Simply put, this is well and truly one of the most overrated movies of all time.

The French Connection (1971) is an Action/Crime/Drama/Thriller movie about 2 cops in the Narcotics Bureau of New York City. Popeye and Cloudy trying to intercept a big heroin shipment from France. Popeye, aka Jimmy Doyle, is played by Gene Hackman, and Cloudy, aka, Buddy Russo is played by Roy Scheider. I thought that both actors did a wonderful job in the movie and portrayed their characters well and in an interesting way. This was a very entertaining thriller film. The music was appropriate and mysterious and the plot was full of suspense. I would recommend this film to anyone who loves Classic Crime Dramas. The Chase is intense. Will Popeye and Cloudy catch the criminals?

Two American police officers try to track a shipment of drugs from France in this iconic crime thriller directed by William Friedkin and starring Gene Hackman. The film was a big box office success in its day, showcasing chase sequences as rarely seen before, and with frequently mobile cinematography from Owen Roizman, including well- used hand-held shots, the film is definitely technically adept. Indeed, at the best of times, 'The French Connection' is a thrilling ride, but unfortunately this is not very often - and a second viewing does little to improve things. All of the chase sequences are certainly exciting (and one where Fernando Rey gets on and off a train repeatedly is even quite funny), however, the pacing of the film slows down to a near halt in between the action scenes. The story is fairly decent, involving police surveillance and on-the-spot ingenuity, however, the characters are never particularly likable, or even fleshed out in any depth beyond being painted as relentless cops, and Hackman's Best Actor Oscar win remains one of the oddest of all time (the film also inexplicably won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay over 'The Last Picture Show' that year). Simply put, without characters that are remarkable or interesting to follow around, the film falls rather flat in its non-action scenes. Fortunately, there is a lot of action here, including foot as well as car chases, but given how many other films about hardened cops have come out in the years since, it is challenging to fathom just how popular this film was in its day.

I thought I would see an intelligent movie with great actors about a dense scheme that deeply concerned the authorities, considering the score and fame here in IMDb. 5 Oscars? That was a little too much. Well, it is just a badly directed movie from start to end with poor ideas... And the scenes are poorly edited as well. Lousy. Completely lousy.They could have made a complex and brilliant movie about the scheme as a whole, featuring dense characters. However, they chose to make a tom & jerry kinda of movie with a simplistic approach - dumb cops chasing even dumber criminals. I only gave score 2 because I enjoyed Fernando Rey's performance even though his character was completely shallow. I don't recommend you to read what was the real scheme or you will get even more frustrated due to the fact that it wasn't just a French crime boss walking around as a lone wolf desperately trying to sell 60 Kg of cocaine in less than a week. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Connection