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Smoking Causes Coughing seemed bizarre as hell from the moment I first saw the trailer.
It centres around Tobacco Force, rather like a quintet of Avengers and with three men and two women – none of whom look like they’re quite firing on all cylinders, but while the baddies they tackle are like men in rubber suits (because they are), this IS an actual thing that’s happening in real life, so the baddies pose a real threat!
However – in this world which mixes futuristic tech with ’60s-era decor, it largely gives over to a spoof-like Tales From The Crypt, as the team sits around the campfire for a night, while they await their new Norbert robot, and they all tell stories to each other, with sometimes outlandish and/or gory outcomes, one of which involves a Thinking Helmet… although I can’t tell if that was my favourite over the thresher machine.
Their usual derring-do starts to be derailed when General Didier (their rat-like puppet commander) gives them a conference call, because the evil Lizardin wants to destroy the Earth! When they’re not distracted with chatter, can they stop him? Either way, Didier still finds time to comment on Nicotine’s (Anais Demoustier) lady lumps.
Add in some ’70s music sound FX, and a Supermarket-fridge (yes, you’ll have to wait to see how that works), and the statement that these Avengers use the negative energy of cigarettes as a weapon, if I had any real complaints, it’s that at 77 mins, it’s too short!
However, it was nice to see Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue Is The Warmest Colour), albeit briefly, early on.
Smoking Causes Coughing is shot in 2.20:1, but rather than in a 1.85:1 container, it was within a 2.39:1 container, so was slightly windowboxed on our 1.85:1 screen. I guess it makes sense if they’d shown it on a 2.39:1 screen, so maybe it needs someone to manually correct the image, if they can.
As an aside, this time, the film was showing in Screen 6, previously known for the audio hassles I had with Champions, and then Air. Cineworld told me they’d get back to me if/when these were fixed, to save me having to email them. They hadn’t contacted me, but they are fixed!
There is a very brief post-credits scene:
Smoking Causes Coughing is in cinemas from Friday July 7th, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 77 minutes
Release date: July 7th 2023
Studio: Picturehouse Entertainment
Format: 2.20:1
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 7/10
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Producer: Hugo Silignac
Screenplay: Quentin Dupieux
Cast:
Benzene: Gilles Lellouche
Methanol: Vincent Lacoste
Nicotine: Anais Demoustier
Mercury: Jean-Pascal Zadi
Ammoniaque: Oulaya Amamra
Chef Didier: Alain Chabat (voice)
Norbert 500 / Norbert 1200: Ferdinand Canaud (voice)
Lizardin: Benoit Poelvoorde
Lizardine: Benoite Chivot
Lizardou: Jules Dhios-Francisco
Christophe: Gregoire Ludig
Celine: Adèle Exarchopoulos
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.