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Since there's no dedicated thread to this film, I thought it worthwhile to begin one. After seeing Jacques Audiard's Un Prophete, I'm thinking that French gangster movies are back, and this looks very interesting. Also, Vincent Cassel appears to be getting rave reviews.

Stephen Holden weighs in.

Stephen Holden wrote: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

Consider me sold.

After catching the first film, I wasn't motivated enough to check out the second.
I felt that this was pretty pedestrian, and didn't have anything new to say. The first part is capped off with an excellent action scene, though.

Saw part 1 last weekend. The whole film felt very rushed, like they were trying to pack in as much stuff into 2 hours as possible. In that sense, it was almost two straight hours of all action, but you never get a real sense of what makes the character tick. I hear part 2 is better, though, so we'll see.

I watched both parts of Mesrine in the cinema, and would say they're decent, but really not that good. They're a bit of a mess I would say, but there are memorable scenes.

Spoiler

When literary attached the prison just 2 men and a truck full of guns

If you're into Audiard and Vincent Cassel, then try "Read My Lips" by Audiard with Vincent Cassel and gorgeous Emmanuelle Devos in the leads. It features human exploiration that Fassbinder would envy.

Ah. Well, you've all just saved me the cost of a train ride into the city + movie ticket. Consider me sold on watching it on dvd, then.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it's worth seeing for Cassel alone, but I suspect it helped that I turned it into a TV miniseries by watching half of each part on Blu-ray over four consecutive evenings. Otherwise, I can readily see how the endless parade of admittedly virtuoso action sequences might get a tad wearying, and I can't imagine watching the whole four hours in one go.

It ain't no Prophet, that's for certain - but it's still comfortably ahead of just about any recent British gangster film in living memory.

MichaelB wrote: It ain't no Prophet, that's for certain - but it's still comfortably ahead of just about any recent British gangster film in living memory.

Maybe it was this living memory that prompted critics to overstate the case for Mesrine.

I'm afraid I haven't seen either these new Vincent Cassel starring films or the one I'm about to mention yet (they're yet more films trapped in my 'to watch' pile!), but it might be of interest to note that there is also a 1984 Mesrine film out there (Optimum put it out on DVD in the UK at the same time that Momentum were releasing this latest version on DVD and Blu) which was directed by André Génovès, the producer of many of Claude Chabrol's films from the early 70s.

Incidentally, why is this listed as a 2010 release? I could have seen it in British cinemas a full year ago, and it opened in France way back in October 2008.

It's just opening in North America now, so whoever created the thread assumed they're from this year. However, I think the films were actually first released in France in 2008.

I just watched the first one and it was awful.

I saw the first one as well and found it more or less unremarkable outside of Cassel's performance. Its a terribly violent film, but the violence was not glorified -- it was abrupt and ugly, and matched well Cassel's perfectly sleazy, magnetic, but ultimately despicable character. I don't think anyone walked out of the theater impressed by the closing titles that try (and fail) to scrape up something socially redeemable from all of the senseless crime and slaughter. More likely they remember the image of Mesrine stuffing a gun down his wife's throat. And I thought Depardieu did great in his small role. It was enough to make me interested in seeing the second part.