The two stars Christian Clavier (“Monsieur Claude and His Daughters”) and Didier Bourdon (“The Progressive Nostalgics”) know each other well – and they are something of a French comedy dream couple, at least since they appeared on stage together as George and Zaza in the hit musical “A Cage Full of Fools” around 2010. The legendary performance in France (over 300 performances!) was also adapted for television and thus gained great popularity. With “Oh la la – who would suspect something like that?” The duo stood in front of the film camera together for the first time in 2024 – and just two years later, the (expected) sequel “Oh la la 2 – New Tests, New Chaos” comes to the cinema:
The two arch-conservative and chauvinistic patriarchs, the noble snob Frédéric (Christian Clavier) and the flashy car dealer Gérard (Didier Bourdon), have now come to terms with the fact that they have Cherokee ancestors (Frédéric) and a German father (Gérard), respectively. To be on the safe side, they conclude a kind of non-aggression pact on the instructions of their two wives and their children in order to prepare the upcoming wedding of Gérard’s son François (Julien Pestel) and Frédéric’s daughter Alice (Chloé Coulloud) as harmoniously as possible. “To a wedding without problems or arguments!” was the optimistic toast. But this wish soon turns out to be just wishful thinking…
Preparations for her children’s wedding are in full swing. Can the brawlers Frédéric (Christian Clavier) and Gérard (Didier Bourdon) pull themselves together this time?
The first challenge: Nicole (Sylvie Testud), Gérard’s wife, doesn’t like Bordeaux. An affront! After all, Frédéric doesn’t produce Lafite at his château, but at least he produces a Grand Cru that he is very proud of. The impending escalation can be averted just in time. But then a new DNA test messes everything up: Frédéric discovers a Turkish cousin and learns that he is genetically 85 percent Turkish – not a single percent of the Grande Nation remains. Gérard’s previous certainties are also beginning to waver: like Frédéric, he is suddenly 0.0 percent French – instead, his father is said to have been German and his mother Algerian.
While the women are busy preparing for the wedding and allow themselves to be charmed by the unexpected appearance of Mehmet, who, not entirely coincidentally, bears a striking resemblance to Frédéric, their husbands plunge into an ever-deepening identity crisis. The wives quickly throw them out the door – Frédéric and Gérard become a men’s shared apartment. It goes without saying that the two of them, with their world-weariness alone, are not a good combination.
Faster, but unfortunately not funnier
After the success of the first part, Julien Hervé wrote and directed the second part himself. The secret of series success also proves itself here: The best thing to do is to take the recipe for success and make the same film again, with one or two variations and a few new twists and gags here and there. In fact, Hervé goes one step further when it comes to pure comedy craft: Part 2 is even more boulevard-esque thanks to a brisk film editing with short scenes and lots of location changes. You have to be careful not to miss a gag – or so you should think. But unfortunately the density of gags isn’t all that high, and in fact there are countless loose plot threads laid out that aren’t picked up later, let alone linked.
This applies to the self-help group in which Gérard signs up, to his plans to emigrate, and to the Portuguese connection that is related to Frédéric’s wife Catherine (Marianne Denicourt) and her DNA test from Part 1. Unfortunately, Julien Hervé also remains true to his script errors: the bride and groom are still pale, although Julien Pestel – as in the first part – basically has nothing to do at all. Frédéric’s wife Catherine, on the other hand, has to limit her presence to a permanent smile. The small roles in the subplots are again caricatures at best, of which the English teacher stands out particularly unpleasantly. At least Sylvie Testud, who is actually a great comedienne, can get in her special gag as the Anglophile Dummerle – “Fuck you” instead of “Thank you” – a few times, but otherwise remains underemployed.
Gérard’s wife Nicole (Sylvie Testud) doesn’t like Bordeaux – and thus causes the first scandal!
This time there are no really big gag fireworks in the form of confrontations between Frédéric and Gérard because the two essentially agree – far too agree for a comedy! – there is significantly less to laugh about, even if the two stars make a real effort. Apparently Hervé has tried to adopt a generally conciliatory tone this time and is holding back on regular table jokes. The topic of nationalism as an exaggerated love of one’s own country and – to put it mildly – skepticism towards the rest of the world are generally less thoroughly discussed. It is more than questionable whether everyone still understands the irony behind it.
Conclusion: The lovingly made opening credits and the ending as a small homage to “A Cage Full of Fools” are almost the best thing about this tabloid comedy, which merely repeats the successful trick of the first part, but without any bite. It would be nice for the two thoroughbred comedians Clavier and Bourdon to be able to really hit the drums again in the expected third part (“Oh la la – Now with a pregnancy test!”).