Customer Reviews

The Nest

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had no prior knowledge of this movie other than seeing the dvd at Best Buy. I was able to rent a copy and was supremely pleased with the results. This is a high caliber action movie that was extremely gripping from start to finish with many surpises along the way. The pace was relentless with high octane action set pieces from start to finish. Not a lot of dialogue, but this is the type of movie that Hollywood is always trying to make and usually fails after blowing 100 million. You will not be disapointed!!!

i didnt think the dubbing in english was going to sound awful. i personally am a fan of Sami Bouajila and the dubbing of an arabic man with the sound of a black man's voice is just wicked horrid. the movie all around is fabulous, but if you shoppers decide to purchase this movie the best option is to buy it in the french version and just put on the english subtitles.

For someone who is critical of "action" movies, this one really surprised me. It's one of those rare finds in the genre where the viewer is not required to completely suspend all beliefs of reality and logic. The story is well conceived of(albeit not undone before). The head of a transnational crime ring is being transported for trial. En route, the motorcade is attacked and forced to retreat to a cargo warehouse where a robbery is taking place. Now the criminals must work together with the police and the seurity guards in order to fight for survival. The performances are great and the action intense and suspensful. A great find.

I knew THE NEST was going to be a cool watch when an early scene had the gang of thieves en route to a heist in a humongous warehouse complex... and they're whistling the theme song to The Magnificent Seven. It's a nice touch, and zests up what otherwise is a plodding though necessary set-up. Most of us perhaps associate French cinema with pretentious, high-brow pictures, but these guys can occasionally crank out the sizzling action thriller. Check out, if you haven't yet, La Femme Nikita (Special Edition) or District B13, Brotherhood of the Wolf - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition) or TAXI and its sequels. THE NEST (a.k.a. "Nid de guêpes") falls in that same highly entertaining, extremely watchable mold.

In its essence THE NEST is an amped-up version of Assault on Precinct 13 (the original) and Rio Bravo (Two-Disc Special Edition). This is an ensemble cast, so I wouldn't say that there's one straight out lead character. But my lips twitch a bit in appreciation when I see the beautiful Nadia Fares taking on the John Wayne role. Calm, cool, collected, and spitting out dialogue in French, English and Italian, Fares is convincing as the lead officer in a joint police operation tasked with transporting an Albanian crime lord to his trial in Strasbourg.

It's not spoilering diddly when I mention that the police armored vehicle doesn't make it to its destination. The task force gets ambushed and forced to hole up in a warehouse, high profile prisoner in tow. Sucks for the gang of thieves who'd just about pulled off their caper but now find themselves trapped and caught in the unrelenting crossfire. This sets up an unlikely alliance.

Samy Naceri (of TAXI fame) is the most recognizable actor and he's got a good, small part. The rest of the cast are also solid, and I'm particularly pointing out the sexy Nadia Fares and Pascal Greggory who plays a resourceful night watchman. Pascal Greggory has a face that belongs on a bad guy and he's got a presence about him and makes you believe that the character he plays nurses a pretty interesting backstory. Angelo Infanti as the crime lord doesn't get a lot of dialogue - in fact, dialogue is pretty sparse in this film - but he exudes sheer menace and, oooh, you're just raring for him to get his.

THE NEST achieves this tunnel-vision sensibility. Enough characterization and side stories get thrown in so that it doesn't start feeling like a video game, but the focus stays primarily on point: on the tiny besieged crew trying to survive wave after wave of heavily armed gunmen. It adds to the mounting tension that these gunmen all have on night vision headgear, this element of facelessness making them even more alarming. The pace is relentless. Bullets fly with abandon and tear everything up. The sense of desperation is palpable. Those confined in the warehouse, the cops and the crooks, keep on bickering. The odds are ridiculously stacked against the "protagonists," and I like that the film keeps it as real as it does, and what I mean is that no one pulls a Rambo or a John McClane. You're not sure who makes it out. I think that THE NEST, with its pared down plotting and distilled essence and outrageously high body count, is a superior foreign action film. Yay the French.

This understated piece of French action film is actually an excellent and uncompromising movie, and one of the very best action flicks in the past few years. It is a little bit odd that, even though the movie is mostly a remade of Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, it is to The Magnificient Seven that explicit references are being made.

