Alibi.com (2017)

A unique kind of Humor. Not a copy of any other Humor.

Fmovies: This could have been good, but .... There are other films in this vein: "The Wedding Crashers", a Will Smith film and a french one whose name eludes me. The protagonist runs a business that provides alibis with himself avoiding entanglements with women. You know what is going to happen as the plot is a cliche: a part of the way through the film he falls for a girl, his business is revealed, it all crashes down and he debases himself for the girl. The film also has a mean spirit in terms of people getting hurt for a laugh: a run-away golf cart hits a trampoline displacing it sideways. The man jumping on it splats himself onto the ground - not funny same golf cart careers towards a sand castle, but collides with the boy building it instead - not funny same boy is hit in the face with a stone from some casual stone skipping on water. The protagonists slink away a child conceived out of wedlock, as a consequence of the chief protagonist, is unceremoniously dumped outside an orphanage a pair of testicles is shown hanging below a park bench (itself distasteful) is attacked by a feral cat (extreme variation of kick in the groin cliche)

Most of the time: not funny at all. Boring, with a few good jokes. Few. Really.

Alibi.com fmovies. I went to see the movie with good expectations, because the basic idea of a company providing alibis for people who have some skeletons in the closet had so much potential for good situation comedy. I couldn't be more wrong. The movie combines "comedy of errors" situations we've seen a million times (e.g. husband tries to hide from his wife with his lover, and voila, the wife shows up at the same hotel) with gags that are both predictable and disgusting (cat harassing a man's exposed hanging testicles, three guys hiding under the bed while a fourth one jerks off on the bed, a guy on a wine tasting drinks other people's spit etc.). It is not saved even by the forced references to Star Wars (two guys fighting with colored neon-tubes) or Assassin's Creed. The movie even jokes about things like the migrant crisis (which is a sensitive topic today in Europe, especially in France) and a little boy taken to institution. Comedy, right? I would not recommend this movie to anyone who thinks that humor is above the level of body fluids and tired "embarrassing" situations.

My family and I have always trusted in french cinema as one of the bests. Yesterday, after watching 'Dunkirk', we entered to see this one. We had already seen the trailer, and our expectations were high for this to be absolutely entertaining.

But the thing about Alibi.com is that it isn't only entertaining, but it is hilarious as hell! Really, I wasn't expecting its tones of dark humor/slapstick present throughout the movie. It probably was because the movie, according to the cinema were I saw it, was rated B (which in Mexico it's like PG-13). And well, I wouldn't think of it as a movie suitable for pre-teens, or for children.

7/10. It is absurd, silly and stupid at times, but believe, that is exactly the reason of seeing this nice french flick.

Enjoy!

A French comedy which feels like a mainstream American comedy – with all the animal- and sex-jokes, partying, misadventures and wacky characters you can digest in 90 minutes. And it's sweet! The story is about hot new startup that creates alibis for people who want to lie to other people (seems that paying customers are mostly cheating husbands or boyfriends). Then, the founder of the company is lucky to meet the love of his life, and suddenly uniting work and private affairs gets really difficult. This is fast-moving mainstream comedy so the actors are more adequate than great. Surprisingly, the best and most nuanceful performance comes from Élodie Fontan who's supposed to be just a pretty girl in a supporting role (the love interest mentioned above). What's most interesting about the male leads – the people behind the alibi-creating company – is that two of them also wrote the screenplay, and the leading man Philippe Lacheau is both co- screenwriter and director. That's a lot of work for one pretty boy! And what a nice ride it is! Jokes come thick and fast, the actors are likable enough to command our attention, and the story is surprisingly layered. Beside the main events, one can spot not-too-obvious movie jokes („Bloodsport", „Star Wars", „Snatch.", „Assassin's Creed" among others), light satirical jabs at current world events, buddy and screwball comedy elements, and separate story lines suddenly interwining shortly for some added comic effect. They have used quite a lot of clichés known to current mainstream (American) comedies but the result feels fresh and inventive. There's enough good energy and bravura to justify the viewing even if you don't usually much care about the sex jokes. I've only seen about 25 movies released in 2017 so far, but „Alibi.com" is my second favorite after „Get Out". Nothing new here, really, but they sure knew how to put these clichés of raunchy comedies to good use. Yeah!