I put in the tag “Satire” for this unusual French comedy because their sense of humor still eludes me. If someone more well-versed in the language and the larger point to Smoking, please share! Meanwhile, I think it was close since the core storyline is a French parody of The Power Rangers, maybe the big run of MCU movies too.
Meet Tobacco Force! Five special heroes who have the power to fight super cheesy-looking monsters in rubber suits. Each member’s code name is one of the many lethal ingredients in modern cigarettes: Benzene, Nicotine, Ammonia, Menthol and Mercury. Coincidentally, it’s also what each character’s super power is; all fire rays of said chemical. With Smoking being a French satire, they defeat enemies with more gore than a US Saturday morning cartoon.
After a typical mission, Chief Didier (their boss and a large talking rat) orders the team to go on a retreat to refine their teamwork and cohesion. Tobacco Force relaxes, enjoys their new leisurely surroundings in what appears to be a French camping ground. They kill time sharing odd stories the movie shifts over to show the audience; they’re rather absurd and have gruesome endings. Plus you discover that Chief Didier is quite successful at bedding women despite being a rat; both female Tobacco Force members have also had trysts with him. Then during the middle of the retreat, they are told about an enemy called Emperor Lizardin with plans to destroy the world.
Again, I’m not going to lie. I have little to no expertise with French humor. I do know they truly do love Jerry Lewis, maybe younger generations don’t, we can hope. So I will go with my interpretation by stating what was funny to me, namely Tobacco Force. Firstly, I found it pretty funny how their other mission was to tell kids how lame smoking was, especially when the de facto leader tells a young boy who admires them (paraphrased), “Hey kid your dad’s an asshole for smoking.” Secondly, the first point dovetails into this fact, the French LOVE to smoke while other Western countries’ smoker populations have declined. If their number one in the world healthcare would cover a tracheostomy so they could puff away and drink wine/espresso at the same time, there’d be a line longer than the Tour de France route to have the operation. Ergo, superheroes saving the world while warning the French about the lethality of smoking is a futile mission. Tobacco Force might as well have a US branch telling Americans the dangers of too many fucking guns and how the Republicans and NRA enable the mass shootings.