Crime Spree

That's not THE film of the year, that's not a very good action movie, but it's really amazing ! The humour of the actors is great, and the english speaking of Renaud, Depardieu is really funny. It refers to french culture, so there may be a few jokes hard to understand for americans, but, it's an american movie, so I suppose it will be appreciated there too. Harvey Keitel in his known maffia role, playing with his own image is something to see too !

This movie is a "must see".

"Crime Spree" is a good movie. It's not a great one, but it's certainly very funny and quite entertaining. Its major problem is, though, that it's almost completely ripped off from either "Snatch" or "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels." Now, don't get me wrong: I enjoyed "Crime Spree" immensely and I do recommend it. However, don't go into it expecting to see something original or revolutionary, especially if you're a Guy Ritchie fan.

Writer/director Brad Mirman crafts a cute, international comedy with the requisite murder/theft/convoluted plot that has dragged Ritchie to the spotlight while bringing nothing new to the table. One disappointing aspect of "Crime Spree," though, is that it neither has Ritchie's blitheness nor his gravity in serious matters. When, in either "Snatch" or "Lock, Stock," the characters find out that they're screwed, we can feel just how screwed they are. In "Crime Spree," we don't know them well enough to comprehend the level of crap they're in. This is probably because Mirman doesn't take the time to establish the characters well enough to make us feel anything for them. We see that they're a likable group of guys who happen to be hapless thieves, and that's where the character development ends.

I think Mirman's biggest problem is that he underwrote the script. The scene that catapults the story is too unexpected and weird, because it involves a character too peripheral. It takes a huge leap of faith to think that something so minor could result in an onset of problems that big, because said peripheral character lacks the motivation to be involved in the plot in the first place.

Now, speaking of the plot. The plot has Ritchie's signature written all over it, only whereas Ritchie begins at the beginning, so to speak, when he introduces his characters, Mirman gets lazy and does expository dialogue instead. This is probably a mistake, since he has neither the style nor the substance to fill the holes well enough and make me ignore the sloth of his writing.

Lastly, Mirman's work suffers from a lot of side ordership. There are only two important groups in the forefront, but Mirman stuffs the movie with side characters that seem to distract from the development of the main characters. Whereas Ritchie somehow incorporates these side assemblies into the main plot, Mirman doesn't have the skill to do this, so I wind up feeling annoyed at the fact that some totally arbitrary people are stealing the screen time. I wish to Christ that, in the cases of both Ritchie and Mirman, or any of the numerous on-the-rise directors who want to follow in that vein, people learn that simplicity isn't always a bad thing. A movie doesn't have to have thirty protagonists to be good. Both "Snatch" and "Lock, Stock" had this problem, but in those movies, the side characters were at least somewhat amusing.

Despite these rather grave errors, "Crime Spree," as I said before, is a good film. It's light (though not light enough) with dark moments (that are, alas, not dark enough), but it works in its own odd, plagiarist way. Mirman has style in terms of shooting the thing and a couple of moments in the film work better than anything Ritchie has ever spawned. Also on the plus side in the Mirman column, he has assembled an excellent cast that can at least act.

Do I recommend it? As I said, absolutely. But if you're looking for something to blow your mind and you've not been living in a Luddite compound in terms of the Ritchie Revolution, "Crime Spree" just won't do it for you.

This is the funniest movie I've seen in a long while. Who knew murder could be hilarious? From the opening scenes with the older gentlemen to the last scenes, I laughed my head off. Which wasn't easy because it was 4 a.m. when I watched it. Each scene was extremely clever and held my attention because I knew something wise and funny was about to happen.

I'd have to say that my favorite character was Harvey Keitel's character because he had some really funny lines and funny scenes. But, honestly, every single one of the characters had something that brought this movie together and made it comical. Whether that was the writer's intention, I don't know. But it worked amazingly well. See this movie and enjoy because you will laugh.

Brad Mirman's "Crime Spree" is the perfect example of movies where you could easily tell who saw it and who didn't: either it inspires a "huh?" or a big and sincere smile in the face. The film that features a gang of criminal screw-ups 100% made-in-France in Chicago, the American is so hilarious, with the same level of gentleness than other good-hearted comedies such as "My Cousin Vinny" or "Wayne's World" that the whole Tarantino or Guy Ritchie's rip-off allegations are absolutely meaningless.

To understand the simple but efficient greatness of "Crime Spree", imagine the opening scene, set in the dark. Two thieves are whispering, probably because the house owner is there, Gerard Depardieu as Daniel and Stephane Freiss as Julien, that came to steal a painting, one of them brought the flashlight but forgot about the batteries. Why? Because he brought everything that was on the list: gloves, pen, knives except the batteries because they were not on the list. The absurdity of his argument confined to comical genius … wait, now, as if it was not funny enough, there's the third one, Raymond as the fat well-mannered getaway driver, who joins them because … he felt alone in the car. In one minute, we have an idea of the guys we're dealing with.

