Nid de guêpes

Dry, harsh, without concession. Nid de guêpes is a pure B-movie strongly inspired by Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13th, but directed with professionalism and a real personal style. After the unbalanced The brotherhood of the wolves and The crimson rivers, here comes the first real achievement in the new wave of French entertaining movies. Don't hesitate!

One doesn't (when one is American, at least) expect to get glossy, high-budget action films from the French; I didn't realize they even MADE this kind of movie. Do industry folk believe that foreign action films won't travel well or be able to compete with similar Hollywood product? If so, I'm surprised THE NEST didn't change all that. (Maybe it went straight to DVD here in the US.) Whatever the reason, this superior example of tight, twisty action film-making is worth recommending to anybody interested.

Boasting a great plot, better than average writing and acting, and knockout direction, the film involves four sets of people--two of them lawbreakers, the other two law enforcers, whom chance and a little coincidence bring together with frightening, violent, bloody and surprisingly believable results. Most of the action is confined to one huge warehouse, and the director manages to eek out every bit of surprise, suspense and clever logistics from this unusual location. I have not seen as good a film of this type since the original "Die Hard."

An ensemble piece using a terrific group of actors, the movie waits until its close to list its cast. I was so involved by the logistics and fast pace that I failed to recognize several of my favorite French actors: Benoit Magimel ("The Piano Teacher," "The King Dances"), Pascal Greggory ("Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train"), and Sami Bouajila ("The Adventures of Felix"). Director Florent Emilio Siri has a new film coming out next year ("The Hostage"); on the basis of his "Nest," I can't wait.

Note: the DVD comes in its original French language with English subtitles and with an English dubbed alternative--which I have heard is badly done. This is NOT a dialog-heavy movie (most actions films aren't) so try it with the subtitles. I did--and was hooked from start to finish.

Watching THE NEST I was reminded in quite a few ways of DIE HARD, which I consider to be the archetypal action movie. Very pure of focus, very lean and taught and *incredibly* intense. It's been a long time since a movie kept me on the edge of my seat like this one.

The premise is very simple. A group of special forces soldiers are escorting a mafia head to trial when they're attacked by his men and take refuge in a warehouse. As luck would have it, a gang of thieves choose the same night to rob the same warehouse, and they get caught in the crossfire.

Once the groups of characters are introduced, it's not long before the bullets start flying... and flying, and flying and flying. It's almost non-stop action for the rest of the film, and easily outdoes HARD BOILED for bullet count. I'm sure some people will find this very boring, so if intense adrenalin-inducing action isn't one of your things then skip the rest of this review (and the film). The rest of you, skip the rest of this review and go rent/buy/acquire this film. Hollywood only wishes it could make an action film this pure or this exciting these days.

As regards purity (since I've mentioned it twice), this means that the film focusses on building intense action, and doesn't let itself get distracted with other concerns, except in a few cases. The characters are given just enough development to let us know who they are, and pretty much no back story. One character in particular seems like he must have a story to tell, but all we learn is that he was once a fireman. There was surely more to him than that, but it's kept a mystery. Maybe that's a good thing, but I'd have liked to know a little more. A few times the movie teases you into thinking there's going to be a twist, and you say to yourself "Ha, I see what's coming later", but the plot remains refreshingly twist-free. It doesn't need them, so it doesn't have them. Pure.

It's just a shame that Hollywood's marketing machinery has such an iron grip on the world's cinema distribution that junk like Alien vs Predator will be seen by millions of people, and a movie as good as THE NEST will remain inexplicably classed as "Indie" or "Arthouse", even in its home country.

This is a beautifully mounted action thriller that creates suspense with a deliberate setup and then wonderfully delivers on those expectations. When it gets going it's truly relentless. This is far better than any American action film of recent years and there's a lesson to be learned here. Especially with creating interesting multi-layered characters we care about coupled with the unpredictability that anyone can get killed at any time. When the audience cares about the characters the main battle of any action flick is won--we have a vested interest. At that point there's no other place to be but on the edge of your seat. If this is not picked up for US distribution it'll be a crime, and our loss.

Just finished watching Nid de Guepes, or the Nest, as it is translated. The beginning I found to be somewhat slow - there is very little dialogue until the sh@t starts to fly in the building. However, I found myself drawn to whether or not and more importantly who would make it out alive.

Overall, for an action movie, it was good - no hero machismo, no action stars . The one and only rescue attempt made (in the truck) is put to rest within a matter of seconds in a hail of bullets; something you don't see quite often in a typical Hollywood blockbuster.

There are no heroes, no guns for glory. It simply tells the story of a group of people, thrown into the same "merde", fighting to survive. Whatever remains of the bravado is quickly put to an end as you see how high the odds were stacked against them - the continuous legion of gunmen assaulting the factory in droves.

Not to mention Fares, switching from French, to Italian to English without missing a beat. Rrrroow.

A good flick