Bastion 36

A typical PolAr crime film from France, but one that surprises with German-language tracks by Rebeka WARRIOR and the band KOMPROMAT in the soundtrack!

The grandson of Jean-Paul BELMONDO (1933 - 2021), Victor BELMONDO (born 1993), plays a young police officer from the French BRI who is transferred to the BAC as a punishment because of his penchant for illegal competitions. Six months later, some of his former colleagues are killed. Apparently the former friends were involved in illegal activities. The investigation reveals further surprises.

Nothing new from the PolAr genre that is so popular in France and beyond! But with French director Olivier MARCHAL, who is primarily responsible for the genre classic 36 QUAI DES ORFEVRES from 2004, a master of his craft delivers a passable NETFLIX film. For fans of the French crime film, which is also somehow the successor to the Italian Poliziotteschi from the 1970s, it is definitely worth a viewing.

Squad 36 had an intriguing plot antonie is a cop sent to another division for something he was getting blamed for , but after two of his members end up dead and one goes missing he takes it upon himself to find out the truth behind what is happening and a possible correuption involving his former team and as antonie gets closer to the truth his own life might be in danger. The acting was decent. The action and thriller structure were not really great. I thought this film was ultimatly a let down in the end and I wish it was just the little bit better constructed because overall I did not find this film too great.

Despite few pretty charming leads, and pretty simplistic setup, this movie is not going anywhere in its 2 hour run.

I waited and I waited and I waited and I waited. Just half a hour left to the end and still nothing of any significance, let alone THRILLING had happened.

Characters just blabber and walk and blabber, the whole conspiracy is never explained very well, the motivation is questionable at best and the story is too simple to justify such buildup (to nothing) in any form or way.

It's filmed really well, and I hoped to see a good European crime thriller to refresh my palate, but Squad 36 definitely isn't one.

Okay, so Squad 36 - it starts off like it's gonna be this gritty, edge-of-your-seat cop thriller, with a crazy cool chase scene through rainy streets and all that jazz. I was in at first. The main guy, Antoine, is this hot-headed cop who moonlights as a bare-knuckle brawler (because... sure, why not?), and it seems like we're gearing up for some good old-fashioned crime drama. Buuut then it just kind of... deflates. Like when you pour yourself a strong espresso and it somehow tastes like lukewarm tap water halfway through. The plot wanders into this whole corruption scandal thing, but it never hits hard. It just kinda slogs along like a slow walker in a busy hallway-you know how I feel about that. Some folks thought it was a fun ride with decent performances (fair enough), but most reviews I peeked at were like, "Eh, skip it." The ending was super meh - like it was trying to be deep and gritty, but ended up just feeling flat. So yeah, it could be your thing if you just want background noise with some French cops brooding. I'd pass and save my time for something with a bit more bite.

Rating it 6 stars (yet, would give it five and a half if possible) it means it is watchable (5 and below is increasingly bad), decent, but lower your expectations anyway - the movie is too slow for no reason, the main character is too inadequate for reason not really good enough. Yest, well played, well filmed - nothing wrong with the cinematography, it is just the plot that is average, but wanted to be more while it couldn't. So my advice is to spare some time for it only if there is nothing more intriguing or you don't want to be that concentrated in a movie.

The French are capable of better, either action, drama or both.