Banden von Marseille

Solid movie this, made with passion. One fails to empathize with the characters though as this area of the movie is somewhat under developed. With a little more finesse, this movie could have been another Pulp Fiction or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Overall though, a great enjoyable movie in the French tradition.

The good: beautiful cinematography, dark, gritty atmosphere contrasted with the sunny seaside environment. Gory, hardcore action scenes.

The bad: almost all characters are übermacho middle-aged men in dark clothing and no personality whatsoever. For me it made it impossible to follow the plot. At no point of the movie had I any idea who is who, who is shooting at whom and why, and generally what is happening. On the plus side at least I can't give you a spoiler.

The balance: if you are exceptionally good at keeping 30 French men's names in mind and linking them to nearly identical characters then maybe you will have a better time than I did. Otherwise don't bother.

And you have to go to french cinema to find such caracteristiques from the grumpy old man.

its a dead on target film about strains of south french mafia, very corrupt police at all levels, and a twist at the end that i didnt forsee to come. there are extreme shootouts, tons of blood in an extremely complicated plot that only socalled genials can commit and produce, and the action does never stop and you havent got a clue who to trust.

its a harsh and extremely realisticly made film that wont fit everyone, and just say that if youre a corrupt civil servant or if suicide lingers in your depressed mind, then take a break and skip this.

for the rest, eat this frog of supercriminal filmaction, its not a ten ,though a very strong 8

A fun crazed French action cop gang movie where everyone is dirty and looks like they're in a really cool French sunglasses ad featuring tough cops and gangsters. The script and plot are about as to be expected from a sunglasses ad. 😅

A very French cops and gangsters film set in Marseille. Nearly everyone's having an affair, smokes, drinks too much, turns a blind eye, breaks the rules, is corrupt or a corruptor. Well framed with some excellent shoot outs, some clever twists to keep you guessing, and a finale that I certainly didn't see coming. I almost hit the stop button as a twee French acoustic love song came on, a que for the end credits. It wasn't, don't stop, keep watching. Recommended but not an award winner, a solid 7.