Francis Veber is one of my favorite French filmmakers, with some amazingly clever comedies to his credit, such as "The Closet" and "The Dinner Game". However, compared to his best films, I'd place "Tais-Toi!" just below them...watchable and enjoyable but nothing more.The story begins with Quentin (Gérard Depardieu) getting arrested for an armed robbery. However, it's obvious that he's very dumb...incredibly dumb. He also loves to talk a lot and subsequently annoys his various cellmates in jail. Eventually, Ruby (Jean Reno) is placed in the same cell...because he's refused to say even a word to the police following his stealing a gang of professional thieves' loot. The police hope that Quentin will drive Ruby crazy....just like he did with his previous cellmates. Oddly, Quentin thinks Ruby is his best buddy...even though for much of the film Ruby says nothing to him. And, since Ruby is his 'buddy', Quentin is determined to help his friend escape. As for Ruby, his only goal is to get out in order to kill the gang leader. After all, he murdered Ruby's girlfriend and paybacks are definitely in order.Throughout the film, Quentin annoys the heck out of Ruby...a bit like the idiot in "The Dinner Game" annoyed his host. These moments are enjoyable and overall the film is worth seeing even if it is a tad formulaic towards the end.

In the delicious "le Dîner De Cons" (1998) by the same director Francis Veber, Pierre Brochant (Thierry Lhermitte) says to his doctor on a dogged tone: "I've got a damn fool of world class tonight!...". The viewer who discovers "Tais-toi!" for the very first time could attribute as well this opinion to Quentin from Montargis (Gérard Depardieu) in this film. The IQ of this character is so low that the wardens in prisons and the male nurses in psychiatric hospitals can't stand him until one day, he makes the acquaintance of a taciturn inmate Ruby (Jean Reno) and thinks he's his friend because unlike all the ones Thomas met in his life, Ruby never tells him to shut up. The two men escape in a preposterous way and are soon tracked down by the police and the underworld...For many French viewers, Francis Veber is the guarantee of a quality entertaining movie. Throughout the years this respectable scenarist gained a large reputation thanks to a recognizable comic recipe: the mismatched duo of men. Two men with a very different disposition who have to be and to face together unexpected situations. This formula gave laugh-filled works like "la Chèvre" (1981), "les Fugitifs" (1986) when it wasn't pure genius with "le Dîner De Cons" I mentioned earlier.With "Tais-Toi!", he remains faithful to his cinematographic writing and coming after the dismaying "le Placard" (2001), it is a few notches above his precedent work. Of course, it never reaches the pinnacle of "le Dîner De Cons" but the Veber touch can be felt here and there. This man is a mastermind when it comes to depict the persona of his duo of men between the grouchy, ominous Ruby and his partner, the silly, simple-minded Quentin or to put verbal wit in hilarious dialogs. And it would be hard to resist taut, droll moments.If the 2003 vintage is more palatable than the 2001 one, that doesn't make a great film for all that. Apart from indisputable assets, Veber's scenario is plagued by a humdrum imagination and a lackluster directing to weave an immaculate story for our maladjusted duo of men. Most of the film consists in a chase with fights, shooting and stunts a little lazily filmed during which the director doesn't appear to be at ease in spite of the fantastic steps his tandem goes through. What also hampers the venture is its ultra-mapped direction and a patchy direction of actors. It would be hard to resist the blissful ignorant Gérard Depardieu but Jean Reno is a more debatable choice for he's unable to shade his acting even if Veber wrote him some witty lines.I would be tempted to write that this film showcases Veber's strong points and his limits. When he stays confined to the grounds of comedy, Francis Veber is in his element. But when he tries to make a foray into other cinema territories or to incorporate his comical gifts in it, laughter are too scattered even rare. Even if "Tais-toi!" isn't to be hammered, it will be soon forgotten after the screening.

I can't remind a movie making me laugh that much. In fact, I can't remind laughing that much at all.Although I can speak a little French, I'm not fluent at all, yet I could laugh all the time: the role play is great and the plot is wonderful.Don't care about the crime, almost action, background of the movie, and watch it with you children: it's really only a background used for creating gags, there's no violence and the only shot scene is not that explicit.The bottom line is: watch this movie, no matter if you can speak French or not. It's a real world wide comedy.

I've never been so far a fan of neither Depardieu nor french movies, but this time i've got to recognize he achieved a superb performance. The film, without being much more than another movie about thieves with a rather simple plot, made me laugh from the very beginning to the end.Reno was also great in his duties. The scenes are simply the adequate for a comedy about "voleurs" running ahead of police officers -which means such scenes are far from being pretentious- and the only difference between this movie and the traditional ones on the same subject are the attitude and behavior of the two main characters -incarnated by Depardieu and Reno- and the unusual and laugh-some relationship which is born among them.