I have to say upfront I am a huge fan of the 2 previous movies directed by Michel Hazanavicius, I was nervous for this one because I hold them in high regards, and director Hazanavicius was not coming back because "he didn't like the script".

I'm pleased to report the movie still succeed to make us laugh and entertain, Jean Dujardin is back in strong form. His comedic timing is always golden and his facial expressions haven't changed. The aesthetic was also a treat, like the 2 previous movies the set design, color palette and exotic locations makes it a beautiful film to look at. Maybe not as good as the other ones but still solid.

I would say that the story/plot is probably the weakest point of the film, it drags a bit with a 2-hour runtime and they try to introduce a new agent played by Pierre Niney that feels a bit forced and didn't really work for me, it was hit & miss (mostly miss) with this character. It feels like they didn't really knew how to end this movie, but it didn't really take away from my enjoyment of it.

This type of comedy can be tricky in today's politically correct day & age, but I thought they stayed true to Hubert and didn't held back. Now that he's going to Africa you can expect him to be maladroit... and he is. It never feels mean however, you can tell he's just an idiot who doesn't know better.

Overall even though it does feel inferior to Rio Ne Répond Plus and Caire Nid d'Espions, it's something I know I'm going to watch again for Jean Dujardin's star performance as Hubert. Bonisseur De La Bath.

Third installment of the OSS 117 saga; the first one took place in the late fifties an showed "the hero's perfect mastery of the muslim world "; the second one,a precise spoof on the "serious " OSS 117 of sixties eurospies,the likes of "furia à Bahia pour OSS 117" set Hubert against the exiled Nazis and showed his "perfect knowledge of WW2".

Then this one , set in a precise moment of French politics :1981, A few months and Giscard D'Estaing would disappear (President Bamba's royal present won't be lost on French people who lived through the seventies) .

The world has changed ; Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath hasn't ;he's still a, condescending ,ignorant ,dumb , uneducated ,vain, and ,to crown it all ,homophobic macho .

Jean Dujardin is true to from ,and he's probably the best contemporary comic actor (like the great ones,he can also take dramatic parts);with a lesser talent, this could have turned in one of those crude feel good froggy comedies ;he escapes unharmed .

He gets good support from Pierre Ninney ,as OSS 1001 (because the Deuxième Bureau runs out of three-figure designations) ; this young arrogant pretty boy shows himself better than his elder -which is not hard to do-,and ,which makes the matters worse , a rival with women! (a thing that even Bond never ran into); not only Hubert botches his collaborator's job in a shameless way,but he makes him believe he's got the brains although he only mutters "yes yes " " I know that" "that's what I wanted to say" ;and when the young Turk realizes Hubert has led him up the garden path and says that he 's got all the time in the world, it's too late (to skim pebbles can be dangerous!)

Of course ,it's uneven ,and one wishes the feminist side (in spite of the unexpected twist) had been more exploited ,but the numerous gags (some puns may be lost on a non-French audience) :

-Hubert depicting the Africans, then improving his knowledge by reading Hergé 's "Tintin au Congo"!

-His condescension towards the servants ,the natives , an ironical put-down of politically correct people

• "The lion does not know my gun isn't loaded " ,my favorite line.

I loved the two first films , back in 2006 and 2009. It took a long time before the third one of the franchise; Jean Dujardin seems to be the same and the overall structure and atmosphere too. I love his character, who is still the same, no matter the directing and overall story. He is the perfect, pure anti hero: idiot, mysoginist, racist, full of biases, uncultivated. This is precisely the purpose of this film, I repeat, forget the story itself. It is not the worst of the series and despite the fact that I don't like comedies, I prefer them compared to the sixties OSS 117 features, very "serious" ones, spy movies in the right fashion of those years, more or less 007 like movies. With the settings in Africa, this is of course the perfect location to instal the atmosphere of the franchise: lead character's racism, so obvious, and also the pretext to evoke the French politics since so many decades in Africa.