Smoking Causes Coughing (2022)

Written by CinemaSerf on July 21, 2023

The avenging "Tobacco Force" group of crime fighters is struggling to function. After many years of combating enemy beasties using their superpowers - the chemicals that, when combined, cause cancer - they are all just falling out of synch. This has not escaped the notice of their ferret-like boss "Chef Didier" who sends them all to a remote retreat where they are to work on their teamwork skills. Around the camp fire, one decides to regale the others with his most terrifying story - and thereafter, one by one, they proceed to outdo each other with increasingly incredulous stories whilst the two women of the group - "Nicotine" (Anaïs Demoustier) and "Ammoniaque" (Oulaya Amamra) pine over the spurned affections of their really pretty revolting, dribbling, boss (anyone remember "Roland Rat"?). For a while it's quite quirkily entertaining, this film - but after about half an hour the joke has worn thin, the pace drops off and the whole thing just loses it's way. It is original - at times it reminded me a little of "Galaxy Quest" (1999), and clearly there is a warning against using the dreaded weed, but Quentin Dupieux didn't really have enough material to sustain this - even for eighty minutes. That said, it is still worth a watch and there are occasions when it made me smile - just not enough of them - and on the telly will do fine.