Overdose

I unfortunately guess that the director of 36, QUAI DES ORFEVRES, MR 73 and LES LYONNAIS has lost his soul, because in this movie, and also the four previous ones, are far from being as emitionally powerful as the three first; I won't mention GANGSTERS, very first film from OM. OVERDOSE is only a very efficient crime drama, very well done, in terms of directing, editing, and acting, even without any great bankable movie stars, such as for instance Jean Dujardin or Gilles Lelouche. But the actors here are perfectly cast, pretty good figures, faces, for such a story. But not great stars, that's all, as was also OM previous feature : BRONX. And notice that Marchal has also the taste to hire female old timers: here Catherine Allegret; in BRONX, Claudia Cardinale; in 36, Mylène Demongeot.... There is no real lead character here, many supporting ones, a very convincing Nicolas Cazalé, the French actor with Antonio Banderas' eyes, who had never worked with OM before. Some gruesome torture scenes, not for the squeamish. I am sure that Olivier Marchal will always make crime films, very good ones, but without the awesome atmosphere he had in 36, MR 73 and LES LYONNAIS. Maybe because he will never have great movie stars any more...Anyway, I am surprised that Gaumont company, the oldest and most famous in French movie industry, still produces his movies. I hope it will continue though. He seems to have lost all his ambitions here.

This kind of product contains a set of ingredients that we find in all films of this genre, precisely. You need cars and motorcycles, with crumpled canvas and chases. You need a more or less intense police war, in this case less so, as the different police forces communicate: Spanish, French, Parisian, provincial, special units. You need weapons. It needs villains, thugs, who when they appear shout it (hairstyles, costumes, make-up). It needs gore and extreme violence, here unnecessary (the hammer) and off behind a wooden door (good idea). It needs sex, which is totally unnecessary here. And a romantic story between police officers. All this is conventional and unoriginal. But it's well tied together by a script that integrates these ingredients.

Olivier Marchal deserves credit for his talent in directing the actors, all of whom are excellent. The film is perhaps a little long (20 minutes too long) and could have been tightened up a little. But on the whole, it lives up to its brief. A nominal quality in a conventional package for the genre to which it belongs.

Well, I certainly don't agree with the majority of reviews here. OK, this is as far as I know the first film directed by Olivier Marchal that I have seen BUT I can compare this with some others of a similar nature like Heat. I'm not saying this is as good as I personally thought that was though this was fast-moving. Had a good plot/storyline and was without any CGI or similar. Drugs received/transfered/undercover cop/ unnecessary murders/investigation. A few sex scenes - nothing excessive but a violent film but nothing really gratuitous, although it did receive an R18 rating. Stars Sofia Essaidi, Nicolas Cazalé, Alberto Ammann. Dubbed into English from French Original.

No pun intended - the movie is not so much on the funny side, in case my summary headline confused you. Just saying. That said, I did not make the connection to Sicario (though I can see why some would do that) ... it would or rather kind of is unfair to this movie to compare it to a masterpiece though. This has a right to exist on its own - away from Sicario.

That said, the story is easy to follow and you have crime fighters going against bad guys ... I mean if you are into that sort of action orientated genre stuff ... I won't have to excite you any further. It is well shot and there is enough suspense from start to finish to keep you interested ... action is well shot too ... what more do you need? If the answer is not much ... well watch and enjoy.

Are usually very good at this kinda genre, but this flick really undermines the reputation. Its not the cast, by all means they do their job, so it has to be something else...who overdosed is still a mystery.

Quite a few things i might mention without spoiling the fun for thos who loves french police-bandit action thrillers. The story is full of plotholes and the actual caracters are poorly presented. The plotspeed is like a 118 minutes roller coaster of gutwrenching action and...nothing..., that repeats itself at least 10 times. The cinematography could might as wellve been made by a youtuber, its mostly and merely only close-up-inside the communicative comfort zone camera zooms, and dark musky , fathaired blackeyed hyperpupilllated gangsters and policemen hunting and carchasing eachother in a clonical fit-like ad/hd-amfetamine pace, can be pretty dragging and you loose the thread in the heat of the hunt....

but that aint the actors fault, its rather a wannabe french superdirector who wants to hang on to a great french franchise genre. So if you can deal with a lot of confussion in a mach2,2 speed, then its a recommend from the grumpy old man.