Regardless of its honest start in theaters - 136,000 spectators in previews and 50,000 during the day on Wednesday -
Retirement Home 2
seduces as much as it irritates.
If some critics rejoice at a lively comedy whose substance is as touching as its form, others believe that this simplistic sequel to Thomas Gilou's film lacks ambition.
Léna Lutaud of Le
Figaro
praises a
“sunny and very friendly family comedy”.
Claude Zidi Jr
“signs a modern production, in a “cartoon” and pop style”
: the lively staging makes it possible to get the best out of each actor and
“the careful lighting makes the characters beautiful despite their wrinkles”.
Retirement Home 2
shows
“funny” characters, free to do what they want with a touch of madness.
They don’t care about anything.”
A freshness which particularly affects the actresses:
“With her AC/DC t-shirt and her wild white hair, Liliane Rovère stands out.
Amanda Lear, known as “Barbie”, is a blonde tornado who smokes joints in a silk negligee.”
A second part clearly more successful than the first.
Also read: Reno, Ladesou, Bourdon, Balasko... To laugh and make people laugh, the grandpas and grandmas of cinema are putting up resistance
Le Parisien
and France info agree to celebrate this comedy
“enjoying, punctuated with moments of emotion and love stories”
for one, and a film full of
“humor and (of) tenderness”
for the second.
“Good-natured gags
and (full of) good feelings in the service of a laudable denunciation of the cynical commodification of old age”
, recognizes Julien Barcilon of
Télé 7 jours
, but
“Kev Adams favors continuity over originality”
, regrets -he.
An opinion shared by his colleague from
Télé Loisirs
, Thomas Colpaert, who hails a comedy that
is “always refreshing – minus the surprise effect”
.
Much less tender with our elderly friends, Frédéric Strauss of
Télérama
charges
“Kev Adams, who (...) only has to offer, to the other actors as well as to himself, skits that are level with the daisies”.
He deplores the fact that the film takes on a problem as rich as nursing homes and only makes it a subject that is
“softly mocked, according to a simplified, pre-chewed vision”.
“The story only swings from “everything is good” to “everything is bad” and loses itself in explanations, as soon as the plot risks becoming more complicated.”
And to deliver the final blow:
“A completely gaga film.”
Seniors will appreciate it.
Pierre Lunn of
Première
does not hide his disappointment at the
“regressive jokes” and the “life lessons, even a moral, a bit marshmallow”
of the film.
However, he applauds the ending "in the form of an
Ocean's Eleven
scam
mixed with Queen's Game"
which
"energizes the final coda a little",
and the scriptwriting choices of Kev Adams
"who first thinks collectively.
He seems to watch the actors take pleasure in raving.”