Being no particular fan of foreign action films, I was pleasantly surprised by "The Nest," which is both competently done and decently paced, with excellent performances from the cast. Some characters are perhaps underutilized, particularly the intriguing Pascal Greggory (one of the warehouse security guards, who is formerly a fireman). I also wish we'd gotten to see more of Angelo Infanti, the villain, though when he does get some screen time it's memorable.

French actress Nadia Farès is very believable as Laborie (whose FAMAS assault rifle is never far away; I started to see it as an integral part of her character). She has an almost hypnotic screen presence and a subtle style that expresses much with little effort. My favorite character had to be Richard Sammel, however, in his bulletproof steel facemask, toting his Steyr AUG with attitude to spare. Apparently he appears in Daniel Craig's Casino Royale, though I did not remember him from it.

An impressive array of weapons and tactics are on display, against a backdrop that is essentially just the plot of "Assault on Precinct 13" done with mostly French people. As you might expect, under pressure the defenders show their true colors, either for good or for ill, and heroic sacrifices abound as the cast is whittled down. The body count is very high on the part of the villains, too, who seem to have an endless supply of automatic weapons and glowing red night vision goggles -- not to mention cannon fodder troops who fall like bug-sprayed flies in wave after implacable wave. One wonders how a single crime boss could inspire such loyalty; you would think the contingent of bad guys surrounding the warehouse would get very tired of getting shot dead in each attempt to penetrate the perimeter.

I didn't particularly care for the way the movie wraps up; obviously the filmmakers tried to be clever in showing you who lives and who dies, but I found it less than satisfying and at times a little confusing. Still, this is a decent action movie that is worth watching, if you don't mind subtitles (the version I've seen was with the origianl predominantly French dialogue and English subtitles, though Richard Sammel's character speaks English a few times). I was expecting the usually disappointing, low-budget foreign fare and got a much better film instead.

THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST TAC FILMS I HAVE EVER SEEN. IF YOU LIKE IT ALSO CHECK OUT PARIS LOCKDOWN ON AMAZON UK violent tale of the peersian underworld/ 36 QUI DES OFFERIVERS two cops do battel over the course of ten years, frances answer to michel mann oliver marchal / MR.73 another one by oliver marchal this time its a one man show/ TIME AND TIDE the best tac film to come out of hong kong thanks to tsui hark/ CRIMSON RIVERS ONE AND TWO jean reno vs a sniper and than a cult/ KILLING ZOE pulp fiction befor pulp ficton w/eric stoltz on holiday in france to crack a safe/ LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD get the unrated dvd avoid the cut bluray bruce willas vs a team of french hitmen and a fighter jet/ HOSTAGE another one by the guy who brought you the nest/ INTAMATE ENIMES see former/ RED SIREN asia argento on the run with a hitman/ BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (DRAMA) french movie about a cult and a beast with kung fu overtones/ SOUNDLESS about a german hitman./TELL NO ONE french thriller about a doctor searching for his lost love featuring oliver marchal.

I just caught this movie on Showtime last night, about a half hour into it. It definitely caught my attention as I watched the rest of the show. A lot of action, gun fights etc, that were pretty entertaining. But as I watched it a couple of questions came to mind. 1) Why do the soldiers speak in english at random moments? and 2) does this not seem like the exact same plot to Assault on Precinct 13???? I mean c'mon, cops and thieves stuck in the same building, having to work together to fend off a force of bad guys trying to rescue their boss. Hmmmmmm. Overall it was a decent flick worth a watch.

I recently rented this French DVD. I watched it with the English subtitles. The subtitles are a little annoying because they are actually closed captioning so there are moments where you will read-rapid firing and humming.

I can forgive them for having this type of subtitle becuase the movie itself is just fun to watch and there isn't a lot of dialogue.

This is a very well-crafted movie. There are subtle references to the Hornet's Nest title throughout the film (watch for them!) and there are sufficient action sequences. Some of the action scenes are shot a little tight so it is a bit hard to see what is going on but this is kept to a minimum.

I was pleasantly surprised and strongly suggest any action fan pick this up for a view.

If you have seen Attack on Precinct 13, then you are familiar with the basic story. But what was surprising about the Nest is that the French managed to turn this formulaic plot into a great movie. It starts out a little slow, but after about 20 minutes, I couldn't take my eyes off it. There were maybe 40 bad guys killed in this movie - a little excessive, since the setting is not Vietnam or WWII. But if you enjoy fast-paced action movies and don't mind subtitles, then the Nest is definitely worth watching.