Nuit blanche

(2011) Sleepless Night/ Nuit blanche (In French with English subtitles) CRIME THRILLER/ SUSPENSE DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Frédéric Jardin, which opens with a couple of people tailing another car for the intention of stealing it's bag of dope. And of course, although they succeeded, not everything went accordingly. We soon find out later that the 2 people of Vincent (Tomer Sisley) and Manel (Laurent Stocker) who managed to steal that bag of dope at the opening, also happen to work for the French police, whose intention was to make a little extra money. But as soon as one of the 2 officers, Vincent learns that his son had been kidnapped, and is held for ransom, in exchange for the dope to be returned to the French cartels lead by night club owner, Jose Marciano (Serge Riaboukine). It becomes even more complicated when undercover officers are involved, as one of them takes the liberty by hiding that very bag that was supposed to be used for the exchange is hidden in a different spot. I like the theme, but I do not care for the execution as the movie consists of many brawls that are not too spectacular. The extra star is for it's originality and nothing else.

The latter years I've gotten more and more impressed with French action movies. At least those I've come too see here in Norway, and that's quite a few. I would go so far as saying that the French are now the leading action flick makers, and by far has passed both the Americans and the Brits. The French movies I've seen recently is full of action, we'll played and has a great touch of realism, which very often is not the case with the films coming out of Hollywood.

This film, "Sleepless night", is about to be remade in Hollywood I understand, and there's really no wonder why. This is action from start to finish, and the best action I've seen since "Headhunters". It's tight, exciting, down right dirty action, and still very realistically told. It's a drug heist gone wrong, exploding into a nightmare. Many of there has been with corrupt cops, which is a great genre in itself amongst these films. I guess it's a great premise that you don't know who you can trust, or rather, like in this. You know who you can't trust. Anyone!

We meet a divorced cop getting into trouble after a rather bad decision. He is seen after committing a theft of a load of drugs. As a direct following if this, his beloved teenage son is kidnapped by the gangster missing their drugs. This starts off a nightmare which you really shouldn't miss!

A roller coaster of bad decisions and bad people. Filmed in dirty raw, grainy film, stressed music, with hand-held camera, which I've rarely seen more well done. Not annoying, just realistically adding to the nerve of the story. A treat of a film which sucks you up right from the start. I'll keep checking out French action movies!

A very nice movie, with a perfect plot, very good actors and a big direction. An old American movie,"No Way Out", (Italian title is "Senza via di scampo") is in my opinion the most similar movie for rhythm and perfection of the plot. You can't stop to see, and you don't know never how the movie will can finish, can happen absolutely all. And the end is perfect too, a very, very nice and clever solution. The bad guys are very, very bad, there are some little moment of humor and the movie goes without a moment to stop ! Go to see and/or buy the movie if you like the crime-movies, it's surely a masterpiece of this kind! Or wait an year or less to see the remake that surely Hollywood will do very soon, even with Denzel Washington in the lead-role...

When it comes to action thrillers, French cinema has put out some really good stuff over the last couple of years. This is another example of great action thriller. A ride you want to take if you like movies with a high suspense level. It actually impressed Americans that much, that they made a remake of this one.

You can assume that the Remake is not as good as this, but if you don't like reading subtitles, then you might want to go check the Jamie Foxx version of this. This one is a roller-coaster that won't let you breathe. Once the action starts, there is no stopping. It's more about action and about getting things rolling. Still you got really good actors pulling things off. Sit back, watch and enjoy

Before I get started, I would like to say that I thought this was a good movie. With that being said, I would like to explain why I am only rating it a 6. I live in the US, so I watched the US trailer for this film and they displayed reviews such as, "If the Oscars added a category for best action movie it would be a shoo-in", "Like Die Hard meets 24 by way of Taken" and "Crazy action that just doesn't quit".

After reading these reviews and watching the trailer, I thought this movie was going to pack a big punch and deliver along the lines that were portrayed in the reviews. I was very disappointed to find out that they were wrong. There is action in the movie, but it certainly isn't non-stop, and it takes a while to get there anyway. The reviews are very misleading and the narration from the trailer doesn't accurately describe what actually happens in the film. Do yourself a favor and do not watch this film with the idea that it is going to be an action packed thrill ride like Die Hard or Taken.

Okay, now back to what I enjoyed about the film. I felt like the story was very believable. I really liked how the entire movie took place in one location in a series of events that lasted just one day. I thought the acting was very good, especially from the lead, Tomer Sisley. I also thought the direction was good, especially during some of the fight scenes. I did have some issues, however, with the choreography on some of the fight scenes/gun fights. I felt it was well written and the delivery was good on all parts.

All in all, I really felt like it was a good movie. It just didn't live up to what I expected and what I was hoping for. I definitely recommend watching it, but I have to advise you to not get your hopes up and not to expect a gun blazing, ass-kicking fiesta.