SnoReptilePlenty
Memorable, crazy movie
Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
NateWatchesCoolMovies
There's a serial killer loose in a small mountain town located in rural France, and who better to track them down than the country's two most prolific film actors (or the ones with better physiques than Gerard Depardieu anyway), Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel. Reno is the seasoned, slightly eccentric Parisian detective, called in to assist and step on the toes of local investigator Cassel, who is too hot headed to realize he could use the help. A body has washed up in a nearby river, mutilated to an unspeakable degree in gruesomely specific ways (think Sev7n on ice). The town just happens to be solely inhabited by the creepy residents of a nearby university that is notorious for incestuous classism and rumours of ties to the occult. You can imagine where this is heading, and it's fun watching Reno and Cassel follow the bloodstained breadcrumb trail towards increasingly grisly secrets that would test even David Fincher's gag reflex. Genetic research, mysterious twins (both played by Nadia Fares), and multiple corpses are a few of the hurdles our two heroes encounter. It's delightfully convoluted, in the best way possible. Some people say that less is more, but I find that makes way for laziness and complacency, two attributes you don't want to find in the horror/thriller genre. I'd rather a film throw every little brainstorm and margin doodle into the mix, even if it doesn't all add up, than present a barely filled in canvas that begs for more. The real stunner with this one is a near Bond- esque climax set on a giant glacier overlooking the valley below, full of desperate violence and giddy exposition. You'll need a strong stomach for the dark places this one ventures to, but it will reward you with crisp cinematography and lurid, blood soaked intrigue. Brutal stuff though.
24 hour party pizza
Over the top thriller with a detective duo on the heels of a serial killer, one a legendary sleuth and the other, a hot blooded rule breaker. Bizarre and gruesome murders high in a glacial mountain community uncover a eugenics conspiracy with a late twist reveal that doesn't feel earned, but typical for the genre. Understated performances by Reno and a handsome Vincent Cassel. Mention must be made of the out of left field fight scene between Cassel and some skinheads, which plays out like a video game complete with ridiculous sound effects. Stakes never feel as high as they should be, but otherwise it's an enjoyable way to pass the time.
Baron Ronan Doyle
It seems to me, and here I may be quite quite wrong, that both Reno and Cassel are French stars who have made it sufficiently big to crack the American market, yet still returning regularly to film home productions. As such, Les Rivières Pourpres seemed to me to be a Heat/Righteous Kill of sorts: a vehicle to pair together two screen legends.Sent from Paris to assist in the solution of a brutal murder in the university town of Guernon, Pierre Niemans struggles to connect the mysterious dots. Contemporaneously, Max Kerkerian investigates the desecration of a young girl's grave. Inevitably, their paths are thrown together, and they must team up to solve their mutual case.In its opening fifteen minutes, Les Rivières Pourpres makes it seem as though it might take any of many routes to completely different films. A standard police thriller is what it eventually settles upon, after some cinematographic flourishes hint toward the more appealing aspect of a drama of the effect upon detectives of witnessing the horrors they investigate. The flourishes I have mentioned are impressive, but taken a degree too far on more than one occasion. Twice used is the classic dolly zoom, and twice is it wasted, adding nothing but wonderment at why the filmmakers would employ such a thing so redundantly. Technical highs and lows aside, the film works with its two leads, holding off their meeting for as long as possible. This adds to the sense that the film exists solely to pair these two, playing off their respective career successes. Such careers, it must be noted, have come from a certain prowess in acting, and this is on full display here. Reno and Cassel play off each other well, Reno playing the straight man to Cassel's more comical, less battle-hardened cop. Speaking of comedy, Kerkerian's two underlings are called upon to bear the majority of this, unsuccessfully so. Their humour is misplaced and ineffective, though not quite deleteriously so. The plot from which the mystery derives is a little baffling, Cassel himself having gone on record as saying he doesn't understand it. It's not entirely beyond the threshold of understandability, but the film doesn't exactly offer you much help in figuring out its every detail. Mentioned flaws aside, it's cracking good fun, truth be told. Cassel and Reno are a fine team, their unveiling of this puzzling mystery well effected. Don't expect to be blown away, moved to great thought or emotion, or motivated to lend much memory, but it's a perfectly fine way to spend one hundred minutes.A small number of narrative flaws, some misused technical tricks, and some poorly placed humour mar Les Rivières Pourpres to an extent, but not so much so that it doesn't remain enjoyable. A nice fight sequence early on and some functional cinematographic flair are to be admired, certainly, giving the film a nice look to go with its decent entertainment value.
thisissubtitledmovies
The Crimson Rivers (Les Rivières Pourpres), based on the best selling French novel of the same name by Jean-Christophe Grangé (who also co-wrote the screenplay) is an unabashed attempt to make a French Hollywood-style thriller. Another problem is that for all the interesting ideas and larger conspiracies alluded to, the film doesn't deliver with its grand finale - a cop-out that leaves the viewer feeling short changed. The Crimson Rivers is highly watchable as a popcorn police thriller. It's just such a pity that the film is let down by its final third after producing an initially compelling plot line. CSA
