had to see this movie accidentally, just didn't switch off a TV after a hockey. movie is great especially because of scenario. writers had been high for sure. so if you have a sense of humor or are high or both i absolutely do recommend this movie. in case 4 rows are not enough for review i'm adding one more.

One of the best tense thrillers seen in a long time though be also prepared to witness the terribly sick side of the human mind so well depicted. The film is packed with superb action, chases, suspense and tension and yet never feeling over the top as the scenario painted is so very plausible. Albert Dupontel plays the role of the fugitive prisoner with such realism, one gets the impression one is watching a docu-drama.Where good many films content themselves with ensuring the viewer is left in a pleasant frame of mind as the story finally unfolds, this one has the courage to portray events more akin to reality, perhaps this may explain the film's low IMDb score and why even the critics may have found the movie hard to stomach?

The plot is lame and takes a despicable turn. Shooting such a dark plot just as an ordinary chase movie is nowhere acceptable. Fortunately Albert Dupontel is always good at fleshing up humane character from very little and he makes this mess quite watchable.Remove Dupontel, put a less capable actor in the lead and you get a real dud. Alice Taglioni is OK, but they really forget to establish her as a physical character (clearly her abilities her first sequence are not displayed in an efficient way, and then it's a drag for the rest of the movie). Zinedine Soualem is barely a background player so it does hurt the movie to give him a serious part. The same goes for all the police squad, they are shot like a nice clean professional team: closer to a sitcom than in line with our disturbingly violent subject matter.And yes graphic violence really cripples a movie when it comes out of the blue and not as a closing argument for tension and suspense.I was not impressed by Eric Valette's Maléfique, precisely because it was all forced before us to be impressed. Here he does a good job of shooting a sharp chase movie, except it is definitely not the script he was given.

I am English and while we once had the knack of making action movies that are believable we have gradually become a poor man's Hollywood. The French have taken the cop show action movie and made it their own. On TV we have the Spiral series and now this. The star is a true indestructible bouncing along on adrenalin and feeling the pain. He is driven by all too human emotion and one wills him on to succeed.France is lucky to have lots of good locations and the driving around fits into the plot rather than being a cheap way to fill in the minutes. This is a simpler story that Luc Besson's Crimson Rivers films but just as suspenseful and exciting. The best film I have seen fie a few years.