La mentale

Anyone could recognize this film as a tribute to HEAT and GOOD FELLAS in many scenes and characters, but that remains an excellent crime movie in the line of what the sixties or seventies gave us. Good character study and development. Gritty, poignant, especially the scene between Sami Naceri and his father, but I felt something ankward, clumsy, in the story telling though, I repeat, the intentions are honest and generous. Many clichés but we could not avoid them, not in this kind of film. Tragic, bloody, a real true French crime film, the rebirth of the early 2000s.

The director wants to make a beautiful gangster movie. From the cinematography to the music, it is beautiful. However, a beautiful movie and murderous gangs do not match quite well. If the director was making movies like 'Snow falling on Cedars' or 'Shine' then it would have been excellent. However, this film is just a mess.

Dris (Samuel Le Bihan) is an ex-con, living in the borderline between a decent and a criminal life. He has a regular and simple work and lives a simple life with his wife Lise (Marie Guillard) and loves his family. However, his childhood friends from his Arab community, including his best friend Yanis (Samy Naceri), are mobsters and his brother is a small time delinquent. Yanis tries to bring Dris back to his gang, and uses his former lover Nina (Clotilde Courau) to seduce him, taking him to expensive places to feel the importance of big money. Dris fights against the temptation, but an event will route him back to Yanis' gang and in a fight between gangs with tragic consequences for the whole community. "La Mentale" is another great French crime movie. The story is excellent, the performance of the whole cast is great and the music score is wonderful. The excellent French cinema is showing excellent thrillers, crime and horror movies. I do not understand the purpose or reason of some unfair reviews I glanced in IMDb. Probably these viewers intended to watch a Walt Disney cartoon, or maybe a French romance (they usually are excellent) and saw "La Mentale" by accident, because it is indeed an excellent mob movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Último Favor" ("The Last Favor")

No actors, no script, no director, no movie. Naceri is a typically good boy. Perfect for Taxi, but not for this movie. Since, he is the worst actor in this movie. His _character_ is a mad, fanatic criminal offender, but he can't show us. The one good thing in the movie: the music score. Otherwise the worst movie that I had been ever see.

The story of a part of life between two friends in Paris. Boot come from outside the central of Paris, they come from the poor part, the difficult part, a city nearest Paris. They growth together and they start to steel motorbikes together. After four years in jail, the first man wants to stop definitely to live has a bandit and he wants to find the right way of live. A story where the gangs try to get more and more money and respect. The men want to get money quickly as possible and tray to follow they dreams and they illusions. A nice movie, may be nearest the reality of gangs. The presence of women stay outside the main history, near doesn't exist. Good presence of very good french actors and also the second job actors. A nice picture anyways and a very good screen-player. A movie to watch absolutely.Good Bibi.