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Paris Lockdown [2007]


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Fast, ultraviolent, gangsta movie
Review date: 2008-11-05 Rating: 8 out of 10

If you liked Dobermann, perhaps this movie is for you. A solid hard boiled film in french salsa. No policeman (flics ...) bad or good, only a group of gangsters very, very bad. Some (violent) sex scenes, some high velocity lead exchanges (like De Niro's and Al Pacino's Heat). A simple plot, a "minor" cast. The result: a "decent" movie, not a masterpiece.

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Reviews


thoroughly nasty
Review date: 2008-10-13 Rating: 2 out of 10

Sometimes, it takes another way of looking at a movie genre to make the viewer really sit up and take notice, and in the past few countries have done the crime thriller better than the French (Breathless anyone, or Rififi, or Alain Delon in La Samourai, or even more recently the absorbing 36). However, that is not to say that everything French cinema touches turns to gold, and if you want proof of this watch Paris Lockdown.
The film deals with the criminal empire of Claude Corti (Philippe Caubere), an ageing but still very ruthless Parisian crime lord, and the cycle of violence unleashed by the disintegration of said empire. When Corti finally goes to prison his one time loyal henchmen turn on each other in a cycle of bloody violence.
The film, written and directed by Frederic Schoendoerffer, is never less than ultra stylish (wouldn't expect anything less), with everyone sporting beautiful clothes and driving expensive cars. Unfortunately, all this style can do nothing to distract the viewer from what is at heart an exceedingly nasty movie. Violent, racist and unbelievably misogynistic (aside from Beatrice dale of Betty Blue fame playing Cortis mistress, all other women in the film or almost without exception hookers or strippers, and all of them are treated like objects simply there for the pleasure of all these so called alpha males) what little characterisation there is, is of the most basic kind, roughly establishing these characters as virtual cool criminal stereotypes, then revelling in the violence as they turn on each other in their petty attempts to grab the reigns of power. Abandoning any attempt at subtlety, and clearly aimed at the kind of cinema goes who rates their movies via their sex and violence content, this is an all round nasty little affair.


run of the mill affair
Review date: 2008-09-22 Rating: 4 out of 10

I agree with the other reviewer that this film is somewhat reliant on the violence/action to keep it going but that's not enough. The film centres upon a gang of criminals all working for the same boss. When he is imprisoned the gang members make their own plans to carve up the empire which puts them against one another. There is nothing original or ground breaking here and has a rather flat feel to it. Benoit Magimel gives his usual strong performance as one half of a gun for hire partnership whilst the character of the crime boss (whose empire they squabble over)turns in a couple of funny moments but nothing makes this film stand out and it cannot compare with other french crimes thrillers such as 36.

Slick, violent but with nothing else going for it.
Review date: 2008-07-31 Rating: 6 out of 10

As a lover of French gangster films, I suppose that I have been spoilt by the Gallic masterpieces of the past with films like Rififi, Bob le Flambour, Touchez par au Grisbi and Le Cercle Rouge. I live in hope that one day I will see a French crime film which matchs up to these classics, the way that Goodfellas and Casino compaire with the classic American Film Noirs of the forties and fifties. So far films like La Balance and 36 Quai des Orfevres have come close but do not quite make it.

I watched Paris Lockdown in the hope that this was the one. I was disapointed, Paris Lockdown needs graphic violence by the bucketfull in order to get accross it's point that these men are violent. We know they are violent, they are gangsters, we do not need to be shown it every five minutes.

Compaire this blood drenched film with Touchez par au Grisbi, we know that Riton is a man not to mess with by the simple way he slips a gun into his belt.

What ultimatly lets this film down however is that you cannot identify with any of the main figures. In the classics, Max (Grisbi), Toni (Rififi) and Bob (Bob le Flambour) may have been violent criminals but they had a code. There were lines they did not cross and above all they were loyal to their friends. In Paris Lockdown nobody is loyal to anything except themshelves. One gangsters says he does not mind killing his friend because another gangster asked him first. Paris Lockdown may be a truer portrait of the French underworld than the romanitised classics from the fifties, but it does not make better cinema.

If you judge your films on the amount of violence and sex, and in this film most of the sex is violent, then this is for you. If you want something a bit more then go back to Rififi, Grisbi etc.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Benoit Magimel
Beatrice Dalle
Philippe Caubere
Olivier Marchal

Creators:
Benoit Magimel (Primary Contributor)
Philippe Caubere (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Momentum Pictures
Manufacturer: Momentum Pictures
EAN: 5060116723045
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-06-23
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 103 minutes
Language: French (Original Language)

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