I read in another review (here on IMDb) that Lee Marvin was ill during the shooting of this film and that this was a total waste of his talent. I agree that Marvin's role is rather minimal, and in that sense it never becomes a great role in the twilight of his career, but he doesn't do bad at all (especially now that I know about his condition during the shoot), and there are plenty more actors and actresses who do their bidding, especially Miou-Miou as a woman who likes sex but, for a change, is not discarded as a slut, and the extraordinary David Bennent (well known for his part in 'Die Blechtrommel'), playing a career-criminal in the making.I don't mind that there is no real main character here, just like there is no genre here that really dominates; it's a mix of heist-gone-wrong, man-on-the-run, a gorefest (with a lot of rather casual, bloody killing), raw drama about a dysfunctional farmer's family and their helpers (some pimps and thugs and cops and hookers show up as well), a little (sort of, though rather twisted) coming-of-age drama and a formidable ending which gives much room to especially Marvin and Bennent to shine, but Miou-Miou in a red dress in the rain should not be missed either.No, it's not a perfect movie, but it's a hell of a lot of gruesome fun! A big 8 out of 10.

"Canicule" leaves so many questions unanswered. Was the relationship between Lee Marvin's character and the retarded farm boy supposed to be touching, comical or teeth-grindingly stupid? Was the reason Tina Louise disappeared entirely from the film because the editor was a drunken ham-fisted film school reject? What is Tina Louise's character even doing in this film? Did the director just fly around in a helicopter shouting "Wheeeeee!" the entire shoot while the rest of the crew sat around snorting coke and going 'Zut Alors! Zis New Wave film making - it is fantastique!' or something? So many questions...Okay, long story short. Lee Marvin, dressed as a 1930's gangster, robs an armored car and shoots a bunch of cops and a pre-schooler, then lams it to the French countryside where he's captured by a repulsive bunch of inbred French rednecks. Sound interesting? It isn't. The cops overfly the farm about a ga-zillion times looking for Lee, each shot lovingly filmed from another helicopter (the one where the director was yelling "Wheeeeee!") (or "Le Wheeeeee!" since he's French) but can't find him because he's always in the barn setting fires or strangling nymphomaniacs or whatever.But here's the depressing part. Ready? Despite being a film built solely around the image of Lee Marvin standing around in a wheat field, "Canicule" would be considered a cinematic masterpiece today if it were made by Quentin Tarantino and starred Bruce Willis and Angelina Jolie. It wants to be parody but rarely rises to the level of stick-figure cartoon, in other words the perfect film for a society of porn obsessed violence addicts like the US."Wheeeee!"

Canicule or Dog day is completely bonkers. It is a cartoon really, but a pretty violent and ludicrous one. Lee Marvin in one of his final roles is not given enough screen time, only at the climax of the film is he terrific, really giving his all as the dying gangster (he was probably ill himself then). In the rest of the film he looks on in disbelief and looks like he would rather be elsewhere. There is a lot of 'business' going on inside the farm which is not worth going into and much of the film would be seen a French Farce or as being like 'Carry on' or 'Benny Hill'- if it was not so violent or just plain nasty in its depiction and abuse of its characters.The film is violent towards women and negative about humans and sexuality in general. The film collapses into the absurd as the body count mounts up as the crazy inhabitants of the farm, police and nearby innocents are all brutally wiped out and the best remaining parts are between the small boy in his surreal 'boat' shaped den and the great Marvin. Ne actor has looked this dislocated from a film since Terence Stamp in 'Theorem'. Lee Marvin was a great actor, but this film is not worthy of him and is only worth a look if you want to see Marvin in this piece of weird French surrealism.

This is essentially a trash film that luckily does not take itself too seriously. It is well aware of its nature as entertainment and uses themes familiar from such films as "Deliverance" and "The Hills Have Eyes" in a sort of parodic context.It features a family living in rural France where the father is a brutal and violent pervert, his brother is same but worse, the son (about 10) is following on the same track and the father's sister is a nympho. Key in lots of tasteless moments (the clubbering to death of two Swedish (topless) campers, the suicide of the grandmother when they threaten to take her to old folks' home, the spending spree of the 10 year old kid in a cathouse and so on)and what you have is a fairly entertaining exploitation picture with a European touch.You know whether you'll like it or not! Definitely not for the fans of Lee Marvin...