Night Fare (2015)

Absolutely Brilliant!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Worth watching, but don't expect too much. Two friends on a night out in Paris decide to be jerks and they get their due. Pretty straight forward, except that three quarters in, the film takes a sharp turn and becomes something other than a standard slasher film. Stick with it until the end.

I promise anyone that likes a good thriller will like this movie. There is a great surprise ending as well. I don't want to give anything away but there should be more movies like this.

I'm pretty sure that the makers of "Night Fare" got some inspiration from the 1984 American movie "The Terminator", since the first two-thirds of the movie for the most part involve two protagonists constantly running away from a pursuing and unstoppable threat. But taking inspiration from another movie doesn't really bother me as long as the makers of the new version execute things well, and for the most part the movie is pretty well made. There is a good deal of tension and excitement in the first two-thirds, as well as some good action and brutality. I admit that eventually the movie starts to get a little repetitive, but fortunately around that time, the movie changes things around and we get another plot thread. This new plot thread is interesting, but by the time we get to the closing credits, you'll realize that the movie has not answered a number of key questions. And some plot points feel unfinished as well. Despite these flaws that I have described, the movie is never dull and is always entertaining. And at just 80 minutes in length, it certainly does not overstay its welcome. A word of warning if you watch the movie on Netflix: Watch it with English subtitles, because a significant portion of the dialogue is in French.

Two friends Chris (Jonathan Howard) and Luc (Jonathan Demurger)reunite in Paris and plan on having a night out on the town. They hitch a ride in a taxi, but skip out of the taxi without paying on the basis that they were going to 'nip' to the cash machine for some money. However, this cab driver doesn't take kindly to these two men not paying their fare and the cab driver doggedly pursues them in what turns out to be a terrifying manhunt....Night Fare is a mixed bag of a film which inevitably has some bad elements to it, but on the whole I found that it's strengths did outweigh its weaknesses..Where the film is at its best is when the focus is on the crazy cab driver psychotically pursuing the fare jumpers. Many of these scenes are intense and the performances from the two protagonists are really good and they were both able to convey genuine fear incredibly well. The film only has a short run time of 80 minutes and generally covers this ground in a fast-paced and effective manner. I've always felt that films of this nature work better when the madman's identity is kept a secret - it helps to build intrigue, suspense and mystery and generally leaves you wanting to learn more about the madman. This is one reason why I appreciated the reveal as well as being surprised by it; the cab driver's psychotic violence had a point to it which actually makes it a much deeper film than one would initially assume.As good as it is for the most part, the film does have some rather glaring weaknesses; whilst the film is tense and suspenseful for a good chunk of its running time, director Julien Seri does over-stage the action (particularly in the first half). It seems that wherever our protagonists run to the cab driver is there (within seconds) and this even occurs at times where it's unlikely or improbable that he could second guess what they could do. The dialogue in this film is also poor and only consists of our two friends talking about their love for the same woman which inevitably causes conflict between the two men. Outside of this, we don't learn anything about the men (other than one of them is French and one of them is English and they both love the same woman) and as a result of this the character development on offer here is at best poor and at worst non-existent.The film is also set in Paris which is a city that's home to over 2 million people yet the streets and roads are completely deserted; so where is everybody and why are there only one set of coppers patrolling the streets in Paris?? Whilst the cab driver is an intimidating presence and he is pretty damn terrifying, I do feel that everything was overdone slightly with his character - I can understand how he acquires his incredible fighting skills, but how do you train yourself to be able to withstand being Tasered - literally thousands of volts of electricity into his body and he doesn't even flinch?? What are his clothes made of? Rubber?? He felt more like a superhuman comic book character than a real person. It's narrative flaws like this that jar with the serious philosophising at the end of the film and it's these things that prevent it from being a brilliant film - although it is still a good film I hasten to add.The reveal at the end is a bit of a curve-ball ending and by the time the credits started rolling I felt as though I'd watched some mad cross between Duel, Oldboy and A Clockwork Orange. The reveal did provide us with a much wider story and the idea of the cab driver being an avenging angel who initially has been saved from himself and ultimately does the same to others did at least show that some thought had gone into the story and made the film not quite as generic as it could have been - it also leaves the film open for a sequel.Night Fare is imperfect, but it is pretty tense and suspense and more importantly rather surprising and in spite of its glaring flaws I did find it enjoyable.