A French gangster film set in Paris with a very thin plot, lots of blood & gore, little or no character studies or plot lines, violent misogynist sex. I kept watching this and waiting for a plot to emerge. It didn't happen. The film starts with episodes of the various factions or gangs involved. One gang member is imprisoned. From then the film simply becomes a series of killings and murders until few of them are left. Reservoir Dogs it is not. Meserine it is not. Ronin it is not. The screenplay appears merely to be a pastiche of the best and worst of American gangster genre. The characters here are portrayed as cold violent individuals. Some characters have no apparent place within a thin plot - just filling up road kill. All this violent mayhem in a capital city and not a single policeman in sight? I found this film to be without much merit and not one that I would watch again, or indeed recommend.

'Truands' as it is named in French, somehow passed unnoticed and has been disregarded by audience. Simply said, people just do not know about it. But from many angles, this movie is a great piece of cinema, in the likes of other 'new, dark & violent' french movies. If there was a proper story telling component, it would be easily comparable to the Melville's cinema: deep dive in the criminal underworld and its ramifications; nightlife and violence, switching alliance and evolving relations of criminals competing for power.And this is what it is about: the struggle of a boss to maintain its position on top, while fighting back challengers and suffering from a decadent organization. The figurehead of this clan - Claude - is greatly portrayed - as a dangerous megalomaniac. Its protégée, soon to be its own 'brutus' is brilliantly played by Magimel. Violence is omnipresent and could be a bit overwhelming sometime. The movie could have won by showing less and suggesting more: it leaves a 'print' that divert from the story. Story that searched itself for some time before one of the thread is followed up till the end. The lack of rhythm is disorientating and montage - after a great first 20 min - lacks imagination. I still like and have seen this movie multiple times. The atmosphere of crime and the presentation of the protagonists are excellent, the exploration of nightly and forbidden Paris is also attractive. A clearer script, a bit of aesthetic work could have made a much classer movie about the fall of a Crime boss. I still give a 8 out of 10 for the entertainment and the courageous project (it s a bit rare if French Feature films nowadays) On a similar topic of crime boss fall, I recommend ''Le Second Soufflé''.

If you rent this movie, bring a long a peg for your nose, as this is an utter stinker. The main drive of a good gangster film, is the characterisation, the motives behind the violence. This has none of that, all it has is a grumpy Alan Sugar a-like moping round shouting and swearing. You don't care about him or any of the other characters at all, people drift in and out of the story without any sort of motivation. Its flat and dull, even the half decent car-park shoot out is spoiled with fake cgi blood. I will say one thing though, the torture scene with the drill to the knee, is pretty cool, but doesn't go any further than in the trailer. In fact, just watch the trailer, its much better than the movie itself. Proper wafty. If you want to see an intelligent French gangster film, with pathos and a sense of realism get 'The beat that my heart skipped'.

"Truands" is a movie I love because it destroys all the clichés gangster movies usually give us. Rise and fall of thugs, features where violence keeps close to romance,and where main characters are nevertheless sympathetic for the audience. And when they die, the same audience suffer in the inside. See "Scarface", for example...With "Truands", except some scenes where there are dialogs taken from "Scarface" - such as "You think you can f...me?!!!" "Nobody f...me!!!"..., everything is different from other pictures. There is no trace of sympathetic character. And of course no humor at all. Nothing to do with Tarantino. Every one is Absolutely nasty at possible. Every one. It's disgusting. If you wait for some moral or ethic, you'll puke all over the joint...No emotion either. Debauchery, treason and slaughter. Baths of blood all over the movie. Bullets, buck shots 00, riot guns, M 16....All the details for "Truands". In summary the real underworld.The character played by Benoit Magimel is absolutely out of his usual ones. Angel face Magimel is here a ruthless murderer, a professional killer. He and his buddy Olivier Marchall played a duo of killers which reminds me some American classic...----------BEWARE SPOILERS-------------------------And there is no end. Life goes on for the nasty ones.But I love that.It changes.