I read in another review (here on IMDb) that Lee Marvin was ill during the shooting of this film and that this was a total waste of his talent. I agree that Marvin's role is rather minimal, and in that sense it never becomes a great role in the twilight of his career, but he doesn't do bad at all (especially now that I know about his condition during the shoot), and there are plenty more actors and actresses who do their bidding, especially Miou-Miou as a woman who likes sex but, for a change, is not discarded as a slut, and the extraordinary David Bennent (well known for his part in 'Die Blechtrommel'), playing a career-criminal in the making.I don't mind that there is no real main character here, just like there is no genre here that really dominates; it's a mix of heist-gone-wrong, man-on-the-run, a gorefest (with a lot of rather casual, bloody killing), raw drama about a dysfunctional farmer's family and their helpers (some pimps and thugs and cops and hookers show up as well), a little (sort of, though rather twisted) coming-of-age drama and a formidable ending which gives much room to especially Marvin and Bennent to shine, but Miou-Miou in a red dress in the rain should not be missed either.No, it's not a perfect movie, but it's a hell of a lot of gruesome fun! A big 8 out of 10.

Canicule has the distinct aroma of tax write off and trip to France for Lee Marvin in one of his last and least films of his career.Marvin plays American bank robber Jimmy Cobb who is on the run and now in France. The French authorities want this guy bad, they're even armed to the teeth. The beginning is a homage to Sam Peckinpaugh and The Wild Bunch with a shootout on the Paris streets where a whole lot of people get themselves killed in a botched attempt to take Marvin.Lee's on the loose with the loot from a bank job that was obviously committed in America because it's in dollars as opposed to francs. But he manages to get to the Normandy countryside where he falls into the hands of a family of farmers who've got their own ideas about him and his loot and his reputation. And by no means is it unanimous.Canicule is a French attempt to make an American style gangster film and they're not bad at it when doing things like Lemmy Caution with American expatriate Eddie Constantine. This one could have used the real Sam Peckinpaugh however directing this mostly French cast of players with Lee Marvin and Tina Louise. The dubbing and editing is hardly first rate. Marvin is in bad health which the camera plainly shows.As another reviewer stated Gorky Park is a far better film. That and Death Hunt are the last two really great films Lee Marvin made.

Incredibly trashy French thriller about on-the-run outlaw Marvin who seeks refuge on a French farm only to find demented peasants there. The film features a collection of perverts, lunatics, degenerates, and oddball situations which are often original and sometimes amusing. Everyone in this film wants to kill something, including even the grandma (who kills herself), and the boy (wants to kill Marvin). Could have been a better film if only some of the acting (some of the cops, the older brother, and the pimps/gangsters) were better, and if the dialog were less boring and cleverer. The music is bad, especially at the beginning, where it sounds like a porno movie soundtrack. The plot and the premise are good, but the script, with its crap dialog and comic-book characters, is a mediocrity. Some of the acting was not bad (Marvin, the boy, Miou-Miou, and the nymphomaniac). What the hell kind of a name is Miou-Miou?

Watch the two movies together for an example of a good film and a bad one with the same themes. No one is good in this one, and that goes for the acting as well as the morality. The family is depraved and watching Lee Marvin go through his 'take the illegal money, eye the women, escape the pursuers' bit is incredibly boring.Skip it. A real waste of film, despite the VanGogh beauty of the golden fields of southern France.