Highly Overrated But Still Good

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Even though this may not be the funniest or most original kidnapping comedy (a genre in which, for example, I would put movies like "Ruthless People" or "The Big Hit" at the top of my list), it adds a new twist by linking the comedy plot to recent events and, in particular, the ridiculous hype surrounding the African relatives of President Obama.In this movie, news about the President's grandmother living in a remote Kenyan village prompt several amateur crooks to plot a kidnapping and demand ransom from the White House for the release of "Obamama," as the French kidnappers call her. The title is, of course, ironic, because: no, they can't. Their plans are thwarted less by the lax local security than by their own ineptitude. The various kidnappers get in each other's way, only to end up, more or less, empty-handed. I won't give away any details about the plot, but suffice it to say that it kept me entertained. French, Germans, Americans, Greeks, and Italians are all ridiculed equally (using plenty of clichés!), and the joke is definitely on all the "Westerners" interfering in the lives of the Kenyans.This movie may not be for everybody, and you should not be ashamed of laughing at some rather weak and silly jokes (not always politically correct), but there is plenty of genuine satire (especially in depicting the Kenyan village with its ridiculous souvenir stands). The slapstick scene at the end is also quite funny … with a slightly altered presidential address that gives credit to the French (!) for (well, you'll see) – if that's not satire