Mesrine:Killer Instinct

Otis Driftwood

Anyone seen this yet?It looks brilliant and has gotten rave reviews especially Cassell's lead.

I wonder will it be on general release or is it just going to get a limited run in the usual haunts IFI etc?

Being currently outside Dublin makes access difficult.


Anyway,heres the trailer.

Necronomicon

Going to see this tonight actually, very much looking forward to it. Cassell is a terrific actor. Part 2 is out on the 28th.

missingtime

Yup, looking forward to this as well. Didn't know it was a 2 parter though....thought they were to entirely different movies

Have both parts on my hard drive the past few weeks, think I'll give it a watch tonight. Looks absolutly fantastic and Cassell is a truely amazing actor.

Amalgam

Deleted User wrote: »

Have both parts on my hard drive the past few weeks..

Good grief, you almost sound proud.. :rolleyes: Go and pay to watch it on a big screen, you skinflint.

Amalgam

Amalgam wrote: »

Good grief, you almost sound proud.. :rolleyes: Go and pay to watch it on a big screen, you skinflint.

Given that the film is only receiving a limited run over here seeing it on the big screen is quite difficult for any of us who don't live in Dublin. I'm all for paying to see my films but there are times when this isn't possible and rather than miss out I seek out alternate means. While I will more than likely buy the film on Blu Ray once it's released till then I'll rely on my ill gotten copy.

Galvasean

Looks great. Must check it out before its gone. What cinemas are showing it in?

Amalgam

Dave Fanning was reviewing films on the Marian Finucane Show this morning, Rachel English was standing in for her.. Fanning said the film was good, stylish, if a little rushed, the pace of it.

Otis Driftwood

Fanning is a bell end anyway.

senordingdong

Fanning is a bell end, but I'd still rather see it myself and make my own opinion.

It's showing in Cineworld Dublin.

Ciaran B

I saw it on Friday and it’s pretty good. Cassell is excellent but the whole gangster biopic genre is getting pretty old and it’ll take something special to stand out in that field.

I know it’s a true story but when it moved to Canada it lost a bit of momentum.

I saw part one in the cinema but I think I’ll d/l part two, I’m sure Mesrine would approve.

Handsome Bob

Saw the trailer when I saw Public Enemies and it looks epic. I'm just too much of a lazy bastard to go all the way into town to see it. :pac: Fecking local UCI isn't showing it.

Den_M

Saw this today, two enthusiastic thumbs up! I was enthralled all the way.

nacho libre

Its an excellent biopic. Cassell's performance is compelling.

pixelburp

I saw it the other night; Cassell is excellent (as was Depardieu(sp), with a rare restrained performance), but I found the movie to be a little unfocused & scattershot. Characters appeared and disappeared without many connecting scenes (eg,

the first wife-tobe just appearing in france out of the blue, when last we saw she was still in Spain.

, and generally felt the movie was disjointed

Den_M

pixelburp wrote: »

I found the movie to be a little unfocused & scattershot. Characters appeared and disappeared without many connecting scenes

I found it quite refreshing that a film didn't need to explain everything in detail for a change. My imagination seemed to fill in anything the film didn't explicitly show. I found this more suitable to a biopic as well, as a persons life doesn't play like a film, some parts are hard to explain and not always straightforward. Hmm..does that make sense? :pac:

Necronomicon

Only got to see it last night in the end, and while I liked it I have to agree with some of the comments about its pacing. It seemed very rushed in places, even disjointed in others. For example,

in one scene Mesrine is hunting down Sarah's pimp to free her, but in the very next scene he's dancing with his future wife with no explanation of what happened to Sarah.

Things did settle down a bit

once he was extradited to Canada though

. I thought it ended strongly

with the jail break, and the second attempted jail break.

I'll be going to see Part 2.

godspal

I have to disagree with all the comments about pacing as the pacing was quiet stylish.
The pacing of the film was basically a quick ride when he was in and out of jail in france (his illegal activities always being on the fringes of his life), and then the pacing slowed down in Canada when he tried to become legit. The pacing sped up once more when he started to become a criminal again.

Only got to see it last night in the end, and while I liked it I have to agree with some of the comments about its pacing. It seemed very rushed in places, even disjointed in others. For example,

in one scene Mesrine is hunting down Sarah's pimp to free her, but in the very next scene he's dancing with his future wife with no explanation of what happened to Sarah.

