The Crimson Rivers (2001)

A murder detective must follow the footsteps of a brutal killer within the secrets of a classist college. Take out the dubbing that is pretty obvious and this is an underrated thriller that is non stop action but also is surrounded by a great mystery movies like this is how thrillers should look like not only jump scares and things like that they should be smart, action packed if they have to and make you care about the characters. The Crimson Rivers also packs by 2 strong performances by Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel who play 2 cops that have to work together in order to find the killer also the murders and the way the bodies are being found is something pretty smart and even tho not original it's still some disgusting in a good way always.

This film that starts out grabbing you ends out leaving you feel dazed and confused. The dead body found of a young men, horribly tortured and left to die slowly, is the reason d'entrance of Jean Reno. Answering a local investigators question "where the unit to investigate" is with a stoic "I am the unit", you feel you're in for something good. And that's pretty much what you get. A hunt for a killer, slowly paced giving Reno all the chance to shine, which he does, leading you from clue to clue. Not a groundbreaking concept but the beautiful and meticulously filmed scenery quite makes up for that. Then a typical book-like twist is made introducing what appears to be another main character: Vincent Cassel. His investigation into the desecration of a tomb seems to lead him to Reno's dead bodies. So far so good until, out of the blue, the writers feel the need to make Cassel go Chuck Norris on some wannabe Nazis's in a fight scene so absurdly bad, including 1980's sound effects, it makes you question what kind of movie you're actually watching. Or what movie the makers want you to watch. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from here. As if the over the top action scene with the Goring 2.0's wasn't enough, a whole lot more of Action Jackson is released upon the viewer as the more and more unlikely plot is revealed quite fast in contrast to the beginning of the movie. After the interesting fight the movie goes for two awards in the weird category with an even so interesting foot-chase ending up in the middle of anti-climax land leading right to a totally uncalled for Mexican stand- off between Jean "The Unit" Reno and his local constabularies. From here, the credit build up from the start of the movie has declined pretty much completely and the final revelation are met with a sincere "Huh. So that was what that was all about. Huh." Still, Jean Reno delivers which makes this film watchable.

Mathieu Kassovitz's "The Crimson Rivers" is one of the more watchable "Se7en" knock offs. A deliberately lurid and ridiculously fast moving serial killer/detective movie, the film finds a pair of mismatched detectives braving incessant rain, snow, thunder storms and dark shadows to catch various gruesome villains.The film lays the style, atmosphere and mood on thick, features actors Vincent Cassel and Jean Reno as super-cool scenery chewing cops, knows how to milk suspense, silence, anticipation and horror, features a very good foot chase, some very good camera work, and is stylish without being too tacky. The character Reno plays channels Morgan Freeman's character in "Se7en", whilst Cassel channels Brad Pitt's. The film also cribs the better bits from "Silence of the Lambs", "Jennifer 8" and "Manhunter" - all good genre films - but because this whole "gothic police detective" (which originated with Edgar Alen Poe, father of the detective story) genre spins around archetypes, familiarity, mood and the cosy embrace of convention, you don't care. For more radical fare within this genre, seek out Bruno Dumont's "L'humanité", or perhaps "The Wire".The film's plot – some business about Nazi super soldiers - recalls both "The Boys From Brazil" and "Name of the Rose", only faster, harder and with more rain. The film climaxes with a dumb car chase, a dumb showdown, and then an even dumber CGI avalanche. Some of its camera work is inspired by both De Palma and Kubrick. Unlike "Se7en" copycats like "Kiss The Girls" and "The Bone Collector", "The Crimson Rivers" goes for a more operatic, more voluptuous, more shamelessly lurid, more deliberately macabre tone. It's what "Scorsese" recently tried and failed to do with "Shutter Island" (and earlier, "Cape Fear").If this review plays like a string of references, its because "The Crimson Rivers", a postmodern collage, is itself all about references and ticked boxes. 7.9/10 – Good popcorn. See "Jeniffer 8", "Silence of the Lambs", "Memories of Murder", "Mother", "Manhunter" and "Se7en".

The best detective stories allow their central arc of enigmatic mystery to unravel slowly, leaving behind a trail of clues for the audience to follow. Therefore, it is important when adapting the story to a medium such as film that the clues aren't signalled too early, giving the audience the chance to search in the dark with only a few subtle elements of light to work with. It is also important that the film and its various strands of character, theme and narrative all eventually lead to the same place, confounding but also confirming what the viewer had expected all along.The Crimson Rivers (2000) by La Haine (1995) director Mathieu Kassovitz sticks to this method fairly closely for the most part; giving us the usual archetypes familiar from this kind of heavily investigatory detective fiction alongside the usual contemporary preoccupations with dark, gloomy, atmospheric visuals and intriguing, idiosyncratic characters. It is also refreshing to see a director intelligent enough to allow the film's location to become the centre of their story; framing his scenes so that the ominous presence of the towering French Alps casts a foreboding and omnipotent shadow across these characters and the story itself to perfectly set up a certain sense of the foreshadowing of later, thematic events. As the Alps hold a serious significance over the direction the narrative will take, Kassovitz understandably exploits the set up perfectly; using forced perspectives to give the impression of the characters gradually being surrounded, even asphyxiated by the landscape, to create a more potent feeling of suffocating claustrophobia.The idea of claustrophobia is mirrored by the interior production design, which dwarfs our protagonists against low ceilings cracked with damp, drab, monochromatic tones and deeper shades of autumn, and stark, naturalistic lighting with plenty of shadows. These visuals complement the narrative beautifully, going beyond the obvious and somewhat lazy comparisons to David Fincher's classic detective thriller Se7en (1996) to create a style and atmosphere that seems just right for this kind of twisted, slow-building set up. The story is admittedly fairly well worn, with two seemingly mismatched cops thrown together in the pursuit of a vicious serial killer and slowly developing a strong bond as their lives and rank are thrown into jeopardy and confusion. So essentially we're dealing with the typical buddy-cop clichés, though with more believability and less reliance on comic relief, with any real attempt at humour usually undercut by the explicitness of the violence and that fantastic air of dark, disturbing dread.The central performances from Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel are both very good, with Reno portraying the older, wiser, more intuitive detective paired off with Cassel's headstrong loose cannon. Combined with that fantastic build up of slow burning tension, the intricacies of the plot and the thick air of pure atmospheric dread, we should be looking at a standout, A+, modern-day crime thriller. Unfortunately, the last ten minutes of the film suffer from a serious drop off, creating a dénouement worthy of the worst kind of late night B-movie or TV thriller. It's a real shame too, with the first hour of the film creating such a searing and enigmatic sense of mystery that really draws us, in before the pieces of the puzzle are blown away by a bizarre climax that stretches plausibility beyond breaking point. As a result, the ending seems like an anachronism within the film's post-modern framework; offering us all the answers presented at once in a manner that seems incredibly lazy and unfair given the great sense of mystery that was previously unfolding.In this respect, I would draw comparisons to two of the most recent films by Italian horror/thriller director Dario Argento, in particular Sleepless (2000) and The Card Player (2004). Both of these films feature a great first half rife with mystery and suspense, but loose it in the final act with a complete disregard for logic, character or the thrill of expectation. In similar fashion, the first hour of The Crimson Rivers is excellent; great style, great characters and a story that pulls us in. Unfortunately, the pace cannot be maintained and the end of the film will no doubt leave many viewers angry, confused and severely disappointed.