This film that starts out grabbing you ends out leaving you feel dazed and confused. The dead body found of a young men, horribly tortured and left to die slowly, is the reason d'entrance of Jean Reno. Answering a local investigators question "where the unit to investigate" is with a stoic "I am the unit", you feel you're in for something good. And that's pretty much what you get. A hunt for a killer, slowly paced giving Reno all the chance to shine, which he does, leading you from clue to clue. Not a groundbreaking concept but the beautiful and meticulously filmed scenery quite makes up for that. Then a typical book-like twist is made introducing what appears to be another main character: Vincent Cassel. His investigation into the desecration of a tomb seems to lead him to Reno's dead bodies. So far so good until, out of the blue, the writers feel the need to make Cassel go Chuck Norris on some wannabe Nazis's in a fight scene so absurdly bad, including 1980's sound effects, it makes you question what kind of movie you're actually watching. Or what movie the makers want you to watch. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from here. As if the over the top action scene with the Goring 2.0's wasn't enough, a whole lot more of Action Jackson is released upon the viewer as the more and more unlikely plot is revealed quite fast in contrast to the beginning of the movie. After the interesting fight the movie goes for two awards in the weird category with an even so interesting foot-chase ending up in the middle of anti-climax land leading right to a totally uncalled for Mexican stand- off between Jean "The Unit" Reno and his local constabularies. From here, the credit build up from the start of the movie has declined pretty much completely and the final revelation are met with a sincere "Huh. So that was what that was all about. Huh." Still, Jean Reno delivers which makes this film watchable.
Review of The Crimson Rivers