Did you skip out to the toilet or something?

Sarah & pimp problem. Then holiday in the South France possibly Spain, then his return and then he dealt with the sarah problem.

Also gerard depardieu was amazing as well, his role was both sinister and brought some black humour to the whole affair.

AnonoBoy

nedtheshed wrote: »

Fanning is a bell end anyway.

A valuable contribution to the thread. :rolleyes:

Going to see this tonight. Have been looking forward to it for a while. Trying to ignore the spoilers but I'll post tomorrow with my thoughts on it.

I like the fact that the second one is out so soon.

Necronomicon

godspal wrote: »

Did you skip out to the toilet or something?

Sarah & pimp problem. Then holiday in the South France possibly Spain, then his return and then he dealt with the sarah problem.

I'm not talking about the first time he met the wife, I'm referring to when she appeared in France afterwards. There is a short scene where they are dancing alone in a room, and (unless I'm getting scenes confused in my head) this was right after he dealt with the pimp. Seemed to be an abrupt end to his relationship with Sarah without any explanation.

nacho libre

Den_M wrote: »

I found it quite refreshing that a film didn't need to explain everything in detail for a change. My imagination seemed to fill in anything the film didn't explicitly show. I found this more suitable to a biopic as well, as a persons life doesn't play like a film, some parts are hard to explain and not always straightforward. Hmm..does that make sense? :pac:

yes, it does and I agree.

AnonoBoy

Thoroughly enjoyable film. Cassell was tremendous in the lead and, as pointed out, Depardieu had a great supporting role.

I wouldn't agree that things like the wife appearing in France were disjointed. The story was jumping ahead in leaps of years. Why waste time showing him going back to Spain to get her when they can just show you the two of them married in France and let you fill in the gaps yourself.

I'm looking forwad to the part 2 immensely.

pixelburp

Den_M wrote: »

I found it quite refreshing that a film didn't need to explain everything in detail for a change. My imagination seemed to fill in anything the film didn't explicitly show. I found this more suitable to a biopic as well, as a persons life doesn't play like a film, some parts are hard to explain and not always straightforward. Hmm..does that make sense? :pac:

Well people's lives are still linear; events still happen in a certain order so when you just jump from one moment to the next without any kind of interlinking narrative, it makes the film feel jarring and sudden. The film seemed to settle down once Mesrine crossed the Atlantic, but up until that point the scenes jumped about & made it hard to keep track of a movie that was in itself not particularly complicated.

AnonoBoy

pixelburp wrote: »

Well people's lives are still linear; events still happen in a certain order so when you just jump from one moment to the next without any kind of interlinking narrative, it makes the film feel jarring and sudden. The film seemed to settle down once Mesrine crossed the Atlantic, but up until that point the scenes jumped about & made it hard to keep track of a movie that was in itself not particularly complicated.

Did you honestly find it hard to keep track of? I wouldn't have seen it as in anyway complicated.

pixelburp

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Did you honestly find it hard to keep track of? I wouldn't have seen it as in anyway complicated.

I never said it was complicated; I said the constant jumps in the narrative made the movie feel disjointed & hard to track in the sense that you were constantly asked to fill in gaps some simple scripting would have taken care of. It's hardly betraying the artistic instinct to at least keep a structured narrative.

In many ways it felt like the first half of the film was in a rush to get Mesrine stateside so they could pick up that strand of his life.

AnonoBoy

pixelburp wrote: »

I never said it was complicated; I said the constant jumps in the narrative made the movie feel disjointed & hard to track in the sense that you were constantly asked to fill in gaps some simple scripting would have taken care of. It's hardly betraying the artistic instinct to at least keep a structured narrative.

In many ways it felt like the first half of the film was in a rush to get Mesrine stateside so they could pick up that strand of his life.

Fair enough. Didn't feel that myself at all - the gaps to fill in were always pretty straightforward I thought.

Otis Driftwood

AnonoBoy wrote: »

A valuable contribution to the thread. :rolleyes:

So you obviously put alot if stock in Fannings opinion.
:rolleyes:

AnonoBoy

nedtheshed wrote: »

So you obviously put alot if stock in Fannings opinion.
:rolleyes:

He got this one pretty much on the nose so yeah, I think he knows his movies alright.

My point was that you posted just saying he was a bellend which really is irrelevant in a thread about Mesrine. If you'd countered what he'd said about the movie with some points then you could argue he doesn't know anything about films but you didn't so what was the point of your post again?

