Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Mihai Toma In a post-apocalyptic block of flats, isolated from the world and led by a suspicious butcher, arrives an ex artist, looking to start a new life. After being accepted by the leader, he starts doing house work and meets a lovely but lonely girl, seeking attention.Their lives from there on are presented in what I hoped to be a comical way but I was mistaken. Nothing interesting happens most of the time, boredom being the main sensation left by the first half of the film. The second one is a bit more interesting due to the underground secret society but nothing to save the general aspect. It finally managed to made me laugh with its final events which makes me wonder why wasn't the whole movie made in the same way. Nevertheless, there are two or three interesting characters which caught my attention but it is simply not enough. It had an interesting environment in which a lot of fun could have been created so it leaves me with a sour feeling because it could have been a lot better.

Tweekums Set in a post-apocalyptic France, where food is scarce, former clown Louison takes a job as the handyman in an apartment block… not realising that after a week's work the butcher, who owns the building, intends to kill him to feed the building's residents. Before that can happen the butcher's short-sighted daughter, Julie, starts to fall in love with Louison. In an attempt to save him she contacts 'The Troglodytes'; a group of sewer-dwelling vegetarian 'terrorists'.The plot makes this sound like a horror movie but in reality it is a surreal comedy. The building is populated with a variety of bizarre characters including a woman whose convoluted suicide attempts invariably fail and a man whose flooded flat is full of snails and frogs! Things start well with the sight of the previous handyman's attempt to escape his fate disguised as rubbish and continues with a succession of inventive, strange and hilarious scenes. The cast does a fine job making their characters believable despite how strange they all are… only Louison and Julie are vaguely normal. If the goings on weren't strange enough everything has a yellow tinge that makes everything seem somewhat rotten. Overall I'd say that while this film won't be for everybody those who enjoy the bizarre and surreal should love it.These comments are based on watching the film in French with English subtitles.

capone666 DelicatessenIn a post-apocalyptic future the world's Cheez Whiz supply would have to be used to re-caulk all the buildings.Thankfully the tenants in this sci-fi comedy don't have to lick cracks for sustenance.On the ground floor of a dilapidated apartment is a butcher (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) who always has fresh meat despite there being a food shortage.Answering an ad in the newspaper, Louison (Dominique Pinon) lands the job of assistant to the butcher.Eventually Louison's charms win over the butcher's daughter Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac). But with her father planning on putting Louison on the menu, she seeks the assistance of an underground cell of rebellious vegetarians. Conceptualized by the director of Amélie, Delicatessen is a quirky cannibal love-story crammed with eccentric characters that never takes itself too seriously, or too lighthearted.Furthermore, with all the hormones and preservatives we ingest, human meat would have a very long shelf life.Green Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

rcolgan Delicatessen is a strange little treat from the French director Jean- Pierre Jeunet, the director of other great modern French films like Amélie. But instead of the melancholy of Amelie, Delicatessen instead focuses on very dark humour, being based around a cannibalistic butcher who lures in victims to his apartment block so he can kill them and sell them as meat to his cannibalistic tenants. He does this in a post apocalyptic world where food appears to be scarce and people have become more willing to show their barbaric nature in order to survive.And this is where the films focus lies. For it is less interested in the post apocalyptic world, but instead focuses on the characters and the various tenants who live in the building and their dark humour . A majority of the characters will have their own distinct personalities that make them quite memorable. There's one tenant who keeps quiet throughout the film, keeping an inventory of frogs and snails to represent the side of fine French cuisine in contrast to the more barbaric man eating side of the film. Then there's the girl who constantly keeps trying to commit suicide and failing in the most darkly comedic ways. It's with characters like these where the film does gain its personality and it's many awkward chuckles that are somewhere between comedy and tragedy.The film also succeeds at creating both likable protagonists and despicable antagonists. Louison (the lead protagonist) is an extremely charismatic young boy who is both very kind to all the tenants in the building and very skilled being a clown and displaying a nice introductory scene using bubbles to entertain th kids of the apartments. Then there's the lead girl, Julie, who is very brave working to stop Louison from being butchered. Similarly, Louison often protects her making their relationship extremely dependant on one another.Then the antagonist Clapet is also very memorable. The film makes it clear that he is a despicable man within the first five minutes on screen as he commits brutal murder, but feels no remorse about doing it, instead appearing to even enjoy it. At times he's slightly overplayed, but this assists in making sure he stands out as the most insane, amongst an already insane cast of characters.The style the film is shot is also very interesting as for the most part the entire story is confined to the apartment building. Through this it helps to create both a claustrophobic feeling and makes the characters feel even more detached from the rest of the world keeping the story very self contained. Also the cinematography uses a fairly dark tone, assisting the film to get a distinct look and help it stand apart from other apocalyptic futures.However, whilst everything that was in the film remained effective, throughout the film I couldn't help but feel there was lost potential. For example, whilst what I saw of the apocalyptic world was interesting, I didn't feel like we saw enough of it. Presumably what they were going for was to create some mystery as to the world, with there being a great deal of uncertainty as to when the film was even set with the likes of black and white TV's being used. But I feel the film would have been stronger if they had expanded on certain elements of the world like creating some bizarre shows on television or hints at why there is such a food shortage.It also feels like the film would have benefited from a longer run time. It took a lot of nice scenes to slow down and build up the relationship between the two leads showing them playing instruments together to create a more natural relationship. But this carries with it the problem that the plot ends up feeling more rushed with less time to make the different characters arcs complete. For example, tenants such as the Landlords mistress feel like good characters but don't get enough time for us to learn enough about them.Though the major missed opportunity that I see in the film is we don't really see any of the characters eating any of the human meat, despite the entire film centred around cannibalism. We see it being given to them and there reactions to getting it, but it does feel like a missed opportunity by not showing them actually eat it. It's an opportunity to get a good thrill, but it never seems like the director used it despite the several opportunities he could have.But in spite of this it remains a good film with a distinct style. It's certainty worth the watch because it is something different. With its nice shooting style and interesting characters it delivers some entertaining humour and dark visuals.