Product Details

• Actors: Romain Duris
• Directors: Jean-Paul Salomé
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000GBBUA2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,601 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too Many Things Going on in This French Action: Still Easy on the Eye and Kristin Scott Thomas Is Worth a Look, March 18, 2007

By 

Tsuyoshi (Kyoto, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Arsene Lupin (French Version with English subtitle) - Region 1 (DVD)

French caper action "Arsène Lupin" (2004) is about the titular character, gentleman thief created by Maurice Leblanc, and depicts his romances and adventures in his earlier days. Though many sources on the net indicate that the film is (loosely, I suppose) based on "La comtesse de Cagliostro," I cannot be perfectly sure as I haven't read the original book.

Anyway, Roman Duris ("The Spanish Apartment") plays Arsène Lupin, dashing young jewel stealer who gets embroiled in the Royalist plot by saving the life of Countess Cagliostro (Kristin Scott Thomas), to whom the young thief is attracted. Eva Green ("Casino Royale") also appears as Clarisse, Arsène Lupin's childhood friend and another love interest.

The film's convoluting story that goes on more than two hours defies easy summery, but I can say it includes one conspiracy, two romances and semi-kung-hu-type actions (one featuring shirtless Duris himself, who is a pretty good fighter), and bit of mesmerism and lots of gorgeous costumes and productions. The film is always easy on the eye, and photography is beautiful, but because of the pointless actions that are squeezed into the thin story, the film itself does not know where to go. The film fails to make us care the characters who do not know what they want to do, and its tone changes too much from comical to violent.

Eva Green is beautiful, but is relegated to a meaningless role and her fans wouldn't like the way she (or her character) is treated in the film. Kristin Scott Thomas fares better with delightfully campy acting as femme fatale (who might be using sorcery!), but soon it becomes evident that she has nothing to do except that. As to Roman Duris's Lupin, he is allowed to show only his cheeky and corky side of the character. He is barely convincing as lady's man, but not as future gentleman thief and master of disguise until the film's ending.

Two stars for sumptuous productions and Kristin Scott Thomas' (intentionally) over-the-top performance as the vamp-ish Countess.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Wonder why this has never been released in the USA, May 16, 2010

By 

Joseph A. Admire (Manassas, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Arsene Lupin (French Version with English subtitle) - Region 1 (DVD)

As far as I know, this is the only movie of Kristin Scott Thomas' or Eva Green's that's never been released in the United States, so North Americans who want to see this movie have to make do with this Canadian release (which fortunately does have English subtitles). Arsene Lupin is a famous fictional character in Europe, but is best known to Americans chiefly because of his anime grandson, Lupin the Third. In fact, the relative obscurity of the original Lupin in America may explain why the film has never been released here. The movie itself is OK, though not a world-beater; the main reasons to watch it are, as another reviewer noted, to enjoy Scott-Thomas' delicious femme-fatale performance as Countess Josephine, and also the sumptuous production values, especially the costumes.

4 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars very annoying, May 25, 2007

By 

JustAReader "NoNeed2Comment" (Major Earthquake Faultline) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arsene Lupin (French Version with English subtitle) - Region 1 (DVD)

almost endless non-stop music score like every walter disney's cartoon or movie production. very unattractive leading male actor who played 'aresene lupin', got a very crook-like goofy face, if not forced by the screenplay, rarely any woman would fall for this guy. the leading actress also acted badly. a screenplay threw in too many threads and characters, none of them well developed. nice cinematography with beautiful colors is the only achievement of this too hollywood and too disney modeled movie, the only difference is it's in french.