The Red Siren (2004)

I heard about this film and thought 'meh, sounds like a corny action b-film', expecting something along the lines of XXX. But was taken by delightful surprise after seeing it one night on the Movie Network. Olivier Megaton does a very good job filming this movie, with points for action sequences and style. There are no corny one line phrases you see in typical 0ver-rated action films, and it provides a good selection of characters. The action scenes are beautifully filmed, preferably the gun battle in the hotel and the when the film climaxes at Alice's father's place near the end. The rotating camera around Alice as she kills her mother was a pretty damn cool idea. Acting itself was decent, nothing spectacular but nothing to complain about. Good mix of characters and satisfactory storyline. 7.5-8/10

Okay, having just watched The Red Siren, I have to ask why. Why has this excellent euro-thriller been ignored so much that the only way I heard about it was by drifting about looking for Asia Argento movies on Play.com, post Land of the Dead. In the end I wound up watching this and xXx in my quest, and while I've got a lot of love for Messers Diesel and Cohn and their crazy 2 hour explosion-fest, The Red Siren shoots xXx out of the water like a crazed redneck with a sawn off.The plot is best described as a familiar tale unconventionally told, involving a freedom fighter and a detective (played thoughtfully and powerfully by Argento) who find themselves unavoidably entwined in an attempt to save Alice, a young girl on the run from her maniacal gangster mother. This is not unheard of as a plot line in thrillers, but it's told in a wonderfully organic and odd fashion, making the movie feel fresh and new.The acting is great, even if at times the dialogue becomes strained as a result of the cultural diversity of the cast (there's almost every major European nationality in here at some point, leading to some lines being a little garbled or sounding out of place). In fact, the acting is on par with anything Hollywood has to offer. Speaking of Hollywood, lovers of big budget action will not be disappointed with Red Siren, as it redefines the words 'slick manic action'. While not an orgy of destruction like the aforementioned xXx, Red Siren has both great car chases and some of the best set piece battles I've seen for a good long while. The hotel shoot-out is so fantastic you'll need to remind yourself to breathe.All in all, Red Siren is essential viewing for any action nut. It has fantastic acting, a great story and frenetic action sequences. Couple this with an arresting visual style and consummate direction and we're onto a winner.

The main reason for seeing this film would the chance to see Jean-Marc Barr make good work of his strong role in an otherwise far fetched but entertaining film with a weak supporting cast and a poor script. What really struck me upon first viewing was how dark the story got as the storyline unfolded. Nice images and some good action shots hold it together when the majority of the actors can't.I have to state that the character of the mother (Eva) is the worst characterization that I've seen in quite some time. I readily will credit European cinema (incl UK) in more originality and risk taking, but this character seems to be derived directly from Cruela Deville in "101 Dalmations" crossed with Jude from "The Crying Game" in both appearance and manner and it doesn't work at all. She's more of a nuisance than a threat. It's her henchmen that are the real antagonists here instead.Jean-Marc delivers a solid performance and his good press for his acting is well credited in this film. The child "Alice" is okay, but I don't feel as though I connected as well as I could have with this character. What's strongest here is the cinematography and art direction, with some strength from the director in his action shots, believable or not. Overall, it's an interesting film and worth a try but definitely an acquired taste.

Euro thriller is flawed but mostly entertaining. Casting is a typical Euro-pudding mish-mash of international actors and varying accents, with some actors obviously and not particularly well-dubbed. Asia Argento at least does her own dialogue, but some of the voice actors here are stiff enough to be distracting, particularly the girl, who never really generates much sympathy since her line readings have all the emotion of a bored child in language class. The central relationship between the good-hearted mercenary and the girl on the run from men with guns is highly reminiscent of Leon, but without any of the chemistry. Like most European films shot in English the script suffers from frequent, occasionally laughable tin ear for the language. On the plus side the movie is quite stylish and the suspense set pieces are well-constructed and mostly quite effective. On the whole I would recommend this one, but with a more competent English language rewrite and a cast that actually could speak the language, this might have been a far better film.