I'm not a lover of the road movie. Having sat through Harry and Tonto, Thelma and Louise and any number of X and Y equivalents, I'm ready to abandon the genre. Cavalier's film just wasn't that interesting, being only a series of vignettes of no great interest (shame to see Nathalie Baye doing a cameo near the beginning only to disappear from the story). The truth is these four guys are losers, and there is very little to learn from losers. They make the same stupid macho mistakes, lose their wives/girlfriends, then mope about it. Klouk even proposes to the others that they try to impregnate his wife since he is infertile. God, if I thought one of these idiots could make my wife pregnant, I'd have them all castrated.

I will say that Etienne Chicot, whose work I have admired over many years does a splendid job playing Charles, a guy who manages to stay on this side of the law, but only just.

Directed by Alain Cavalier, Fill 'Er Up with Super is the story of Klouk (Bernard Crombey), a young auto salesman who has to cancel a vacation with his wife so that he can personally deliver a Chevrolet station wagon to a rich owner on the Riviera. He decides to make it a more fun trip by inviting his friend Philippe (Xavier Saint-Macary) and picking up a two other men on the road by the names of Charles (Etienne Chico) and Daniel (Patrick Bouchitey).

All four of these actors were friends and along with Cavalier, they wrote this film and filmed it on the road, away from the studio, with the freedom to make it be about anything they wanted. The guys really aren't going anywhere in life or on this journey, but it's times exactly those kinds of voyages teach you who you are and where you may end up. It's an exploration of what makes these men, well, men, as they ride inside a giant symbol of masculine American virtue, a gas guzzling car that has to seem out of place as they drive through the small towns on their way from the north to the south of France, from Lille to the Cote d'Azut.

It's a rather odd road movie, although of course it's not an American one it's a French one and this really seems a bit strange. The start seems to be rather boring as a car salesman having to deliver a luxury Chevrolet station wagon to his rich client. Although somewhere along the way he has three more lads along and it gets very funny. I have to say that I did not imagine that there would be drugs or ordering breakfast and maybe an English breakfast and you will never think to hear one of the guys get money from another man in his hotel room. There is also a son for a ride in the car and his mum's room gets trashed. There are some surreal moments and from that first seems rather dull it is a wonderful and amusing buddy like friendship develops. Really nice and of course there is so much eating in and out of the car because this is a very French road movie.