Armed Hands

I am usually pretty downbeat when it comes to the quality of French movies, but this one took me by surprise in a very pleasant way.

The problem with movies I love is that I can't find much to say about them. The story is great, the actors are great, I suppose the direction is great too since I was so immersed in the story that I didn't notice anything about it, and the ending was quite moving as well.

It's a gritty police movie with realistic dialogues, a well-paced and intriguing storyline and a good balance of action and emotion.

Big props to Marc Lavoine who is fantastic as the rotten policeman Julien Bass; I must say I didn't know he could act that well.

Heartily recommended.

I've seen quite a few good french crime/cop movies and this ain't bad either. But it doesn't achieve what some of the other movies did. The movie tries to stay connected to (almost) too many people for it's own good. In the end it does work out, but sometimes less can be more (efficient).

Still good acting, some solid action scenes, make this a nice watch. Don't be too distracted by some odd story choices and you will enjoy this quite a bit. Of course I also hope that you won't confuse/connect this with other movies. Especially in Germany they try to connect movies, that have nothing in common (in this case it's the lead actor) and give the movies names that sound similar. Your expectations would never be met (one way or the other).