Army of Crime (2009)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. The movie is very well made. The lighting and cinematography is impeccable. The scenes are constructed beautifully. The casting was brilliant. The actors did a very good job. The direction was good. Robinson Stévenin and Gregoire LePrice-Ringuet were fantastic. Virginie Ledoyen is also maturing into a great leading lady.Aside from the technical brilliance of the film in its fine classic film making, the movie is about heroic men and women who risked their lives for their country even though many of the characters were immigrants. These men and women loved France and died for their rights as well as for the rights of their families and fellow citizens. There were some controversies surrounding this film due to possible historical inaccuracies, yet, I found this movie objective in its portrayal of the characters. There are no long drawn melodramas here but just characters who are compelled to fight for their freedom and the rights of others. I highly recommend this film.

The men and women who resisted the Germans in WWII were the living embodiment of Emiliano Zapata's famous words. Some used peaceful means(The White Rose Society), other violence.(Maquis) This movie details the story of those who embraced violence in order to resist the Nazis.What I particularly liked about this movie was its portrayal of the collaboration necessary to crush such movements. The french police was tacitly involved in the suppression of France's resistance movements. Along with the infamous Milice, the french police provided the Gestapo a means to violently smash those who dared fight back. "Army of Crime" does a nice job of showing the underhanded the methods the french police would use to betray their countrymen.People who feel uneasy about the brutal means used by such movements should do two things: A) Understand that war is brutal in every aspect. A soldier's life is no less valuable then a civilians. B)Realize that the only way to effectively deal with the Nazis' was to meet them with the same level of ferocity and ruthlessness that they dealt out to others. Ethics mean nothing if one is not able to live them. Under normal circumstances those in the resistance would not have done what they did, but then these were not normal circumstances.I laud these heroes for dying fighting merciless brutes. It is not glorious to die for one's country, but it is honorable to die to protect what you cherish most.

How sad to see Mr Guédiguian pandering to the current craze for movies telling the sorry story of Jews in France under the Nazi occupation. Here Mr Guédiguian, who is an outstanding director having produced wonderful movies, like "Marius and Jeannette", tries to join Jews and partisans, including an iconic Armenian (like himself) character, for whom you cannot help feeling a lot of sympathy. However, there are so many strands in this movie that you never get solidly gripped by one of the many, and the plot disintegrates into a cascade of little streams. Also, the stereotypes of cardboard characters (the Paris ghetto Jewish tailor, the gallant Nazi soldier, the refugee Jewish woman and many others) contribute to make this movie essentially a flesh and blood graphic novel, re-visiting old clichés. There is nothing new here and good actors (like Virginie Ledoyen) do not manage to rescue a completely hopeless script. Not a movie I would recommend.

Robert Guediguian has never been afraid to go to the mat with older and respected talents. Despite the odd foray by the likes of Renoir (Toni) and Marcel Tourneur (Justin de Marseille) the Marseille area is widely acknowledged as being under the ownership of Marcel Pagnol but this didn't prevent Guediguian turning out a series of consistently high-quality movies based in and around Marseille - Marius et Jeanette, Le Ville est tranquille, Marie-Jo And Her Two Loves, etc and now he horns in on Claude Berri (Lucie Aubrac) and Jean-Pierre Melville (L'Armee des ombres) territory with a film about the Resistance - he even manages to plug L'Armee des Ombres as if to tempt fate. It's nice to see Lola Namark and Ariane Ascaride in the same movie once again (albeit they never share a scene) but then it's Great to see Ascaride in anything. Simon Abkarian is the nearest thing to a leading man and Virginie Ledoyen as his wife revisits territory she staked out in Bon Voyage. Altogether it's a satisfying exploration of the rag-tag volunteers who comprised the non-French aspect of the Resistance and well worth a look.