24 horas al límite

During my teenage years I was a fan of the Michel Vaillant-comics. This was the only reason I went to see the movie. I feared the worst and my expectations were fulfilled. The only thing this movie has to offer are a few decently filmed race scenes (the ones in the mountains). Forget the lousy screenplay and other major flaws. The dubbing is what finally kills the movie. There may be a French and an international version, but the latter is a complete mess-up. French actors speaking English (with a French accent); other French actors' voices are dubbed into British English or American English (at random : they have Steve Warson's sister (Irish ?) speaking with an American accent); only Steve Warson's character has a decent British accent, simply because the actor himself is British.

How could this mess come about ? Simple, they wanted to sell the film to an international (read English-speaking) audience. Shame on you, Luc Besson, for getting involved in this disastrous film project!

It's funny how much this movie is hated and bashed by mainly the French speaking people and critics for whom Michel Vaillant is a real icon figure, while in the rest of Europe and outside of it, this movie is regarded as a good movie! It are mainly the people who grew up with the comic books that saw and hated this movie, hence the low rating on IMDb.com. But for those who aren't familiar with the comic books this movie is a fun watching pleasure and very well worth seeing. I'm sure when the movie gets more world widely released, the rating will go up as well, something this movie really deserves.

This movie is a great example of how a movie based on a comic book should be. The movie is very stylish and uses some great camera positions and editing (even though at times the editing is very sloppy)

Granted that the story is absolutely unbelievable and dumb but in this case I had no problems or what so ever with it. Keep in mind that this movie is based on comic books, so if you expect any reality or logic, this movie might not be your kind of thing. Just sit back and enjoy and don't think too much about the story.

Of course the best things about the movie are the races. For a race lover this movie is a real must see. The races are really spectacular and should get your adrenaline flowing.

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more Michel Vaillant movies being made!

8/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Well, the movie is very well made, personally I like the car racing world, and you can see in the movie that Luc Besson is fan of cars. The script is very simple, is based on a comic, and it's not really very original, but the effects, and the way that frames were took made the movie interesting. Don't expect a kind of stuff like "the fast and the Furious" or "taxi" because the movie doesn't try to be spectacular , it trys more to find quality images. The rate I gave to the movie is a 7, and i find that the actual rate 4.5 is not enough.

(If you have played to Pro Race Driver or went to karting you will enjoy more ;)).

Considering all the disasters when comic books are turned into movies,this one is not a complete failure .The beginning (Mrs Vaillant's nightmare) was taken from "Le 13 Est Au Départ"and all those who read the comics (Jean Graton created his character in "Tintin" in 1957)will like the Vaillant 's desirable mansion,their Moulinsart (Marlinspike) ,La Jonquière .Julie Wood appears but she is not Steve Warson's fiancée ;so does Gabrielle who is Yves 's wife (Yves who appeared very early in the series -"Route De Nuit" - is absent) in the comics .

When they made a TV miniseries (13 episodes) in the sixties,they hired a professional racing driver (Henri Grandsire ,who sadly did not resemble Michel);here we have Sagamore Stevenin (Jean -François 's son)and Diane Kruger ,whose Julie is not a motocross star but a racer too;it takes a lot of imagination to believe they belong to the racing circuits;as for poor Steve Warson ,the actor does not look like the part ,being too short,too gentle ;this character was an orphan ,which explains he was a loudmouth when he met the hero who enjoyed a big family (Michel's parents,his brother Jean Pierre and sister-in-law Agnès who have got a daughter unknown to the readers!,all of whom appear);on the other hand ,Michel is not a married man -his wife Françoise is not in the movie- and he seems in love with Julie);as an user pointed out,what a mix-up! The screenplay is just 0K,the villains are essentially girls (the Leaders' daughter) and there are two nice songs (both of them in English) over the final cast and credits;two languages are used(French and American English),which shows respect for the audience ;incidentally,most of the swearwords are in English!

Well, ok, it's no masterpiece, but I seem to be the only person here that took some enjoyment from it. The comics in which the movie was inspired are not there, I agree, but when you accept it like another movie and not an adaptation, you'll probably like it. See it for the sheer pleasure of seeing a racing competition and a great display of technical achievements, and you won't come out disappointed. This is one of those movies that don't bear a close scrutiny, but that's not the reason why they made it. Good to know that at least it's entertaining, and has some feeling. Sometimes only that makes it worth while.