Sorry, this movie sucks

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Arctic expedition finds the frozen body of Paul Fournier in Greenland. He stayed in eternal cold for sixty five years and was brought to life in 1970. He is taken care by the family of his descendants and he believes that it is still 1905 and he had a riding accident after which he had developed some memory problems. By his doctor's request, to spare him the shock of waking up, the house he stays in and the streets surrounded it are redecorated to look like in the beginning of the 20th century. He does not know that the woman he believes his mother is his granddaughter and her polite but slightly hyper fiancée (De Funes) has been her husband for over twenty years. The movie belongs to Luis De Funes as all his comedies do. I'd like to name just a few - the trilogy of Fantômas movies where De Funes was energetic, bubbling with the mad ideas, clumsy and hilarious Commissar Juve; "La Grande vadrouille" (1966) where he shared the screen with another French legend, Bourvil, and "Oscar" (1967) which he simply stole with his performance. During his long career De Funes learned how to make every viewer in the audience laugh – not just laugh but almost die from laughing. While watching "Hibernatus" again after many years, I almost fall from the couch – my husband and our friends had more fun watching me than the movie.

For the second time director Edouard Molinaro and French comic star Louis De Funès worked together, after "Oscar" (1967).In 1969 a group of scientists discover a frozen body, which belongs to a young man of 1900. This man still lives and after many adventures his custody is granted to his family (Louis De Funès and his wife, who is...the granddaughter of the man!). For avoiding him the big shock of living at the end of the Sixties, all his family dress and behave as if they were at the beginning of the century! The comedy shows again the qualities of De Funès, who was unique with grimaces and nervous tics. The French actor was like a clown, many children and adults adored him."Hibernatus" is a nice movie, although a little too pretentious -De Funès made better films-. The story is a bit absurd, but the picture is still watchable for his leading actor.

Louis de Funès was one of the funniest French comic actors and none of those on the scene today can even compare with him. Many of his films made in the 1960's and 70's are evergreens of French comedy and remain popular even today. Hibernatus is one of the best, together with Rabbi Jacob, La Grande Vadrouille and Le Corniaud (The Sucker). The script lively, the film only 78 mins long and Claude Gensac as his long standing "ma biche !" is magnificent. The film is basically about De Funes's wife's grandfather who is found frozen in the ice and comes back to life with his family in 1969 ! All surroundings are made to look oldy-worldy so that he may think he is still in 1905. All this gives rise to some comic situations where De Funès has to disguise himself first as the grandfather's father, and then as suitor to his mother. Without going any more into the detail of the plot one can say that it is highly amusing and entertaining. It has recently been issued on DVD in France with very good picture quality and French Subtitles, together with several other famous de Funès comedies, such as La Folie des Grandeurs, Oscar, L'Homme Orchestre ..............

This is a neat little comedy about a man who has survived in a frozen state for more than half a century. When he wakes up (not having aged at all) all his surroundings have been adapted to make him believe he is still living in his own time. Of course, this charade cannot be maintained for very long.This is a pleasant little comedy, giving people a nice excuse to wear colourful old-fashioned clothes, without necessarily behaving the way the clothes and the decor would indicate. The film has its weaknesses, in particular it is difficult to see why the scientists go through all the trouble. Worse, Olivier de Funes (who plays it straight) lacks the required charisma to carry the film, and we don't get quite enough action from his famous father.