Indeed, what is so great about "Crime Spree" is that the movie never cheats the viewer by delivering something else than laughs, even the most unexpected and random gags are inserted, not to mention some priceless one-liners. When Daniel's boss, Bastaldi, remarkably played by Ricahrd Bohringer, wants to point out his crew's incapacity, he throws a plate at his hands to indirectly signify that they were empty. Anyway, he has a mission for them, in the States. "You speak English?", asks Bastaldi in French, to which Depardieu immediately replies "Yes" as if it was the best guarantee that he does. Just imagine the scene in reverse: "You speak French?" "Oui". Each gag catches you totally off-guard.

This attention to little gags redeem the overall B-movie feel, that makes "Crime Spree" inferior to "Pulp Fiction" or "Lock, Stock" in a larger scope, but it's one thing to say that and another to accuse the film of being a cheap imitation when it clearly has no other ambition to be a funny story playing on cultural gaps …if one thing, let's not forget that the screenplay was written in 1996, and maybe if it was made in a time where France was more popular, remember in 2003, French fries were renamed "Freedom Fries", just to give you a certain idea of the context. But seriously, I'd trade any genuine laughs from predictable gags unoriginal than a timid smile from a film that tries too much on the sophistication.

"Crime Spree" is a raw pleasure with a level of naivety that almost confines to tenderness What makes the film less 'cinematically' great is. At one moment, two of the crew join the team, Renaud as the laconic Zero (the name is so neutral that it's hilarious) and Johnny Halliday as Marcel. At one moment, they fight to decide which radio station they'll listen to, they each want to listen to their own song. The joke is funny because it's so damn predictable when you have two of the most popular singers from France. The film doesn't forget to mock French' culinary habits with a beautiful scene in a restaurant conclude by Zero's comment: "no smoking, no drinking, what kind of country is that?" At least, Brad Mirman spared us the cliché with frogs' legs.

There is no need to summarize the plot which is a typical gimmick of the crime genre with the intricate plots that gets everyone gets mixed up, from a corrupt cop, a gang of Mexican hoodlums, black guns dealers and to an obligatory Mafia leader. Predictable, maybe. But it works. And on that department, "Crime Spree" uses two of the most endearing character actors who starred in the most acclaimed gangster films : Abe Vigoda as the venerable Giancarlo aka Mr. G. and his plotting capo Frankie Zemetti, played by Harvey Keitel in a great comedic performance as the no non-sense gangster who takes his business so seriously that he's inevitably hilarious.

As the fitting antagonist, Zemetti has a deal of good lines, to a negotiator who explains that the proceeds will be supernumerary, the stares he gives when he hears the word is priceless and naturally he asks what it means. The funny thing is not that the guy used the word because he's taking courses to enhance his vocabulary, but that Zemetti uses it the next scene with Mr. G, provoking the same "what the …?" reaction. Still, it's nothing compared to his explicit "What the F does that mean?" after Zemetti explained that he broke his own brother's arm because "honor without respect is like a horseless carriage". I can go on and on, if there was a Top 10 of Keitel's greatest roles, I'd put this one. His wisecracking and interactions with his men are absolutely hilarious : "You mean, French guys from France?".

The plot escalates very fluidly, featuring common archetypes of the gangster genre: shootouts, car chases, and even some dramatic moments handled efficiently because we do care for these characters. There's something absolutely endearing in characters that mustn't goof and yet can't help it, that's the quality that makes them irresistibly funny, with a honorable mention to Said Taghmaoui as Sami, the Arab intermediary who's the only one to believe in his toughness and macho attitude. And take it from someone who hate outtakes in ending credits, as they kill the very purpose of a film, this time, it works because the film is so humble it doesn't even ask us to take it seriously…

... yet we do because it's truly one of the funniest films of the last decade ... and deserves to become a cult comedic classic.

All they needed was Jean Reno. Depardieu, Hallyday, Renaud, Taghmaoui and the lesser known, Freiss and Dray make up a gang of complete screw-ups who are set up to take a fall and wind up robbing Keitel, always great as a mafioso, and get involved in every kind of mess-up imaginable. The ending is charming and remindful of the ending in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Although the film is quite violent, and liberally sparkled with gallows humor, it comes off incredibly well as a dark comedy. Depardieu does well with comedy and his chemistry with the rest of the bunch is superb in all their antics.

If you haven't seen it, do. If you have, rent it again. I had to, in order to pick up on some of the laughs I missed while guffawing the first time around. Even if you don't speak French, the subtitles are cleverly apt and capture most of the witty dialogue among these veteran French actors.