Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

xophael I'm a big fan of Jean Reno and if you are, get this movie. Its has awesome action and some decent comedy, especially from the character Momo. Just looking at him makes you laugh. Its a French movie by Luc Besson. But its dubbed very well and Jeno Reno uses his own voice. Unlike in Le Femme Nakita where it was dubbed by someone else. Basically, the plot is Reno is a cop in France and finds out his girlfriend in Japan who left him 19yrs ago mysteriously died and he goes to the funeral. Talk about not letting go. And finds out he has a 19yr old daughter. But not to go to into it to much, but there is yakuza, explosions, guns, and great one liners. The first 5 mins draws you into the movie with Reno punching out a woman in a dance club. Then 10mins in, drag queens rob a bank and Reno beats their ass bad. Literally. That alone makes you want to keep watching. Just to see what the hell is going to happen next. I'm a bit bias and I gave it a 10, but Its a great action flick that I watched more times then I can count.

beacitizen This film was intended, quite clearly (to all but the most naive i suppose), to be a pastiche of your typical American "good cop with a bad attitude" action movie.As the film progresses it assumes the unenviable task of showcasing every action-movie cliché under the sun whilst at the same time attempting to keep you entertained with an endless array of simple, and entertaining, jokes. If Wasabi's humour was not delivered in such a deadpan manner (credit to Jean Reno for that) it would be an abhorent piece of tripe (like most attempts at parody). When i watch a low-grade parody movie i usually notice that both the cast and crew seem to gallop through every scene, putting in very little effort whilst winking at the audience as if to say "See? I'm making fun of bad movies. How clever am i?" However, Luc Besson (writer and producer) has gone with the idea of combining self-referential humour (which is of course common to all parody films) with enough straight acting (difficult in such an absurd movie) to lodge the film in some strange quasi-universe where the characters are never quite aware of the absurdity of their situation, even when it's staring them in the face. It is neither straight-out farce nor a serious attempt at film making. It does not pay loving homage to the action genre or massacre it. The film instead strides this delicate balance, always in danger of tipping over into meaninglessness but somehow never doing it.The action is eye-catching, the humour is very french and in anyone else's hands it would be nothing more than trash. It's not though, because this is Luc Besson. In short - it's not a film, it's a movie. So watch it like one.

MartinHafer This is an interesting film that abruptly changes pace--something that occasionally pays off well, while other times it doesn't. The film begins with Jean Reno playing a Dirty Harry-type cop in France. His answer to every problem seems to be punching people in the face or shooting them. For some inexplicable reason(!), his bosses aren't particularly happy with his methods and suspend him. Then, completely out of the blue, he finds out what happened to his long-lost Japanese wife--she just recently died and her lawyer has contacted Reno about the will. When he arrives in Japan, in addition to being the executor of the will, he also finds out he's been a father for the 19 years since his wife vanished. Now, with a "kooky" new daughter in tow, they are off on some violent adventures.As for the daughter, she was fine later in the film, but at first she really came off as an obnoxious person and it was hard to see how Reno could resist punching her, as well! Fortunately, this very clichéd bouncy young girl finally began acting believably as the film shifted into overdrive. This shift was when the Yakuza (like the Japanese mob) show up and seem eager to kill Reno and his kooky kid! Throughout all this, Reno is mesmerizing. He's a fine actor and here he carries the entire film. The problem, aside from the distracting girl, is that oddly someone thought it was important to dub this film into English. With Reno, it wasn't so bad--he did his own dubbing since he speaks English so well. But as for most everyone else, they were lousy voice actors--most of the Frenchmen sounded just like Americans. Also, it just made no sense why most of the Japanese people spoke English most of the time. As for me, I always prefer a subtitled film. Still, despite these shortcomings, this is a very good action and father-daughter film--worth your time especially for Reno's seemingly effortless performance.

Martin Cashman I never know how to rate these types of films. OK it's no masterpiece to bring some sort of existential meaning to your life and yes it is deeply flawed in many ways even by the standard at which it aims for but nonetheless, I found some endearing quality in its light hearted humour and entertaining style.Any film with Jean Reno in the lead and Luc Besson behind the script is going to entertain and this does just that. Thankfully the film is kept short enough for none of the flaws to start to irritate and the kick ass French cop goes to Japan theme is done well enough to warrant a viewing.My DVD had the option for French with English subtitles or English dubbed. Even though Jean Reno does his own over dubbing in the English version, I found the overall effect was a little stale. I restarted the film in French with subtitles and the energy and humour of the performances just shone through a lot better.