Ultimate Heist (2009)

...where the other reviewers watching? I don't write reviews very often. Most of the time I do it to do justice. To set all those reviews from a parallel dimension straight.Inner Ring is not a good movie. It is not resourceful, the ending is not surprising and neither Reno, nor Ulliel have delivered their best performances here.The character development in this movie is so bad, it will make you cringe. As is the storytelling. I am beginning to suspect that this is a French thing, as I have seen it before. Scenes are cut together, seemingly at random. No segways, no connection to other scenes. There are apparently huge leaps in time that the viewer is completely unaware of, until a scene just doesn't make any sense. You will think "Oh, I guess some months went by" and maybe even shrug your shoulders. And slowly you will begin to lose interest in this movie. The characters apparently develop off-screen. Which is a bad thing, because this is a friggin' movie! You are supposed to see what is going on. So the audience can build a relationship with the characters. This movie fails in doing so.I conclude with the plead to look at the overall rating, which is not very good. Please, don't believe any review that rates this movie higher than 5.

I'm a Jean Reno fan but he's only one of the great things about this movie. I will agree that the beginning is a little rough. You have to think about what's going on and let it go keep its own pace for awhile. But for all its lack of grace in the beginning, nothing fatal goes on and it easily makes up for it in Acts II and III. This film is one of the most economical I've ever seen. There's hardly a wasted scene and the characters are all quite believable. Next to Jean Reno as Milo, the next most important role is played by Gaspard Ulliel as his son, Anton. The young man who plays Reno's son is quite capable and is a good match with Reno.The story is a simple one: young man wants to leave the crime family he belongs to and go straight. I would say there's little new in the story but that's not quite right, on reflection there's a lot of very important detail that really makes the story come alive. I really admire this film's ability to elicit real crime techniques and ambiance, all while giving the audience an unforgettable travelogue of what I think was southern France. Suffice it to say, I intend to seek out this director's work from now on. His name is Laurent Tuel and I believe the man deserves quite a lot of credit.

The film begins with a newsreel account of the Armenian genocide of the last century. It doesn't serve any purpose because the story we are invited to watch is not about that horrible page in the history of that country, but one in which descendants of the fleeing Armenians, settled in France, have chosen a life of crime.Milo Malakian, the ruthless head of the clan, rules supreme over his men. His own son, Anton, is part of the gang. Anton, alas, has a secret life. He has been having a hot affair with the nurse that is seeing his own grandmother. This young man has had it and wants to break away from his father and a life of crime. For that, he has set his eyes on a property he wants to turn into a sort of boutique hotel. Because of that, he must keep a low profile.Milo, on the other hand, has something else in mind. He is planning a caper that will make him and his associates rich men. They want to steal the money transfer that will be taken on a commercial flight from a nearby airport. Saunier, the police inspector of the area, figures the group is up to no good. Keeping an eye on the money transfer, seems to be the right thing to do. Little prepares Saunier and his men for the way the Malakian gang will employ to get to the money.Laurent Tuel directed this action film. The film reminds us of other pictures of the genre, although we must admit, it kept our attention. It is to Mr. Tuel's credit to have kept the pace in the movie, as it never became dull. The heist at the airport reminded us of a similar incident that occurred in France not too long ago. How closer is this story to what really happened, is not clear to us.Jean Reno appears as Milo, the boss of the group. Gaspar Ulliel does justice to his Anton, a man that came from a criminal background and realizes there is much more to life because he has fallen in love for the beautiful Elodie, played by Vahina Giocante. Sami Bouajila is seen as Saunier, the police in pursuit of the bad guys.

I was very surprised and pleased to watch this fairly good french crime actionner. I did not expect so much. First, I tried it because it's a gangster film. But I don't like Jean Reno. Except in LE GRAND BLEU, or LEON - THE PROFESSIONNAL - he's always been bad actor, a lousy one. In this movie, he's perhaps not at his best but his character is rather convincing. A gang leader whose the son - Ulliel - doesn't want to follow his father's group in his criminal activities; robberies under violence. This sounds familiar but the action sequences are pretty well done. especially during the heist one, nearly the end. It reminds me an actual event, a daring robbery which occurred in France in August 1996, on the Perpignan Airport. But that's another story.What's interesting in this feature is that it is not the good guys vs the bad guys scheme. The cop played by Bouadjila is not usual. He is not the sympathetic cop, but without being the nasty one either. Interesting indeed.And, above all, the end is ABSOLUTELY surprising.NO ONE would bet on it!!!And I love that.