nikban-62719

It's been almost 30 years since the last Besson film I was thrilled with. It was The Fifth Element, a daring, dynamic film by a brilliant madman... it was a long wait, but Besson is back. The cast is great, the performances are mostly Oscar-worthy, and his new in-house actor Caleb Landry Jones is a very good replacement for the unique Jean Reno. And he would be a great Joker in the style of Heath Ledger in the event of a prequel. A film with heart and soul made for the audience with an anti-hero who is hard to love, but can be understood, and can be sympathized with. I never liked Coppola's version of Bram Stocker's Dracula, and I really wanted someone to make a better version, but I really didn't expect that someone would be my favorite director from the great nineties (Nikita, Leon). I only hope that I don't have to wait another 30 years for a film this great. 10/10.

I got just about what I expected-but I was hoping for a miracle. And a miracle could have happened if they had stayed true to the spirit of the original films. The originals are a parody of classic noir/detective cinema, with Leslie Nielsen as Frank Drebin doing absurd things with a completely straight face-just like Peter Sellers did a few years earlier in The Pink Panther.

Even though everything around them is parodic (as are their actions), they themselves remain serious characters and see themselves that way. In this film, though, they let that go. They threw in a bunch of anarchic humor and unintelligent stunts-clearly, in my view, aiming to attract a younger audience.

And that audience seemed to enjoy the film quite a bit. We older fans, on the other hand, swallowed the lump in our throats and took some comfort in the solid performances of our beloved aging stars, consoling ourselves that it turned out relatively well.