VividSimon Simply Perfect

Steineded How sad is this?

Inadvands Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Ken Caminiti Stereotypical drunk cop protagonist. Except this one is REALLY REALLY drunk.A lot of dark, beautiful scenes around Paris and decent yet generic dark crime dialog - this film starts getting questionable when the antagonist commits a murder while in jail after already serving a life sentence and just days after his parole hearing. Yes, after a man is found hanging in a cell that he just basically randomly was placed into - he gets set free - and he just committed murder and rape about 20 years ago and has rape and other violent crimes on his record from previous cases and stints in jail.Around the same time of the parole hearing the viewer is introduced into another "twist". What is it? Yes corruption in the police force. But this isn't with basic under-payed patrol cops - its with the elite special crimes unit in which the protagonist is a part of. This corruption isn't anything high brow and isn't even white collar crime - it's some fat guy crime scene photographer who steals jewelry off dead corpses and - get this - sells them to fellow special crime detectives on his police force.This movie had potential (the first scene was pretty iconic) but then went nowhere for literally hours and had some unreal corny movie scenes that you might see in a movie from the 80's and then of coarse a goofy tedious plot which left me confused about the point of the movie.

SnoopyStyle In grimy Marseilles, drunken disheveled Detective Louis Schneider is arrested for hijacking a bus. The driver told him to sit down which got him to pull out his gun. A car accident left his daughter dead and his wife despondent. He is relegated to work the night shift. Unrepetent killer Charles Subra is getting probation. Survivor Justine Maxence approaches arresting detective Schneider from those years ago for help. There is a serial killer on the loose. There is also a cover-up and Schneider is hounded to quit.Daniel Auteuil is acting through his scruffy appearance and his dangling cigarettes. He is so good at being world weary that the movie in general is drained of life. It's all grim and crumbling without any tension. The disjointed storytelling with the constant flashbacks to the same incident gets a bit tiresome. This movie has the moody style but the flow needs to be more compelling. I think I almost like this movie.

TdSmth5 Former cop Olivier Marchal presents us with a bleak picture of French cop on the end of the line. While things looked almost hopeless for the main character in his previous directorial work, 36, here they are utterly hopeless.We meet Louis, a completely alcoholic cop who downs a bottle of whiskey a day, as he in a drunken stupor hijacks a bus full of people so that the bus driver can drive him home. Internal affairs gives him a break and assigns him to answer phones during night duty. Louis used to date one of the IA officers. He's in the middle of a serial killer investigation; the killer brutally rapes and kills women in their home. Even though he's off the case, Louis can't let go and continues to investigate. In fact, he solves the case and with his partner orchestrates a fantastically botched operation to apprehend the killer. This time around he's kicked off the force.A parallel story involves a pregnant woman whose parents were killed 25 years ago. The killer, now an old religious man, is about to be paroled. She doesn't believe in his rehabilitation. It's only late in the film that we find out how this story connects to the main story. It was Louis who put the killer in jail. She now contacts Louis to inform him that the killer is out. And sure enough, the killer stalks and threatens the woman. Louis who at this point has nothing to lose decides to take on his last, personal, and very deadly mission with the help of a MR-73 a gun that belongs to his partner.We are told that this is movie is based on real events and it would be interesting to find out what aspect of it is true. This seems to be a very personal movie for Marchal. Once again, as in 36, we are exposed not to the glamorous world of law enforcement but all the nastiness and corruption. We find out what drove Louis to alcoholism, a car accident left his wife in a semi-vegetative state and he has to take care of her. Marchal presents us a very realistic picture of the police force, where ego and testosterone make for a terrible combination. These cops rarely work as partners preferring to be each others' antagonists.The movie is entertaining to see but there is a lot of room for improvement. Several parts of the pregnant woman's story are superfluous. A lot could have been improved via editing to make the movie shorter, tighter, to present these two stories in a more coherent and interesting way. There's only so much fun in watching a slow-mo train wreck unfold and Louis' life is an absolute wreck. I like Marchal's direction, it has a lot of style but is paced too slowly, this movie is more than 2 hours long and you feel every minute of it. I would have liked to see the serial killer story get more prominence, it ends too soon, meanwhile the woman's story is too drawn out, starting too early.

dbborroughs Cop who's lost his family deals with his demons as he investigates a series of murder/rapes and tries to help a young woman deal with the impending release of a killer who had her watch as he killed her parents.Dark brooding nihilistic film that makes you feel unclean. (I wanted to take a shower about half way in) This film is all about mood at the cost of an involving plot. The film begins well as we meet the characters, then it falls into dullness as everyone wanders about not doing a great deal interesting before it picks up at the end in such a way that you wonder why it took over two hours to get to that point. I think my feelings at reaching at the end sum it all up best, "Thats it?" Apparently. Its an okay film in bits but the ending isn't worth the time to get there.