Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1

Mesrine Part 2: Public Enemy #1

I'm guessing, that you have watched the first part, before you go on and read any reviews about Part 2 of Mesrine. A reviewer wasn't satisfied, because the movie seems like a 200+ min movie cut in half. Well I guess the user is right, but should that affect your rating/how you like the movie? I don't think so, but then again, you have to make up your own mind. The movie itself is based on the real life character, portrayed greatly by Vincent Cassel. Unfortunately you get reminded quite a few times how this movie will end. Which is OK, for the french audience who already know how the story ended, but for people like me, who didn't know that much about the person, it was kind of a spoiler. Still even though I knew, what was going to happen, the ending was filled with tension. It is shot and edited in a great manner and kept me on the edge of my (cinema) seat. And even as I was telling myself, that the ending was obvious, I still couldn't stop from being excited. Maybe it's only me, but this deserves your attention, even if it's only on the small screen (TV).

I do not understand the enthusiasm and high ratings for a silly movie trying to make a hero an irresponsible sick gangster who confuses revolution with crime. Characteristic is the scene when he beats to death the journalist in the cave calling him fascist while at that moment he is a much bigger fascist. Or when he preaches how bad the banks are and when he leaves the banks after the robbery he shoots the policemen on the street with the obvious risk of killing an innocent passerby. Apparently a collateral loss after the revolutionary act of bank robbery. Personally, I found the hero irresponsible, sadistic, psychotic, sick and greedy and I was happy when he was killed at the end of the movie. It is obvious that the director is trying to make the hero likeable in the eyes of the viewer but I found him terribly disliked.

Mesrine is a great movie about the life of a criminal, Mesrine, who's perfectly interpreted by Vincent Cassel, with his first steps as a simple bank robber to move gradually to a more sophisticated criminal. Thanks to Cassel the personality of the character comes out quite strongly, showing his violence, his ambition and also his great passion for women. Since he's chased by a rival gang he's forced to go to Canada to start a new life. He finds a new girlfriend (Cecile De France) with whom he commits some bank robberies and for which goes to jail. However he manages to escape and go back to France where he finds the situation changed. Probably it won't become a cult movie as big as some other legendary gangster movies like Scarface or The Godfather, but it will surely occupy an important position in its genre.

Every character seems to be able to make the most sensible judgments about his or her life, but each person has finally made the most realistic choice. After getting used to the drifting criminal life, Jacques Mesrine finally became the kind of small person he was ignorant, constantly struggling in ideals and secular, doing a daydream of subverting the world, but having to beg to the world. Like this movie, always mixed with positive and negative views.

Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 goes one better than Killer Instinct, with deeper characterisation and an incisive narrative laced with pitch-black humour that examines Mesrine's escalating egomania, fuelled by a troubling relationship with the press. The suspense sequences are expertly mounted and seamlessly incorporated, while Cassel's vivid central performance builds on his impressive showing in the first film, fairly twinkling with danger. Sleight him and he'll either josh with you or whack you - frankly there's no guessing which. The first movie was exciting and well made without always displaying a coherent viewpoint. This second part is altogether more satisfying: an impressive evocation of spiralling malevolence that's also largely honourable in its presentation of Mesrine - necessary when you're accusing the media of complicity in his crimes. Richet looks like one to watch; Cassel has been for years.

Epic (less bloody and funnier than part 1) biopic of French gangster Jacques Mesrine superbly interpreted by Cassel (Don't be fooled by the subtitles: Public Enemy No. 1 is actually Part 2...)

This is definitely entertaining and a command performance by Vincent Cassel. It took me awhile to get into it – for part I that is. The story is more or less straight-forward. It's about a thug who robs banks, intimidates his adversaries- sometimes brutally and escapes from prison any which way he can. It kind of resembles Scarface, but it is certainly not like the Godfather (I and II). It lacks subtlety (that's what I mean by straight-forward) and most of the characters who partner with Mesrine are more or less interchangeable and don't add much to the story. It's Mesrine and the action that drives this film. When it tries to get too serious; as with his wife, and many girlfriends, and the pseudo- revolutionary conversations, the film starts to sputter and wither – until the next action scene.

Not a generic crime movie, it certainly has also something of every crime story but much more energy and realism, due to both Cassel's performance and a strong direction that gets to cement effectively the whole story. There's a lot of violence but also an effective job of transforming the movie's central character into a rounded and strongly captivating figure. Cassel is more than electrifying and, although the director leapfrogs many years, the work of describing this big character proves to be perfect. Another element of the film is the Martin Scorsese style, defined by professional reviewers as violent escapism. Of course the whole epic is centered on one performance rather than the plot but I think the second part of this story works even better than the first