Alias

AKA (2023 release from France; 118 min) brings the story of Adam Franco, an undercover special opps guy who is afraid of nothing or nobody. The French Minister of the Interior's chief of staff orders Franco to infiltrate a criminal gang in order to track down the whereabouts of a bombing suspect.... At this point we are less than 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this is the feature length directing debut of Morgan Dalibert, previously a well-known cinematographer. Dalibert co-wrote the script along with Alban Lenoir, the erstwhile stunt man-turned-actor who plays the role of Adam Franco. These two know each other well, having collaborated on "Lost Bullet". Here they bring a gritty crime drama. I must admit that based on the film's opening sequence, I was expecting something more glamorous, but once the story really got goin, I found myself fully invested. Let me be very clear, tough: this is a very violent movie, and the body count is off the chart, so if that is not your thing, please find something else to watch. Eric Cantona alert! Yes, the French soccer star from the 1990s who played for Manchester United for 5 years, has continued to build a very nice acting career after retiring from football. Here he plays the head of the criminal gang, one of the pivotal roles in this film. Bottom line: my expectations were surpassed with this movie, and these 2 hours just flew by.

AKA started streaming on Netflix just last weekend, and I watched it last night. If you like a crime drama that is gritty and violent, yet that is also wildly entertaining with solid performances all around, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Dalibert is no stranger to this genre of action film. He could have taken the easy route and strung together a series of action tropes to move things along. He knows how to do it. He has done it before. And well. But this time he rolled the dice on a much harder bet. This time he teased out the characterizations to keep the viewer hooked. This is most definitely NOT some sort of clever hodge-podge of different movies. The closest analog is MAN ON FIRE 2004, which also relies heavily on the interaction between a hardened killer and a young boy. This may not be a film for everyone, but the more time you spend with it, the more interesting it gets. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

I chanced upon this French crime-action-thriller on Netflix and was totally taken aback by the planning and execution of it's action scenes, though it is not a genre that I particularly enjoy.

Alban Lenoir, the co-writer & lead actor of the film looks ultra-skilled and effortless in both hand-to-hand combat and close range shooting scenes.

There is enough blood and gore in the movie, but still the movie appears realistic. Even though the body count is high, the act in itself is never glorified.

Amidst all the blazing guns and bullet wounds on his body, Alban Lenoir's Adam Franco, the protagonist turns out to be quite headstrong in protecting young children, which adds the required humanity angle to the film.

The story unfolds at a relatively slower rate, but it's never boring. Your 122 minutes are well taken care of.

The rating (6.7) doesn't justify this beautiful movie.

Take Jason Bourne and John wick and add alot of emotions and drama and realness.

The action is very raw, the suspense keeps you on the edge from start to finish, some twists here and there and the performances are the real treat here.

Specially from the main character. How he is Introduced and where he gets at the end of movie is understandable. Unlike many big action/thriller (big budget) movies, you actually understand every characters decision making. Even those who don't get much time for character development.

For a Netflix movie, it can't get much better. We need more of this Netflix. Budget well spent.

First the film is in French, so if you speak french or don't mind reading subtitles it's a solid choice.

It's kind of a Jason Bourne / Extraction type film, but done in a more realistic manner. Magazines aren't always magically full, the bad guys don't die from one shot while the good guys get shot 5 times and keep fighting, and while the hero is heroic, he's not completely impervious to the bad guys like a lot of action movies portray heroes.

Alban Lenoir does a great job being a badass and doesn't ruin the movie trying to look cool or have some stupid catch phrase that makes it cheesy. I definitely would watch another movie where he's the hero.

The action is really great, the sets are good, and you can stay immersed in the story pretty easily. The story is good and has a couple twists, but there's a couple of predictable times as well which was a little disappointing.

The fight scenes and shootouts are really good, the close quarter fighting is stellar but some of the long range shooting is not as good as it could have been. Hero not having enough cover, the missed shots causing little explosions, etc...

Overall a really solid action movie that won't disappoint you, If it were in English (I don't mean dubbed), I think more people would be talking about it.