Review of Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008) by Mats V — 14 Oct 2011
Watched this along with Part 2 (Public Enemy no. 1) and it really is rather good. It's an interesting true-life story of Jacques Mesrine, although how much is fact and how much is embellishment is hard to see.
Split across two films, it tells the story of one of France's most well-known gangsters. There are real parallels with the Godfather, including the beautiful women in his life, the uncomfortably visceral violence, and even the crime-imposed exile in a foreign land.
Vincent Cassel is mesmerising, as usual, and as the films progress you see his ego growing and growing, culminating in even more audacious and reckless crimes.
His comeuppance, seen at the very beginning of the first movie and revisited at the end of the second, is, naturally, as violent as his life.
It's not a movie for the faint-hearted, but I fully recommend it.
This review of Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (2008) was written by Mats V on 14 Oct 2011.
Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 has generally received very positive reviews.
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