Requiem

In a violent heist in a house of a French family, one of the members of the gang leaded by Marcus (Moussa Maaskri) and formed by Poupousse (Marc Chapiteau), Rafik (Jean-Louis Loca), Gippé (Jo Prestia) and Christian (Patrick Dell´Isolla) rapes the housewife. Christian protests, and is shot by Marcus with the rest of the family. Thirteen years later, Christian is converted in a monk, after putting all the criminals in jail in a life sentence. One night, in the monastery where he lives, the young woman Carla (Julie-Anne Roth) is lodged by the monks for one cold night, while the four guys escape from the prison. Their car has a problem in the radiator close to the monastery, they trespass the gate, and arrest and torture Carla and the monks. The story has a weird end. I liked this movie: it has a magnificent quite gothic photography and atmosphere, an excellent soundtrack, a good screenplay and, although exaggerated, it has very violent and realistic scenes. The conclusion of the plot is very confused and I am not sure that I have really understood, since it seems that something is missing, but anyway it is a good French movie. I intend to see it again, trying to make the end of the story clearer for me. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Insanos' (`Insanes')

this movie is clearly a rip off from the usual suspects and reservoirs dogs.

scenes in the movie clearly point to wards that. the Pace in the movie is way to slow and the end just sucks i watched it 4 times and still did not get the ending . not gonna tell it because i would spoil it.

but this movie isn't as good as it sounds on the back oft he cover

the action was good but only the surprises were kinda stupid . there was some mind play and some action but not enough to satisfy me. some of the scenes in the prison hinted to something but they never used it. the movie clearly cant decide what it wanted to be action or thriller.

As far as action goes, there's a lot of shouting and shooting and running about. More violence than I like, and the plot is quite predictable, to someone who likes to think ahead, but I liked this movie very much anyway. The characterisation of the individuals and the way they reacted in each situation is very realistic, which I find refreshing, and the acting is brilliant. This is one of the movies which you can just watch without being dragged out of it by bad acting. The landscape can be a little fake at times, and some scenes are exaggerated, but it seems to add to the Gothic atmosphere than take away from it. The ending was quite clear to me, but many people find it confusing. Overall, I think it was the acting and realism of the characters that pushed this movie into my personal top tens. Go and watch! Even if you don't like it, you'll at least see a lot of realistic scenarios between characters.

There's an expression in my country that roughly translates as "it's better to steal an existing good idea than to invent a lousy new one". This is also how I would describe the French thriller/action flick "Requiem", actually. Absolutely nothing about Hervé Renoh's film is original. The plot and tone are obviously inspired by Quentin Tarantino and a series of other graphical action movies from the 90s, and the setting/horror elements are copied from "The Name of the Rose". It's all fine, though, because "Requiem" is brutal, raw, and excessively violent.

Four heavyweight criminals leave a fifth one for dead at the scene of a grim home jacking, because the latter objected to kill the family's child. He survives, snitches on his companions so that they must serve a life-sentence in prison and retrieves to a monastery to redeem his soul. Thirteen years later, they all come together again at the monastery. Who helped the criminals escape from prison? Will they recognize the former partner who betrayed them? And much blood will be spilled?

I like the French, because they're my neighbors to the south. And I love French horror/cult cinema, especially since the year 2000, because it's because it's nasty and explicit. The remote cloister setting is terrific, the acting performances are more than adequate, and most of the action scenes are definitely not intended for viewers with faint hearts or weak stomachs.