Anthony Zimmer (2005)
Ah, this has its moments, but it sure is overly clever and at times overly derivative. The interactions and scenario of an elite crook and some undercover and suspicious types on the boundaries of the big hunt for him are taken straight from a lot of previous movies--even from "North by Northwest," of all things, which you'll catch in the train conversation and in the general nature of the leading woman in both cases. It's all well enough done to keep you watching if this is your kind of movie, and I didn't mind traipsing along even as it seemed to bowl into a lot of old tricks.
What was worse, overall, was the dependence on a huge trick, one that you might or might not anticipate, and which comes along at the very end like a splotch of ketchup on your plate. Yeah, yeah, we were warned the escapee was a master of disguise and had had a lot of plastic surgery, but still, it's just not enough, not enough.
Everything is set in the south of France, Nice to be exact, and is pretty and fun (like a lot of other movies set there). The movie itself is French, of course, and in one nice scene a man starts to ask a question in English, and another man (one of the chief cops, we suppose) says, "I don't speak in English," or something to that effect. It seems a perfect point to make as so many movies these days are partly in English as if to make it easier on British and American (and Aussie and South African and Singaporean, yes yes) audiences. (A lot of French films in particular use a bit of English--or a lot--to do more than just sound international.)
But I find an interesting nuance mostly because the movie is otherwise a very straightforward affair. Enjoy. See it on a plane. Have alternatives in mind.
Ah, this has its moments, but it sure is overly clever and at times overly derivative. The interactions and scenario of an elite crook and some undercover and suspicious types on the boundaries of the big hunt for him are taken straight from a lot of previous movies--even from "North by Northwest," of all things, which you'll catch in the train conversation and in the general nature of the leading woman in both cases. It's all well enough done to keep you watching if this is your kind of movie, and I didn't mind traipsing along even as it seemed to bowl into a lot of old tricks.
What was worse, overall, was the dependence on a huge trick, one that you might or might not anticipate, and which comes along at the very end like a splotch of ketchup on your plate. Yeah, yeah, we were warned the escapee was a master of disguise and had had a lot of plastic surgery, but still, it's just not enough, not enough.
Everything is set in the south of France, Nice to be exact, and is pretty and fun (like a lot of other movies set there). The movie itself is French, of course, and in one nice scene a man starts to ask a question in English, and another man (one of the chief cops, we suppose) says, "I don't speak in English," or something to that effect. It seems a perfect point to make as so many movies these days are partly in English as if to make it easier on British and American (and Aussie and South African and Singaporean, yes yes) audiences. (A lot of French films in particular use a bit of English--or a lot--to do more than just sound international.)
But I find an interesting nuance mostly because the movie is otherwise a very straightforward affair. Enjoy. See it on a plane. Have alternatives in mind.