Otis Driftwood

AnonoBoy wrote: »

He got this one pretty much on the nose so yeah, I think he knows his movies alright.

My point was that you posted just saying he was a bellend which really is irrelevant in a thread about Mesrine. If you'd countered what he'd said about the movie with some points then you could argue he doesn't know anything about films but you didn't so what was the point of your post again?

Someone mentioned Fanning was critical of the movie.

I dislike Fannings movie reviews,always have,always will and I would regard him as a bit of a joker in this respect.

So I commented that Fanning was a bellend(based on his movie reviews,Im sure he is a nice person,we just disagree when it comes to films).

Next time I will be clearer.

Illkillya

I enjoyed the film, Cassell and Depardieu were both great I thought. Some great scenes in this movie, e.g., the two of them in the car with the Arab, and the "stray dog" scene.

I do think that the fact that the movie was so disjointed and unevenly paced detracted from the overall experience. I understand why it had to be, since it was a biography film and they wanted to include a lot of the important stuff that would have been left out in a fictional story. But still, they could have done a better job with some things, such as the relationship between Mesrine and Jeanne. I don't have a problem with them skipping large sections, such as his time in USA, in fact I liked the way they did that. But this is clearly a big big story if there's another 2 hours left to it in part 2, so it's nearly a shame that they could have split it up into an 8 hour "Band of Brothers" type thing.

I also have a suspicion that the director might have done the real Mesrine/Mercier a lot of favours. I don't know the details of the true story, but Cassell comes across as on-the-edge but intelligent and the guy who plays Mercier seems cool and collected, and fairly normal. Doesn't add up when you consider the way the characters act though, they must have been dumb or extremely insane/distracted...

Necronomicon

Illkillya wrote: »

I also have a suspicion that the director might have done the real Mesrine/Mercier a lot of favours. I don't know the details of the true story, but Cassell comes across as on-the-edge but intelligent and the guy who plays Mercier seems cool and collected, and fairly normal. Doesn't add up when you consider the way the characters act though, they must have been dumb or extremely insane/distracted...

Apparently Mesrine himself declared that his autobiography (which the film is based on) is mostly 'bull****' so I think a pinch of salt is required too.

rovert

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Fair enough. Didn't feel that myself at all - the gaps to fill in were always pretty straightforward I thought.

Same here.

Great film, gagging for Part 2.

sunzz

WOW!

I've just watched Parts 1 and 2.

I'm utterly gobsmacked by how great this movie as a whole is, it's something you have to sit down and watch back to back in order to appreciate just how good it is.

In the last 10 mins or so of part two I've never sat through tension like it in all my life I was on the edge of my seat.

I'd say part 2 is better, but as I watched it back to back it just seemed like a 4 hour masterpiece to me

Locamon

Great movie, great scenes, great chemistry on screen but the whole character development is a bit wooden -never get to any real motivation or understanding of why he is who he is. The reasons put forward just seem poor when compared to the later actions that are a real contradiction. In the Mafia flicks you get the sense they want to be part of something... in the godfather Part 2 which is given a nod in this movie the motivation is more clear- poverty and unemployment.
But who cares highly enjoyable stuff:pac:

Diairist

Cecile de France - was she the girl in front of him in the street & in BMW at the very start?

When will no. 2 come out in Ireland? allegedly shown in June in Edinburgh film festival.

tedmaul

Part 2 is out on Friday (28th).

I am a man who owns a fair amount of movies on my hard drive, but, in my opinion, unlike most of the stuff out there that I DL, Mesrine is a film worth watching in a cinema.

Sure, feck lazy big studios pumping ****e into your local cinema (I hope so many people got cams into Transformers (the Revenge of Michael Bay) just to eat a little out of megabucks the police-studio wanted to protect with bag searches). But good decent cinema should be paid for, unlike, say, Dance Flick. If you must watch that, you know what to do.

Marty McFly

Bump,

I know this is an old thread. But FX channel showed part 1 last week and are showing part two this Tuesday at 22.00.

I only saw an ad for it about half an hour before it began so set it for record and im so glad I did couldnt take my eyes of it great acting and a great story, really cant wait foir part two now on Tuesday.

Handsome Bob

I thought Part 1 was brilliant, Part 2 was okay. The man lived a mental life, especially towards the end.