Bala Perdida 2

THE LOST BULLET 2 (C+) is the follow-up to a underrated French action film about French cops using souped up cars to interrupt a drug smuggling ring using fast cars on the highway. This one re-writes the ending of the first film a bit and picks up on the corruption conflicts that drove the first film. When I say "picks up", I mean it uses the same conflicts from the first film as the entire plot for this one. It almost feels like this is just DLC for the first film, extra action scenes based on the skeleton of the first film. Nearly the entire second half of the film follows the lead character Lino trying to get a witness smuggled into Spain but running into trouble. The initial chase scene to get out of France and near the border is a really strong one, but it feels like the film only takes a couple of breathes before it gets back to the car action. The action isn't bad, it just peaks early on and becomes "pretty good" the rest of the way. It kinda gets old without more story as the main players all kind of just go back and forth on their motivations at the turn of a hat. Strong action here, horrible plot that feels thread bare and lacking.

I will assume that anybody intending to watch this film will have seen the original; if not it won't make too much sense as no time is wasted introducing characters or their situation. Protagonist Lino is still determined to capture the corrupt former policeman responsible for the death of his mentor. Unfortunately for him others are less keen. Senior officers want to offer him a deal to bring down corrupt senior officers still in the force and those corrupt officers want to kill him. If Lino is to get justice he will have to face more danger; mostly behind the wheel of his mentor's heavily modified Renault 21.

If you enjoyed the first film, as I did, this is definitely worth watching. The plot may be fairly threadbare but it serves to give lots of thrilling action... and that is what the film is all about. The action is mostly in cars with a chase through oncoming traffic, another through what appears to be a storm drain and several impressive collisions and other crashes. This is all very impressive with minimal obvious special effects. There are also a good number of fight scenes. Usually in such a film one never really feels the protagonist might be in real danger but here that is not the case; especially in a later fight scene. The action is solid, as is the direction. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Euro-action, just remember to watch the first movie before watching this.

These comments are based on watching the film in French with English subtitles.

Its a decent enough seqaul but one big problem with this film is that its inconsistant. This film ignores the end of the first and for that reason almost makes this its own movie. Lino is still trying to find the killer of his brother. He gets the keys back to the garage and finds his beat up red car. Cue just one year later and its a nice blue shade with a new ram on front. He takes it upon himself to arrest the man but most of the film and the actual enjoyment of the film is one big car chase whose scenes were the best thing here. Its a decent enough seqaul even if a little flat but good acting.

The last movie ended on him walking away from the garage with the girl , suddenly his in the hospital ok fine could be but then his a cop then he's beating more cops then the bad guys ? I don't get half of the plot is mess up incoherent, even the end is strange so did he die or he didn't and what's with the other guy picking up his stuff at the dump place or was it him didn't look like him it looks like the arieky.guy , like what a mess not even normal , it just to much of a mess , still a good action movie and the entire time you're trying to understand what the hell is happening and who is shooting who everyone is police no one seam like a good guy.

There was certainly a lot more happening with the action and suspense, but I found the story had too many inconsistencies and kept bouncing between pot holes and ridiculousness in the narrative. It's like the writers couldn't decide if Lino should be the antagonist or protagonist. Plus the entire narrative was really unfocused and didn't build much from the first film, and it seemed they were aiming for a more Fast and Furious ridiculousness feel; the action was a little too phony and overboard. Nevertheless, the action was choreographed well, all casting and performances spot-on, and the great pacing made the 98 min runtime fly by. Hopefully if there's a third installment, we'll get the continuation that will actually include Areski for more than a few minutes.