and as oddballs go they don’t come any odder. They rally round when Bazil recognises the logos of the weapons manufacturers that caused all his problems while walking by two huge buildings in the city and sets out to make them pay for his hardship.

This dirty dozen or so social misfits are an ingenious lot when it comes to plotting revenge which makes it fun for us if not the arms manufacturers.

Jeunet, as you’d expect, serves up a visually stunning film that’s as offbeat and entertaining as they come.