The Last Deadly Mission (2008)

To me, this movie is perfection.

The first must-see film of the year.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

This movie is an absolute garbage. The story is implausible, the filming is bad, and the actors look like they are playing some stage drama in a high school. Even the usually impressive Daniel Auteuil gets lost in this story. The pace in this film is very slow, and when actors have nothing to play, they lite up a cigarette. Probably the tobacco used in this movie consumed most of its budget. Do people of France really poison their lungs so much, or the director of MR73 wanted to just show us the masculinity of his heroes? Finally, the amateurish symbolism of several scenes is just a bunch of clichés that were used in so many movies before. Instead of being dramatic, they are just laughable. Bad movie,2 out of 10.

First of all: I didn't really like this movie, and I wanted to.Daniel Auteuil, the genre, a serial... But no, when I saw the clichés piling up it reminded me of another French tank policier which turned out to be pulp... yes, "36 Quai des Orfebrès". Luckily I hadn't found out on IMDb that they were issued by the same director. If "real life cop experience" makes you put a wife left in coma from "an accident", a child victim from a family murderer, who cries all the time (sometimes flooding) is herself a victim of a bad job, bad relationships with her boyfriend and sister, wait until you see his grandfather die (she sobs again), all her pregnancy, including two stressful events, then childbearing, on camera, long shots of her sweating, then the child's face on camera... What does it have to do with the story? Do we need this to elicit some automatic empathy for any character? If we want to watch a silly sick movie like "Mr. Holland's Opus", which can only resort to low blows because it has nothing to say, go ahead. But this film could have been good. It should have been great.It's a pity, Marchal's got a great CV as an actor (!) as well as a writer and director. I just don't like his way of "emotional blackmail", that the Argentine writer J. L. Borges wrote about 50 years ago. He liked the genre, I suspect he wouldn't like this tergiversation.I've just learned this is the last part of a trilogy, starting with "Gangsers" (2002), then followed by 36 Quai des Orfèvres (nothing to do with the 1947 movie, that was way more daring for its age). Any of the 3 has actors that would make any budding director dream: grouchy Gérard, André Dussollier, Anne Parillaud, Francis Renaud and Olivia Bonamy here. He is very believable (something of Madeleine R. IMDb readers?) . She could make a rock weep. Here she is given such lame material that it only hints at what she could do. Like the "motive" for her to want to track Charles Subra. "Ask him if he had changed". Come' on...! He killed her family, but did his time (= in jail) as a law abiding citizen, but now he's free, we secretly want him killed, and so does she. If not, why ask him with a dishonest kiss to "find him"? If everybody knows he's a loose cannon? But she's got to remain "purely good". Then, she's got to babble something ludicrous as her leitmotif? The problem is that it's the core of this bad movie. Ah, the cliché of "the woman who could be his daughter that puts some order and romance into a loner looser with addiction(s) isn't something you've seen a million times? Again, superb IMDb community of reviewers, help me out with names commenting this review, in your own, add a thread or something. I just don't want to write this review. The only scene I liked was the predictable dog accident with his sidekick. Schneider seems really angry, like if nothing he does could ever turn right. Auteuil has to overact all his other "anger scenes" so as to carry on with this boring film. Like the "botched And at the morgue" scene, the fight with Kovalski, his constant drunkenness, etc. At Quai he's also got to endure jail, unfair condemnation even from his family, bereavement (sounds familiar :)?). Even the filming style here of the melodramatic scenes is the same. In fact, that's what made me think I had seen the same film before... it was Quai :(! Music is good when playing the obsessive tune Schneider gets on his head. Kovalski gets the best line, the good if not superb: "cops are like family, we don't betray each other" (to the fat forensic/ photographer, smuggler). Now that I think about it, I'm surprised he didn't wind up dead. I also liked Subra's pretence of redemption, totally feigned convincingly, so much he fools Kovalski. Which is not so surprising given he fits the profile of the classic psychopath. Emmanuel Carrière in the book that originated the infinitely better "L'Adversaire" (also starring Auteuil) narrates how the true case of a guy who murdered basically all his family, including parents and in laws, even almost got rid of her lover too, all during a long period (not in a fit or rage or something), later in jail converted to extreme religious zeal. Sounds familiar, right?Catherine Marchal does a fine emphatic psychologist. Yes, she's smart and beautiful (her sleek attire and ultra stylish car does help), but doesn't she have the same surname as the director? Oh my.I liked the lighting. All the whites are too white, blinding. "Saturating" or whatever is the jargon for that. I suppose it follows some esthetical motivation, all I can say is it added some mysticism sorely wanting in the film. What I mean is, photography is probably the best this movie has. Even Subra in jail, washing or being put back into prison make you feel trapped, like if you were really there, grey walls, into constant "greyness".Watch this film, don't get me wrong. The ending is worth it. But don't harbour great expectations, and you won't be disappointed. Like most things in life, I guess :).

Cop who's lost his family deals with his demons as he investigates a series of murder/rapes and tries to help a young woman deal with the impending release of a killer who had her watch as he killed her parents.Dark brooding nihilistic film that makes you feel unclean. (I wanted to take a shower about half way in) This film is all about mood at the cost of an involving plot. The film begins well as we meet the characters, then it falls into dullness as everyone wanders about not doing a great deal interesting before it picks up at the end in such a way that you wonder why it took over two hours to get to that point. I think my feelings at reaching at the end sum it all up best, "Thats it?" Apparently. Its an okay film in bits but the ending isn't worth the time to get there.

A couple of years ago, Mr. Marchant delivered 36 Quai Des Orfèvres (basically is the address of the Paris police department); one of the best and most complex cop movies I ever saw; a great film but not perfect. It was not as realistic as I expected; cops were ambitious but no so dirt and the end felt really forced. With MR 73 the realism is all there and if the movie lacks the continuous action of the first one, it improves dramatically aside from a few clichés. The pace however is not Dirty Harry or Lethal Weapon. It is not even Righteous Kill but it is far better than all of them. Based on real and quite tragic events, the story introduces several characters getting related as the events progress. Louis, a drunken and completely finished cop (thanks to tragic family accident and the moral remorse of his own sins). There is a serial killer on the loose (plus other getting out of jail), a few very corrupt cops and a bunch of people more worried on getting rid of problems that to hold the law or protect people. There is not a hint of humor in the movie; in fact it is really terrifying that this tribe of monsters is there to protect us. Giving up more will affect the complex of the narrative. Let's simple state that the end is far more accomplish than the previous movie and the intensity of the situations takes the breath away. A few minutes less could probably had improve the pace, but just because some moments are difficult to bear. Great movie, but aside from the cars there is nothing comparable to American cop movies.