SnoopyStyle Safecracker Hugo Sartet (Roschdy Zem) escapes from two thugs and gets run over by a motorcycle. He is unconscious in the hospital where an assassin tries to kill him. He is saved by the quick reaction of nurse's aide Samuel Pierret (Gilles Lellouche). Police Commandant Fabre (Mireille Perrier) is given the case. Samuel is attacked at home and his very pregnant wife Nadia (Elena Anaya) is kidnapped. He is told to remove Hugo out of protective custody. The planned exchange goes wrong. He joins Hugo to take down corrupt Commandant Patrick Werner (Gérard Lanvin) and recover his wife.It's an action-packed thriller. It's very tight and rather short at a little over eighty minutes. The caper inside the police station is thrilling. The story itself has a few holes but the quick pace of the movie doesn't allow them to linger. After the initial failed assassination, it seems easier for Werner to kill Sartet without needing to commit a kidnapping. The whole premise is a little convoluted. I'm also unsure of why Werner is keeping incriminating video of his crime instead of destroying it. The costume department needs to find different colors. Everybody is wearing black leather jackets and too many people look the same. The adrenaline-laced action never lets up and these minor flaws are papered over.

morrison-dylan-fan When looking for French Thriller titles on Amazon UK,this was the title that always appeared at the top.Planning to buy the DVD,I was pleased to spot that the movie was about to appear on BBC iPlayer,which The plot:Checking the wards after speaking to his pregnant wife Nadia, Samuel Pierret spots a mysterious man running out of a room.Entering the room,Pierret finds the man (who has been left knocked out by a crash) has been taken off his respirator. Quickly putting the respirator back on,Pierret gets the situation under control. Embracing Nadia at home, Samuel and his wife are attacked by some thugs,who knock Samuel out. Waking up on his own,Samuel gets a call from the thugs and is told that if he wants to see Nadia alive again,he must get the knocked out patient out of the hospital.View on the film:Dragged into a murky underworld at point blank range, Gilles Lellouche gives a great performance as Samuel Pierret,whose raw red eyes and leathery face allow Lellouche to give the title a gripping roughness. Waking up dazed and confused, Roschdy Zem glides with the coolness of a Neo-Noir rebel in his magnetic performance as the knocked out stranger Hugo Sartet,with Zem slowly building a level of respect that Startet shares with Samuel,which is joined by Zem giving Sartet an icy bluntness on attacking those who want him out of the hospital.Firing Samuel out of his blue collar life,the screenplay by co- writer/(along with Guillaume Lemans) director Fred Cavayé spins a thrilling Neo-Noir web which pulls excellent,double dealing cops into Samuel and Sartet's loners on the run spree. Despite fading away in for the ending,the writers keep the Neo-Noir anxiety burning away,as Samuel finds himself being tied to Sartet's tough deals.Running with Samuel and Sartet, Cavayé & cinematographer Alain Duplantier keep track with chic Neo-Noir style cast across the screen in rapid-fire whip-pans locating every escape route the guys have. Along with the chase shine, Cavayé gives the gritty shoot-outs and fight scenes a moody darkness cast by dried up colours,as Samuel,Sartet and Nadia try not to reach their grosse pointe blank.

writers_reign Yet more proof that the policier is alive and well in the salles. This modest example takes its place alongside just recent titles as The Prey, Tell No One, 36, Quai des Orfevres and, of course, the director's own Pour Elle (Anything For Her). Nice also to see Gilles Lellouche carrying a film himself after lending sterling support for several years. The plot cries out for non-stop action lest we question the idea of an ordinary man, a nurse yet (or soon-to-be-a-nurse subject to final exams) holding his own with serious gangsters on one side and bent cops on the other, and luckily non-stop action is what Fred Cavaye delivers. Apart from the leading man the highest profile is another exceptional all-round actor equally at home in drama and comedy, Gerard Lanvin, who lends gravitas to a fine effort.

Bene Cumb The French are rather talented in making fast action movies, the most known - directly or via remakes - are connected with the name of Luc Besson. But apart from him, there are dozens of good filmmakers whose production remains within the French-speaking countries or a bit wider - in the event of topical French film days or similar. Anyway, À bout portant is an interesting and well taken action by Fred Cavayé, with a strong and versatile cast, leading by Gilles Lellouche, Roschdy Zem and Gérard Lanvin.There are some clichés and repeating scenes, but they do not become annoying as the past is fast and multidimensional - and the total length of the film is 1 hour 15 minutes only. The ending has also several layers; thus, the film is surely for them who like rapid twists, chases on foot, double-dealing characters etc.