Let's get this out the way right now; 'Last Bullet' is not the film it's been advertised as. The promotional trailer on Youtube would have you think this is the gallic equivalent of 'Mad Max' and 'Fast And The Furious' at the same time. It looks like the story of an elite Police roads unit chasing down drug traffickers in high speed pursuits, an adrenaline-pumping battle between pristine modern interceptors and rusty gang vehicles covered in metal spikes. That's not the case. It's still a fast moving slice of French action cinema, but the circumstances are different.
'Last Bullet' is really the story of Lino (Alban Denoir), a low level hood whose mechanical expertise is noticed by Police Chief Charas (Ramzy Bedia). Hired to soup up the Police vehicles and stay out of trouble, Lino finds himself in hot water when he's framed for murder and has to go on the run. In a desperate bid to prove his innocence, he needs to find and recover a single bullet, lodged in the dashboard of a car, all while avoiding the true culprits.
It's an exciting and fast moving story, but the focus isn't entirely on car chases. Aside from a very brief motorway smackdown at the beginning and the climactic pursuit, 'Lost Bullet' has its characters on foot for most of the running time. That doesn't mean it's slow paced though, far from it. The movie is packed with action, from Lino's brawling escape from an interrogation room to a shotgun battle at a dilapidated country house, the momentum doesn't dip and the movie barely lets you catch a breath. It's not as flashy as a modern Hollywood picture, but the fights seem authentic and the whole thing is grounded in a (heightened) sense of reality.
But the car chases are the big draw here and while it's disappointing that the actual car time is so sparse, the finale makes up for it. The last twenty minutes of the movie is bonnet-smashing, tyre squealing carnage and best of all, there's no CGI in sight. It's all done with practical effects, those are real cars being thrown into the air and driven into garages while on fire.
Go in with your expectations in the right place then and 'Lost Bullet' makes for a brisk, ninety-minute movie. This won't show up on anybody's 'Best Of 2020' lists but it is a good, old fashioned crime film with a top notch car chase at the end. It feels like the kind of movie that would have starred Steve McQueen back in the 1970s (albeit in French) and while it won't change anybody's life, it's a fun action movie that sees a lot of cars being destroyed in eye-popping ways. It could have done with taking itself a bit less seriously and shown more of the Police Captain getting increasingly exasperated, but otherwise it's a decent and fun ride.
