The long-awaited (since "Borsalino" in 1970, I think) reunion of two of the greatest and most popular French film stars ever, Alain Delon and Jean Paul Belmondo, is a slick but disappointing action comedy. It is mildly amusing when it focuses on these two and their relationship with the daughter they never knew they had, but the secondary crime plot makes very little sense for at least the first 40 minutes, and the villainous Russian mobsters look and (over)act like refugees from a straight-to-video Steven Seagal movie. Delon and Belmondo are still fun to watch, and they have to be commended for still pulling off some hard and risky stunts at their age; as for Vanessa Paradis, she is fresh and sexy. But if you're looking for this type of "Americanized" French cinematic entertainment, the "Taxi" series (especially Part 2) does it better. ** out of 4.

Yes, big, big french names.

Dialogues - worst than your regular soap opera.

Acting - trained dogs would act better. You read right, among the most recognized french actors not only have no clue, not only it looks like improvisation, but in this movie they act like I did when I had for the first time a role on a theater scene.

Directing - see above. Either there was no directing in this movie, either the director had diarrhea and felt no relief during the filming.

Plot - where is it? Maybe the director was reading it while waiting on a toilet for mentioned issue.

You know, I had a thought. It's nice to bring (old) big names on the screen, to get people driven by nostalgia to visit the theater. But when you ruin a movie in such way, that also ruins the memories.

In his book "I am an impostor", Patrice Leconte wrote that "une Chance Sur Deux" drew more than a million viewers in French theaters when the film was theatrically released. It was however a failure because this film was expensive to make due to its stars: Vanessa Paradis, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon, the restless story and its treatment. Critics were hardly tender towards the Leconte 1998 vintage and view the three stars' incredible adventures in an unfavorable light. With hindsight, "une Chance Sur Deux" is sandwiched between two Leconte masterworks: "Ridicule" (1996) and "la Fille Sur la Pont" (1999) and didn't seem to be in the hearts of many Leconte aficionados.

However, I'm eager to restore it to favor. Sure, it doesn't match the two aforementioned Leconte works as well as other pearls in his filmography but it has more than good stuff to spend a pleasant time in front of your telly. The starting point could make you guess you're going to watch a reflective piece of work. A young girl Alice is released from prison and is confronted to a serious problem: two men who are retired gangsters claim to be her father. They will have to team up to save their daughter from the clutches of the Russian Maffia, Colombian traffickers and the police.

Quite quickly, after having timidly broached the issue of paternity on a humorous tone, Leconte's film takes a lighter direction: to entertain thanks to an unlikely but exciting scenario with stunts, chases interspersed with laughter. I especially dig the moment when Belmondo and Delon oblige a gangster to practice bungee-jumping to help them in their investigation. And amid this flood of unexpected twists and mad adventures shot with a style close from the comic strip, Leconte didn't lose his trademark with witty cues and one of his thematic tastes: the duo of men even if in this domain "une Chance Sur Deux" is much less elaborated than other Leconte films on the same topic like "Tandem" (1987) or "l'Homme Du Train" (2002). One also shouldn't forget some eccentric characters like the cop acted by Michel Aumont.

The three stars don't take themselves seriously and it's the position adopted by Leconte to better involve the audience. So, don't be fooled by the lukewarm reception the film garnered about ten years ago and let yourself immersed in this maelstrom of agitation shot with rigor and a conscientious manner.