Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Every character seems to be able to make the most sensible judgments about his or her life, but each person has finally made the most realistic choice. After getting used to the drifting criminal life, Jacques Mesrine finally became the kind of small person he was ignorant, constantly struggling in ideals and secular, doing a daydream of subverting the world, but having to beg to the world. Like this movie, always mixed with positive and negative views.

Most reviewers describe this movie as a "thriller" or "rise and fall" story, but how can a movie be described as such if there is no tangible plot or no rise and fall. I do not personally consider it a "rise" if the character's name is featured in some newspapers or a "fall" if the character is shot down down in a hail of bullets. This film is merely a look at the physical life of a criminal who got lucky. In reviewing this film I must go through both films as if they are one. So technically I will be reviewing a five-hour film. I will go into detail of the film. The film starts out with showing the main character, Mesrine, seemingly stalking a nervouse female. They then get into a car together and hit the road. Jacques lets a large blue truck get in front of him. They stop at a red light. The light turns green and then the back of the truck flies open with men aiming their guns at Mesrine. Title sequence. This scene is one of the best in the film. It is shot in the style of De Palma film with the meaningless splitscreen and suspense. After this, we get look at him as a young man in the Algierian army who is ordered to shoot a suspects wife, instead he shoots the suspect himself. Now this scene sets up the style of the movie: shaky-cam and in your face bloodshed. The rest of the movie (Part 1&2) can only be described in individual scenes. One great scene is where he meets his new partner, a bespectacled woman whose name escapes me, and immediately afterward they rob a mob-owned restaurant. The way this scene was almost unintentionally funny with the following exchange taking place: Woman: Leave him alone, he's mine. Jacques: Well it depends... Woman: On what? Jacques: Are you ready for anything? (well it went something like that.) After that exchange, they go rob a restaurant. Then we have the prison scene. This shows Mesrine at his absolute worse, where he cries, drools and begs for mercy. Of course he escapes and then comes back to save some friends. Then we get a shootout. End of part 1 The next part is basically a continuation of the last one and so this one only has few major scenes including his father dying and him escaping prison once more. Finally he dies. End of movie. The movie itself is merely competent. But it rides along in a steady pace and has great editing and directing from the director. And of course I have to mention Vincent Cassel's performance, which is great. Though, I must warn, the second half is kind of boring. End of review.

Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 goes one better than Killer Instinct, with deeper characterisation and an incisive narrative laced with pitch-black humour that examines Mesrine's escalating egomania, fuelled by a troubling relationship with the press. The suspense sequences are expertly mounted and seamlessly incorporated, while Cassel's vivid central performance builds on his impressive showing in the first film, fairly twinkling with danger. Sleight him and he'll either josh with you or whack you - frankly there's no guessing which. The first movie was exciting and well made without always displaying a coherent viewpoint. This second part is altogether more satisfying: an impressive evocation of spiralling malevolence that's also largely honourable in its presentation of Mesrine - necessary when you're accusing the media of complicity in his crimes. Richet looks like one to watch; Cassel has been for years.

Mesrine was both a Reniassance man and a sociopath. H cooks wonderfully, loves fine wine and good cigars, as well as fancy women. But he is absolutely ruthless. When he creeps into the hospital to see his dying father, you wonder "What went wrong?" Was the father too strict? Not strict enough? Mesrine obviously had a death wish as he courts his death with flair and imagination.He loves the media, and is loved in return. Unlike the complicit media who lied about Pat Tillman's death at the hands of members of his own company and infuriated his family, Mesrine and Paris Match are on the same page. To see how gentle he is with the family he takes hostage, and how he doesn't desert the other crook who has been shot in the leg, shows you that this murderer has many facets to his character.As I looked up the history of the right-wing writer they leave for dead, I was amused to see a video of him from his hospital bed, and he is very handsome, much more so than the bland actor portraying him. Mesrine, au contraire, is much handsomer than the real Mesrine. But , like many movies about famous people, I am left empty wishing there was more substance to the causal factors in his life.Nonetheless, I am buying both to see again.