36

I really wanted to like 36. It opens slick and energetic and it retains those two qualities throughout. The problem is that it picks up no other qualities along the way.

The promising looking cast are a let down. The plot veers all over the place. By the end of the film I found it impossible to care why anyone was chasing around doing whatever it was they were doing.

36 isn't awful. It is a pacey and at times very entertaining thriller, but it falls far short of its lofty target.

If you want a cop versus cop thriller watch Heat. If you want a French thriller watch The Beat That My Heart Skipped. If 36 happens to be on the telly one evening, well, you could do worse.

This is like the French version of Michael Mann's "Heat." Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu are like the Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro of France.

These heavyweight actors really do a good job in this cop drama where they play former friends and colleagues who work in different competing departments at the French police. Depardieu plays a gutless immoral cop. Auteuil is the family man who is not perfect himself but is far more moral than his former buddy.

It shows the grit of Paris that people outside France don't usually see in French movies, like the mobs, the gangs, the corruption of the urban ghettos. Instead of pretty cafes and the Eiffel Tower, we get to see alleys and project housing.

Italian actress Valeria Golino plays Auteuil's wife. Auteuil's character tries to protect her from the ugliness of his job by not telling her anything. But circumstances beyond their control later on force her to get involved. The director brilliantly puts it all together.

I know some people didn't like the ending. I thought it was fine and I was not at all disappointed. The other supporting actors like Andre Dussolier who are all famous in France also do a good job. We really liked this movie and highly recommend it!

The opening in 36 has got to be one of the more arresting (pun not intended) starters in a movie I've watched in some time, especially if you're a fan of Euro-electronica, where a catchy tune paces the multiple action happening on screen.

The French police is stumped by a gang of armed robbers whose fast and brutal methods leave no witnesses. Of course the politicians are angry and want immediate results in the capture of these criminals. The stakes are raised when a vacant seat in higher office is opened to the officer who manages to do so.

Leo Vrinks is a decorated cop with questionable methods. Toeing the line that separates cops from thugs, his team of officers and himself are tasked to bring these criminals to justice. His rival, Denis Klein, also a celebrated cop, wants the case for himself, but unceremoniously gets his team and himself relegated to a support role in the sting operation.

Naturally, unexpected things happen during the operation because of Denis' callous behaviour, and lives on both sides are lost. But no, the show doesn't end there when the thugs are captured, as the rivalry between the men spill over and provides more than sufficient fuel for the second half of the movie.

I guess it's the same at most offices, where promotion's at stake, the struggles and intense rivalry may get into the way of the greater good in getting the objective achieved. Methods are questioned, where morality and ethics are put into the spotlight - does the end really justify any means necessary? Like memorable HK police thriller Infernal Affairs, it is the powerful relationship between the main characters that this drama explores and excels in, with excellent acting from Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu as the bitter men with ambiguous methods and morales.

It's a relatively tight storyline, and you'll have to pay close attention to the subplots in order to be able to piece together how and why the ending was as presented. Highly recommended stuff.

A couple of days ago I saw the trailer of "36 Quai des Orfèvres" and I decided to buy the DVD. What a powerful movie it is, probably the best police story that I have recently seen. The dramatic and amoral story is a contemporary film-noir, with action, betrayal, shootings and hooks the attention from the beginning to the end. There is a great duel between two titans: Gérard Depardieu, in the role of a scum detective, and Daniel Auteuil, playing a detective with non-conventional procedures, and they both deserved nomination to the Oscar for such brilliant performances. The music score, with the song "Don't Bring me Down", is also wonderful. The grandiosity of "36 Quai des Orfèvres" recalled me 1995 "Heat", one of the best police stories of the 90's. I really do not understand why there are negative reviews for such great film. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "36"

As usual, Olivier Marchal offers us an excellent thriller with a Homeric duel between Léo Vrinks and Denis Klein, two Parisian cops coveting the same promotion, i.e. the office of their common boss. They know and despise each other, making the competition fiercer. This movie rhymes globally with excellency, thanks to a dark atmosphere, an excellent knowledge of the French national police, Olivier Marchal being a former inspector, and an ineluctable fatalism, ... and despite the caricatural character of Denis Klein who is a a well-known alcohol abuser cruelly lacking of dignity and integrity, conferring a poor image of the national police. De facto, the film's realism is diminished, at least I hope so. In this respect, the final scene between Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu is disappointing and disturbing, Denis Klein's soliloquy being surrealistic with a mix of madness and megalomania.

The whole cast, the script and the dialogues are globally excellent. Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu are awesome.