Overdose

I love to watch a good French crime movie. The French are really at good at making them. Unfortunately this Netflix movie is just going through the motions...

The bad: this is just another, cheaply produced Netflix formula crime movie.

It has ONLY got (way below) average actors starring in it. And that is a problem, because there are LOTS of TEDIOUS talking scenes, in which these (way below) average actors have to try and elevate this story to a suspensful level.

And that is the other problem with this movie. It is definitely LACKING in suspense and thrill. Not even the (few) action scenes are any good.

Bummer. Just another (failed) formula crime movie. Incredibly tedious watch...

Are usually very good at this kinda genre, but this flick really undermines the reputation. Its not the cast, by all means they do their job, so it has to be something else...who overdosed is still a mystery.

Quite a few things i might mention without spoiling the fun for thos who loves french police-bandit action thrillers. The story is full of plotholes and the actual caracters are poorly presented. The plotspeed is like a 118 minutes roller coaster of gutwrenching action and...nothing..., that repeats itself at least 10 times. The cinematography could might as wellve been made by a youtuber, its mostly and merely only close-up-inside the communicative comfort zone camera zooms, and dark musky , fathaired blackeyed hyperpupilllated gangsters and policemen hunting and carchasing eachother in a clonical fit-like ad/hd-amfetamine pace, can be pretty dragging and you loose the thread in the heat of the hunt....

but that aint the actors fault, its rather a wannabe french superdirector who wants to hang on to a great french franchise genre. So if you can deal with a lot of confussion in a mach2,2 speed, then its a recommend from the grumpy old man.

Whilst French cinema likes to tend to the philosophical, French action films are often well watchable and underrated.

Overdose is well written, acted, directed and edited, and provides a satisfying drama. The villains are villainous, and the cops determined, and although this is only going to end one way, the turns along the way keep you entertained.

In places, it is not an easy watch (I said the villains are villainous), and there is little relief from the relentless focus of both sides. There is a little bit of sex, but it is not very sexy, rather unlike a French film in that respect.

The pacing of the film is enjoyable, through the borderlands between France and Spain, and the camerawork is hard to fault.

Definitely worth a watch if you like action crime drama.

This kind of product contains a set of ingredients that we find in all films of this genre, precisely. You need cars and motorcycles, with crumpled canvas and chases. You need a more or less intense police war, in this case less so, as the different police forces communicate: Spanish, French, Parisian, provincial, special units. You need weapons. It needs villains, thugs, who when they appear shout it (hairstyles, costumes, make-up). It needs gore and extreme violence, here unnecessary (the hammer) and off behind a wooden door (good idea). It needs sex, which is totally unnecessary here. And a romantic story between police officers. All this is conventional and unoriginal. But it's well tied together by a script that integrates these ingredients.

Olivier Marchal deserves credit for his talent in directing the actors, all of whom are excellent. The film is perhaps a little long (20 minutes too long) and could have been tightened up a little. But on the whole, it lives up to its brief. A nominal quality in a conventional package for the genre to which it belongs.

Well, I certainly don't agree with the majority of reviews here. OK, this is as far as I know the first film directed by Olivier Marchal that I have seen BUT I can compare this with some others of a similar nature like Heat. I'm not saying this is as good as I personally thought that was though this was fast-moving. Had a good plot/storyline and was without any CGI or similar. Drugs received/transfered/undercover cop/ unnecessary murders/investigation. A few sex scenes - nothing excessive but a violent film but nothing really gratuitous, although it did receive an R18 rating. Stars Sofia Essaidi, Nicolas Cazalé, Alberto Ammann. Dubbed into English from French Original.