Mesrine: Part 1 (Killer Instinct) and Part 2 (Public Enemy #1) (2010)

Critic Reviews

• Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

  A French crime-gangster film of epic proportions

• Mike Edwards, What Culture

  Together, these two films represent a thinking-man's gangster movie. They contain the self-reflection and real-life grit, but without ponderous self-indulgence.

• Wade Major, Boxoffice Magazine

  A restless character study in which an otherwise unremarkable individual, tossed by the tides of fate, emerges unexpectedly as remarkable, but in all the wrong ways

• Todd Gilchrist, Cinematical

  a fascinating true-life story that suffers only from trying too hard to be completely true to life.

• Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

  Everything about the second half is snappier, especially the acting...

• Beverly Berning, culturevulture.net

  French actor Vincent Cassel, as Mesrine, delivers in spades.

• Dragan Antulov, Draxblog Movie Reviews

  vi%u0161e nego dobar primjer gangsterskog filma

• Philip French, Observer [UK]

  Mesrine is a lean, flashy, fast-moving, somewhat repetitive film, very French in some ways, yet lacking the gravitas of the crime movies starring Jean Gabin or directed by Jean-Pierre Melville.

• Edward Porter, Sunday Times (UK)

  Richet's punchy style doesn't add anything new to the conventional, Scorsese-inspired way of presenting gangster movies, but it's well done, giving the film a constant supply of energy.

• David Jenkins, Time Out

  Cassel injects a jolt of wild energy and ambiguity into what could easily have been another flatulent, apologist gangster epic.

• Jim Hall, Film4

  A film that doesn't necessarily glamorise its subject, though it does seems worryingly enamoured by his achievements. This is ultimately closer to a slice of over-board entertainment than an insight into a despicable, if extraordinary man.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  Muscular, forthright storytelling, hard-smoking, hard-drinking action, horribly incorrect attitudes, brutality with a top-note of self-loathing, bushy moustaches and a cracking lead performance.

• Matt Bochenski, Little White Lies

  Killer Instinct and Public Enemy can't escape the shadow of the films they might have been. Both earn their place in the gangster canon. But not even Jacques Mesrine can escape the constraints of cinema.

• Rob Daniel, Sky Movies

  A shotgun blast of a crime thriller; a dizzying, violent, and terrifying thrill ride.

• Matt Bielby, Filmstar Magazine

  Though it touches on some wider issues, Mesrine really just wants to be a classy, exciting genre movie. In this it succeeds perfectly.

• Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

  Cassel's Jacques Mesrine is pieced together from gritty shards of believability, a street-real mosaic no one tries to smooth and polish. For that reason he and it have the sharp edges and septic menace of life.

• Anthony Quinn, Independent

  There's an inevitable air of unfinished business hanging over this first instalment, though it moves at a tidy lick and conjures an atmosphere rank with Gauloises and greed.

• Allan Hunter, Daily Express

  Cassel surely deserves Oscar and Bafta consideration for a level of acting that dominates every frame of an exceptional thriller that easily surpasses any recent American efforts in this genre.

• Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall

  With a riveting performance by Cassel at the centre, it's definitely worth seeing, even if it never really gets beneath the skin.

• Robbie Collin, News of the World

  A brilliant gangster flick.

Read all 20 critic reviews