Clevercell Very disappointing...

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

writers_reign Like the man said if you're going to steal then steal from the best, something Jacques Tati took to heart, it seems clear he spent his youth screening one Buster Keaton movie after another and then starting again from the beginning until he'd mastered every sight gag, every move, every iota of comic timing from a master and then done his inept best to imitate it. He does, of course, rate top Brownie Points for taste and lesser Brownie Points for Effort but it's not enough to admire the Eiffel Tower to the extent that it inspires you to design and build one of your own, the trick is not just to replicate but to excel and come up with a better tower than the original. This is not to say that this movie lacks entertainment value in fact if you've never heard of or actually seen even a mediocre Buster Keaton movie and dig slapstick then chances are you'll enjoy this. Alas, I have seen the odd Buster Keaton movie ...

Andy Howlett I don't know where I stand with regard to Jaques Tati. Since I first saw 'Les Vacances' when I was a teenager I knew he was a bit different from most other comic actors/writers. However, I don't think he is worth the over-the-top praise he sometimes gets. I now have the box-set of his films from BFI, and we are watching them in chronological order. 'Jour de Fete' is delightful, but Tati's style wasn't yet polished. He reaches his peak with 'Vacances' and 'Mon Oncle' in my view. I'm so glad he stuck to black & white photography for this film, I maintain that it captures the heat and light of a summer's day better than any colour process. Combined with the easy jazz music (very French) and the sound of distant voices on the beach, it conjures up a sunny holiday so well. Most of the humour is pretty low-key and incidental (just as Tati intended) but there are some flashes of real laugh-out-loud occurrences. One is where he is wearing the rambler's back-pack and the stopper pops out of the thermos flask and knocks his hat off. I wonder how many goes they had at that? The restoration is excellent. The image is clear, clean and stable and most of the scratches and dirt have been banished. I'm glad the team did not do any more, as it can lead to the final result looking more like video tape rather than film (witness many of the restored MGM musicals). One to savour occasionally.

thisissubtitledmovies excerpt, more at my location - Those reverent of the bane of slapstick British TV comedy, Mr. Bean, may be surprised to learn that the show sprang from much deeper-rooted influences within comedic cinema. In 1953, Jacques Tati followed up his debut film, Jour de Fete, with Les Vacances De M. Hulot, the tale of a man who gets himself into hairier situations than the undeniably popular Bean, yet escapes relatively unharmed. Les Vacances De M. Hulot is less straightforward, and rather a damning social commentary from the director at its helm, but nevertheless uses similar techniques to elicit amusement from its audience.Les Vacances De M. Hulot is modestly funny and undeniably focused, zipping along with character, style, and an infectiously cheeky demeanour. The stylistic novelty of Tati's film initially feels like it's going to be a trawl through cause-and-effect comedy, but emerges as something totally different and eminently more worthwhile. It's more than an exercise in hazard perception: Les Vacances De M. Hulot is a piquant jaunt through tetchy social terrain, exhibiting all of the hallmarks of an early Charlie Chaplin picture, and packing more than enough of the punch.

Boba_Fett1138 Seems that I just don't like this movie as much as everyone else seems to do. Don't get me wrong, I was still throughout amused by this movie, it just was not one that really ever made me laugh out loud or entertain constantly, while this was obviously the movie its intentions. The movie tries to be an humorous one in basically literally all of its scene's. Needless to say that not everything in the movie really works out and there are just a few moments that are truly funny. Add to that that the overall movie is quite slowly paced, so its sequences often really take its time to develop and to reach its funny peak.Those moments are often the slapstick ones. You could say that this movie is being a 'modern' slapstick, that features as little dialog as possible. The psychical comedy of the movie can get funny at times, though its not ever anything too surprising or innovative. There is not really a story in it all. It's simply about a beach-side hotel, at which some strange characters stay. Main character is Monsieur Hulot, who everybody for no apparent reason seems to hate. He is being played by director Jacques Tati himself and was a character that got featured in some later Jacques Tati comedies again. I'm still willing to give all those movies a shot though, since I was still quite amused by this whole movie. And I'm a fan of slapstick humor as well, so I'm hoping this all gets featured better in some of the other 'Monsieur Hulot' movies.Thing is that there just isn't much to the story at all. There is no problem or big mystery that needs to be solved. No love story or no evil villainous characters. There is nothing wrong with a movie that doesn't really follow a narrative and is just basically the one comical intended sequences and situation after the other but in this case the movie just doesn't know to benefit from this approach. The movie doesn't even really constantly follow its main character at all. Added to that is it's rather slow pace of story-telling (which French movies are often known for), with as an end result an at times rather slow and lacking comedy.Amusing to watch throughout but just not always that funny and it all gets too slowly paced, by writer, director and actor, Jacques Tati.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/