Cross

This much forgotten film of the late eighties deserves its pathetic faith. Nothing in this lazy thriller could ever surprise anyone. A complete turkey, however, it is not. "Cross" simply is average. And dated. Not a good mix. The plot itself can best be qualified as ordinary: in order to free his wife and daughter from the malicious care of five lunatics freshly escaped from the asylum, a policeman seeks help from a professional killer. The kidnapped members also include some other relatives of the distressed cop. None of them are meant to live very long on screen anyway. Michel Sardou, a popular french singer, plays the main character without excessive mannerism but his performance remains forgettable. The only interesting character in this movie is that of the hired killer. He is played with an effective tongue-in-cheek humor by comedian Roland Giraud. Otherwise... on a rainy Monday evening it might end up mildly entertaining.

The only really amazing thing about this film is that Jean Paul Belmondo isn't in it as it would be typical of his films in the 80s. Okay, the film is pretty crude and violent but also fairly enjoyable. There is not much of a story: bad guys kidnap tough cops' family and he tries to save them by teaming up with a hit man. Sardou is Cross is about as much cliché of a cop as any man can possibly be. But the action is pretty good and the scenes at the dilapidated hotel at night are atmospheric and full of suspense. From my point of view this film is pretty much a Budd Boetticher B-western set in 1980s France. Watch out though: the DVD version is heavily edited.

The eighties were the worst decade for the crime film in the French movie industry; the worst. Maybe the first three, and also ONLY, features directed by Jean Claude Missiaen were really worth, but besides this and also LA BALANCE, it was the desert, or this kind of garbage, which I comment now. The TV indusry in the crime domain was too prolific, that hijacked the public from the theaters. The previous decade, the seventies, was far far better, and you'll have to wait till the end of the nineties with J'IRAI AU PARADIS CAR L'ENFER EST ICI, directed by Xavier Durringer, to have a glance of the rebirth of the genre in France. And of course, a couple of years ago, Olivier Marchal arrived and everything started again with GANGSTERS and 36 QUAI DES ORFEVRES. Back to this one, it is really cheap, lousy, but fast paced and not too much boring. Michel Sardou is not Clint Eastwood but is still good for a non professional actor. And characters are better than this productions, because of the above average dialogues, for this kind of production I mean, a grade B picture. Some kind of poor man's Budd Boetticher's movie where Sardou would have the Randy Scott's place.