The Prey (2011)

A Masterpiece!

A Disappointing Continuation

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Bank-robber Franck Adrien is serving a prison sentence after robbing a national bank. Before he was caught he managed to hide the money but now it's not just the police who are looking for the money. His cell-mate is Jean-Louis Maurel, an alleged rapist/child molester who claims his innocence. When the court finds Maurel not guilty, Maurel promises to look after Franck's family when he gets out. But one day, a man called Manuel Carrega tells Franck that Maurel is a suspected serial killer and that Franck's family is in danger. Franck escapes from prison and police officer Claire Linné and her team take up the chase. La proie (2011) is easily one of the best French films ever made it's action packed and intense from start to finish, the fight sequences are spectacular and the choreography is believable, Albert Dupontel, Alice Taglioni and Stéphane Debac are terrific but Dupontel easily steals the show there's even a scene where he is running and the whole police force chases him or that scene where he uses a cop as a shield in order to escape threw the window. The movie does take a lot of plot points from both The Fugitive and Taken and for a French film is pretty damn good if you ask me. There's a lot of action, suspense and great chase sequences on either foot or car. Also is it just me or does Dupontel look a lot like Hugh Jackman in the Poster? Overall this is one hell of a movie and it will definitely win you over!!

This almost comes across as a TV Movie but its standard is much higher.The action is mostly but not entirely in the tension. There are some really nice entirely physical cliffhangers to pull you to the edge of your seat.The characterisation is superb and the plot, while admittedly a cliché, is excellently implemented.Anyone who likes police drama or investigative thriller will find this an unusually good film of its genre.For those that like any amount of the above but also want some eye candy, the cast will appeal to male and female alike.I'm not that big on cheap melodrama type stuff (preferring deeper movies) but this one got me with the clarity and definition of portrayal of each role in the film.It shocks. A bit like a knife in the side ;)

I am not, as many movie-goers, a fan of all French movies, especially not these days, when every French movie-maker tends to "ape" the Hollywood stream.Yet, said that, occasionally, there are some tiny gems that stand out from the rest, and this is just the case with "La Proie" (English - The Prey).It starts very slowly and at first it seems your common jailbird caper. A prison, two convicts and confined rooms pervaded by harsh conditions, but soon things start to happen which turn everything upside-down.The question then is, who is the Prey and who the Hunted.In a very tightly knit thriller, action upon action, cut upon cut, the story unfolds in front of our eyes and keeps us biting our nails to see what happens next.Suddenly, nothing and nobody is or stays what he or she once was. The innocent is guilty and the guilty is the innocent, but who and when and how they turn to be like that is just a matter of turns in the storyline.The end of it all is also a surprise. Not your usual Happy Ending a la Hollywood, but rather a "staccato" ending, in which one tends to say, "well, it's a French movie and therefore it has to end tragically", ah... but wait, there is a surprise, an Easter Egg if you want and you leave with a sense of satisfaction after an intense ride on the edge of a razor blade.Granted, some scenes could remind us to a certain pace in the famed James Bond movies, in which certain characters jump from bridges and land unharmed on a platform, yank themselves out of a window on the third floor only to land unscathed on a minivan's rooftop, but this is just a movie and we can easily forgive such heroics, even if a bit unreal (everyone else would brake a bone, strain a muscle or rip a tendon).Still harm comes to everyone and no one is really a super-hero here. It is probably the Adrenalin pumping that keeps our characters doing what they do.Yet, unlike so many other action capers these days, there is even space for some solid good acting by everyone involved. The direction is competent and skillful, but the real secret as always, lies in the excellent editing of this movie.One suggestion though. If you want to really enjoy the movie, try to watch it in its original French language with perhaps, English subtitles to help you out, because the dialogue is important to fully understand the mind-frame of the characters. A competent dubbing could also do the trick, but alas, in my experience, dubbing depends on the translation and the translator, and one can seldom rely on a faithful transliteration of the original text.Therefore, since this is one of those rare cases of movie enjoyment, with a solid and interesting story, expert acting and directing and a considerable amount of thrills I have added it to my list of films that have to be seen and perhaps even collected.For you to judge whether the effort was worthwhile or not, but I can guarantee you that you won't be disappointed. But then again, taste is taste and we all have different parameters for this.Oh, and by the way, the German title has been changed from "On the Run" to "Traue Niemandem" (Trust No One). In fact there are so many movies called "On the Run" that one could get easily confused. But in view to the fact that the Main character states many times that he doesn't trust anyone, this seems indeed to be the appropriate Title for the movie.

Jason Bourne busting in the front door of the CIA, Uma Thurman chopping her way to justice, or Old Boy bashing in skulls with a hammer, no matter how many times it's done, when it's done well, the revenge story model still works. The Prey (La proie), a film by Eric Vallete, is a classic revenge story that totally rocks the model. Prisoner/Bad Guy Franc Adrien's is out from vengeance. After Franc kicks the asses of three guys at once, and then escapes from prison, he finds out his wife has been murdered and his daughter kidnapped. He sets out to avenge his wife's death and get his daughter back. Franc knows the killer, problem is, Franc has no idea where to find him. Almost nonsensically, an ex-cop character with a hunch about the Franc's wife's killer is thrown into the mix. How else would Franc be able to track down the killer since he has no leads? Even then, despite this character's evident obvious triteness as a device, he comes to such a monumental end that his self-sacrifice justifies him. A fault in the script is that it tries to have two interesting main characters, the bad guy whom we cheer for Franc, and the cop that is chasing him, Claire, but only Franc's story line is interesting, and even then, it is mostly just because Albert Dupontel who plays Franc is so awesome. Dupontel is so good that I found myself consciously noticing his awesomeness as it was unfolding and thinking, "these particular scenes might suck if this were any other actor." All the best cop scenes were the ones where they were chasing Franc. Since the cops seem to exist only to act as obstacles to Franc's goals, I just kept thinking it would have been better if they remained at arm's length. The vanilla acting made the non-action cop scenes seem cheesy, but there were other positives. The gun battle where we first meet the beautiful cop lead Claire is crazy and super tight, but right after this the cop storyline settles into nothing but clichés. There is the obstinate hard-ass police chief who's menacingly interferes with proper detective work, hot tempered cops slamming their fists down and cursing as the bad guy gets away, and of course the scenario of the only (super hot) woman cop being totally bad ass and in charge à la Cold Case or Homeland. There is one scene in the second act when the cops catch up to him. He is cornered. You think there is no way out or him and then BAM, he escapes. I give some serious credit to the writers for coming up with some amazing escapes and incredibly suspenseful situations. Also, there are many awesome fights scenes, including the much blogged about 'shaved head scraped across a concrete wall,' and these scenes alone make the film worth seeing. Despite the weak cop storyline, Dupontel as Franc is so great that his storyline supports the entire film. Franc is a vicious prison escapee yet we cheer whole-heartedly for him. Very good French thriller.