This movie could have been so much better. The cast, the location, even the plot (thin as it was) was good. Especially the cast. I expect great things of Jean Reno. Perhaps the budget caused the director to pinch things. I did like the homage to The Godfather with the scene following where the grocery bag falls to the pavement. Nice touch.There could have been so much more, but the movie felt hollow. The actual heist itself seemed to me almost an afterthought. Such a pity, because the drama could really have been built there step by step, scene by scene. I kept waiting for the payoff. Frankly, I was confused at which player took the bullet until the denouement. The last third of the movie was muddy, or perhaps 'smoky'.I really wish that I could rank this movie higher than I did, but that's show biz, I guess.

Milo Malikian (Jean Reno) is the head of an Armenian "crime family" in the south of France that is about to pull off a daring multi-million euro heist. But his dreamy son, Anton, is more interested in starting a family with the lovely nurse Elodie than continuing with the family business, much to his father's disappointment. To complicate matters, a police inspector who's crossed paths with the Malikians in the past is hot on the trail. There are some really nice elements in this film (lovely southern France location shots and appealing and charismatic actors), but while the build-up to the heist is well done, the film seems incomplete, and that's not referring only to the weirdly truncated ending. Potential themes are introduced in the film but never developed. Historical footage of the Armenian genocide introduces the film, but its relevancy to the current Malikian family and business is never explored. The police inspector on their trail is warned by his superior not to become obsessed with taking down the Malikian clan, but other than the fact that we was part of an operation that resulted in the death of Milo's eldest son, there's no development of his character or particular obsession. The unsatisfying ending feels as if the budget ran out and the filmmaker had to cut it short. Enjoyable, but not quite France's version of "Heat" either.

Although I mainly watch American films, I make a point of watching foreign films every so often for variety and to see a genre possibly done in a different way. When I saw this at the video store, I thought: "Cool! Jean Reno is a colorful actor, and the video box art and the title of the movie suggest that this will be jam-packed with action and suspense!" I rented it, took it home... and I was very disappointed. I could make a long list about everything that disappointed me about this movie. For starters, Jean Reno is in less of the movie than you might think. And as for action, there is almost no action in the entire running time! Still, the movie could have worked by showing us interesting drama or colorful and interesting other characters. But that's not what happens. The plot is VERY slow-moving, with a lot of boring chat that doesn't advance things very much. And the movie looks and sounds weird; the cinematography has a soft, washed-out look you often see in French movies, and the audio doesn't crackle with life (such as the fact that scene after scene goes by with no musical score in the background.) In fact, the movie has more of a made-for-TV feel than a theatrical film feeling.I'll still take a chance on foreign films in the future, whether they are French or not. But I'll be more careful in my selections. I now know that foreign film companies can be like American film companies, promising something but delivering something else - and that "something else" not being very good at all.

That statement of the Greek historian Herodotus chimes in with this movie whereby both of Malakian's sons were killed during gunfights with the police. Sticked in my memory; previously in Troy(2004) when his son Hector got killed, the King of Troy had gone to knee before Achilles and also very famously in Godfather(1972), Marlon Brando's character had endured in silence of his son Sonny's assassination. There are more examples to that case in earlier movies, yet those were the most remarkable ones for me. Jean Reno played the heartless father here, he caused the death of his son. His way of playing the role of his character was mediocre and occasionally it set out several instabilities.It wouldn't even have surprised me when Reno began crying whilst holding his son's corpse, who got killed trying to save his life. The main reason for that is because there was not a sign of concord between Jean Reno and Gaspard Ulliel. It wouldn't be wrong to compare Ulliel and Reno here, since it's very clear to eye that Reno gave one of his worst performances while Ulliel giving his best. Yet, even after this comparison, even Reno played his worst performance while Ulliel played his best; still Reno acted better. So, if you are watching Le Premier Cercle for one of these stars you won't like the movie. Oppositely, if you liked the movie you won't like the performances of the stars here.Le Premier Cercle continues the endless tales of immigrant crime stories that Jean-Christophe Grangé brought to mind. A family escapes from the Armenian holocaust during the World War-I in Turkey. By time the family get involved in the illegal trade of sensitive items and weapons with overseas. When history leaves its heritage to the power of the underworld empire in our present time, we know that no matter what thriller story is created the result is always same: Whoever has the power and the authority wins the lawsuit.Almost one third of this film is dealing with the common rat race between the police and the mafia. The next one third slice is crime and action which is not offering anything special or new. Finally the last one third section(apart from the erotic and dramatic segments) is a must-see suspense. Accordingly those segments come to vision very purely that editing is so simplemindedly offering us an easy-to-watch popcorn flick.The actual wonderingly awaited scenes ,which are mixed brilliantly with suspense and high tension, start when you feel that the story has begun to create a new and unexpected story. Plot has been installed with a high potential, such that when the story begins to expand; it becomes like a puzzle with "How?" and "Why?" questions coming to mind, which are getting their answers at the end. It's a film that heroes and stars die, villains live. When the moment comes shocking incidents begin to occur and from now on it's hard to guess what happens next. I strongly advise Le Premier Cercle to anybody who likes surprise suspenses.