MY NEW PARTNER Movie Review

Les Ripoux

The French need their popcorn movies too, and sometimes they recruit great actors to star in them. My New Partner (Les Ripoux) is a pleasant but undistinguished police buddy movie featuring amiable performances from Philippe Noiret as a cynical, been-around-the-block detective, and heartthrob Thierry Lhermitte as his by-the-book, young rookie partner. There's nothing really wrong with My New Partner, and I'm sure it made a perfectly adequate Saturday evening choice after dinner on the Champs-Elysées, but you'll be hard-pressed to figure out why it took home César awards for Best Picture and Best Director (Claude Zidi). (Then again, I'm sure the French do a lot of tsk-tsking at our Oscars, too.)

NEXT STOP … My New Partner II, Cat and Mouse, L.627

1984 (R) 106m/C FR Philippe Noiret, Thierry Lhermitte, Regine, Grace de Capitani, Claude Brosset, Julien Guiomar; D: Claude Zidi; W: Claude Zidi; C: Jean-Jacques Tarbes; M: Francis Lai. VHS, LV IMF