Given that this is a French film, there's an unmistakable edge to its satirical portrayal of postwar East-West relations.

Directed and co-written by Michel Hazanavicius and starring the French comedian Jean Dujardin as OSS 117, the movie is a sketch stretched to tedious feature length.

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[This] may just be the silliest movie I've ever seen, and I mean that in the best way: Frankly, they had me at the title.

Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath is invincibly smug, occasionally smarmy and obsessed with food. If that whets your appetite, he's your homme.

Director and co-writer Hazanavicius' comedy generally avoids broad jokes in favor of tweaking the conventions and attitudes of cold war-era spy thrillers just enough to bring their fatuous absurdities to the surface.

Dujardin is what really makes it all work, though. He's an absolute riot, with Conneryesque looks and physicality, and the ability to segue into utter goofballery with a degree of arch-browed suaveness.

Dujardin nails his character, who is deeply dense but always seems to draw the winning card, mainly through dumb luck. And Hazanavicius clearly knows the '60s-era Bond films, which are full of ripe targets that he lovingly demolishes.

The film is a collection of not especially funny routines - with lots of homophobic jokes thrown in - that have been done to death in previous movies of this sort.