Crime Insiders

I just don't understand... Where is the story, where are the characters ? Well, this is a strange movie. I'm still wondering whether is was good or not... This could have been a classic but the characters are so flat: They all live for the same things (i.e. drugs, alcohol, money and Hungarian whores) they get doing some "business". None of the characters seems to have something unique or original. The story is really completing this. Whith no-personality-characters you get a no-personality-story or just a no-thing. On the other hand if you really haven't got anything to do today. Just go. There is a lot of dumb mafia guys shootin' and drinking all film long. Really interesting ;-) Fortunately I didn't pay for the cinema so I can't regret it !

To start of with, this film no fun ride, nothing glossy or Hollywood like happy endings bull.. It's hard as nails, nihilistic and pretty gutwrenching. It also comes over as very realistic.

The director also had a big hand in the (later) great French cop-series "Braquo" which is also excellent and very tough, and this has the same style.

Sure, it may lack story, I would say it's almost like watching a documentary: a day in the life of... But the happenings that unfold are told with so much vigour and relentlessness (is that a word?) that they kept me glued to the screen the whole 107 min.

Always on the lookout for anything this raw and another reviewer compared it with another French jewel "Dobermann" which as you will understand I absolutely adore as well. But the two are not at all comparable. They are in fact worlds apart with "Dobermann" being a comic-book like eurotrash/punk action adventure and this a slick slice of painful underworld realism.

Absolutely stunning 9/10

A Parisian crime-boss ensures that nobody ever double-crosses or undermines him or his business by using extreme methods. He ruthlessly deals with any of his gang who he even suspects of wrong-doing and similarly deals with other gangs trying to muscle in on his territory. However, his activities have not escaped the notice of the police.

An action-packed but empty film. We have the usual assortment of gangsters, doing gangster stuff, including torturing and murdering people and being involved in extravagant shootouts, and the usual edginess of this characters. So far, so good, as the characters and their methods seem set up for a decent crime-drama.

However, that's all there is: edgy characters, murders and shootouts. The plot is largely non-existent and superficial at best. The background setup IS the plot. There's no arc to the story or the characters: things happen (largely, people get murdered) but that's it - there's no buildup to it and nothing developing from it.

Disappointing.

IMHO this is one of the best and most hardcore gangster flicks out there.

It's grisly, sure, but also produced in a very realistic way, and the characters are extreme, most of them are utter nuts.

It has french humor, sex, drugs and violence in abundance.

But it also has an impressive array of characters and quite a complex story line.

In short, prepare for a hell of a ride.

I rank this one a masterpiece.

Check it out!

A French gangster film set in Paris with a very thin plot, lots of blood & gore, little or no character studies or plot lines, violent misogynist sex. I kept watching this and waiting for a plot to emerge. It didn't happen. The film starts with episodes of the various factions or gangs involved. One gang member is imprisoned. From then the film simply becomes a series of killings and murders until few of them are left. Reservoir Dogs it is not. Meserine it is not. Ronin it is not. The screenplay appears merely to be a pastiche of the best and worst of American gangster genre. The characters here are portrayed as cold violent individuals. Some characters have no apparent place within a thin plot - just filling up road kill. All this violent mayhem in a capital city and not a single policeman in sight? I found this film to be without much merit and not one that I would watch again, or indeed recommend.