Mesrine: Killer Instinct (2008) and Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 (2008)
Tue, Nov 18, 2025./noise/movies | LinkSomewhat strangely a Vincent Cassel jag from The Shrouds (2025). I'd say he's better here as a young man, in French, playing another bloke with a massive appetite who wants to live forever. Apparently a biopic of a master criminal (banks and kidnapping) of the 1960s and 1970s. The cinematography left me cold (things get very jittery every time there's some action). The lifestyle looked really boring: in and out of gaol, one lady at a time (or several depending on payment), no drugs. I had some difficulty figuring out if we were in Canada, the U.S.A., France or elsewhere. Over two nights as it's lengthy (in two parts) and my interest regularly flagged.
I didn't see anything here that hasn't been shown before: the indulgent, gleeful coupled-up ultraviolence of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and Natural Born Killers (1994), the notional charm of The Old Man and the Gun (2018), the sheer relentless percussive repetition of Gangs of Wasseypur (2012). The bloke was like a humourless Chopper (2000) who worked with and/or got many more chicks. It generally does not function as a time capsule (in contrast with the old Melvilles). At some point there's a kamikaze that made me wish I was watching another of Costa-Gavras's efforts. I guess every crim dreams of a lawyer like Mesrine's.
Roger Ebert: three-and-a-half stars for the first part, three-and-a-half stars for the second. Public Enemies (2009). A Critic's Pick by Stephen Holden: "Mr. Cassel’s monumental performance fuses the cobralike menace of the young Robert Mitchum with the whipsaw, shape-shifting (from wiry to bulbous) volatility of classic Robert De Niro, and lightens it with a cat burglar's grace and agility." — I wish I was watching what he did. Lots of gaps in the story. A Gallic Scarface (1983).
