Customer Reviews

Red Siren

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Red Siren" is a French thriller starring all European cast (speaking English, perhaps worldwide market in mind), including Jean-Marc Barr, Asia Argento, Frances Barber, and newcomer Alexandra Negrao. The story is based on a French bestseller Maurice G. Dantec's "La Sirene Rouge" and the film is directed by Oliver Megaton from France.

THE STORY is about a girl Alice (Negrao) who seeks for a help in a police detective Anita (Argento). Alice claims: "My mother, she kills people," and she shows a video which shows a woman brutally tortured and killed. The complication is, the "snuff" video could be a fake, and Alice's mother Eva (intentionally campy Barber) belongs to a very influential family.

Anyway, the compassionate detective starts to investigate while Alice accidentally finds another help in an ex-soldier named Hugo (Barr). Alice wants to escape from her dreadful mom, and see her kind-hearted dad living in Portugal (so she says), so Hugo takes her out, driving to the south, but Alice's mother and her men are following them, no matter what method they have to take, even guns or somthing.

The film is beatifully shot, with some technically impressive moments. But M. Megaton, I think, often forgets to tell the story, and the film goes on too long (2 hrs.). The characters are not well-drawn, all too paper-thin, and the actions or the settings, though they are decent and potentailly interesting, sometimes remind us of another film like "The Professional" (alt. title "Leon") starring Natalie Portman and Jean Reno, the latter being with Barr in "The Big Blue."

I have never read the original book, but it is clear that the original had fairy tale themes at its subliminal level. The film fails to make use of them fully, in spite of the name "Alice" (of course, in Wonderland) or Frances Barber's character (with a strange haircut), which clearly suggests the "evil mother" image in "Snow White." Interesting fact: the film's adaptation is done by, besides Megaton himself, US sci-fi novelist Norman Spinrad, and Alain Berliner ("Ma Vie en Rose"). What were they doing?

I thought the acting is good, though Asia Aregento's role is not as substantial as it looks at first. Barr is great as always is, but the slow, very slow pace of the film is quite damaging. The film has its some great moments -- especially the gun-shooting scenes in the middle -- but you have to wait for it pretty long.

In and of itself, this movie is a decent straight-forward action flick. The character development is fairly shallow and the plot lacks any real depth; but it's watchable if you just want a quick little story that doesn't require thinking. However, I bought this because of the comparisons the other reviewers made to Leon; don't believe their hype!

The fight scenes in this movie are unrealistic and generally one-sided, it's one of those movies where good defeats the bad and makes it look easy you can watch with the kids. There's a scene in a motel where the hitmen come and cut the power. Our hero, always being prepared, just happened to bring nightvision goggles and picks them off easily whereas the bad guys just shoot around blindly in the dark and manage to miss even with a grenade launcher. Would professional hitmen actually be stupid enough to do this?


Even though it wasn't what I was expecting, I wouldn't say I regret buying it. It's a decent little flick, but Leon this is not. It sounds like the other reviewers just chose this over Leon because they misunderstood the relationship between Leon and Matilda.

I like this film and found it fresh and entertaining. Reminds me of the Transporter and thats not a bad thing.
The mother in this movie is one evil hag, makes Cruella De Vil of 101 Dalmatians look like the SpongeBob.
The whole darn cast is great and the action is non stop.
You should check out this thriller.

I like Asia Argento & took a chance on this movie. I wasn't disappointed. I've rarely seen an action movie that is totally plausible & this was no exception. However, if you like action flicks with enough of a story to support the episodes of violence & mayhem you should enjoy this.

Based on a novel by Maurice Dantec, and directed by Olivier Megaton, Red Siren (2003) is a thriller that gets off to a promising start, but begins to fall apart near the midway point. In Paris, Alice Kristensen (Alexandra Negrao), a teenage girl comes to police headquarters, with what appears to be evidence of a murder. Speaking to investigator Anita Staro (Asia Argento), the girl says her mother Eva Kristensen (Frances Barber) is responsible for the death of her nanny. Eva is rich, powerful, and into some strange things, but there is insufficient evidence for the police to act. When Alice escapes police custody, two of Mommie's goons give chase. Things get more interesting when Alice takes refuge in the car of a stranger named Hugo (Jean-Marc Barr). There's a lot to Hugo, who has been a mercenary and gun dealer. After visiting a comrade in the biz and loading up, he and Alice are bound for Portugal to find the girl's father. Eva is already in Lisbon, gathering information and recruiting mercenaries. Staro is also sent to Lisbon to try and find Alice.

Things come to a head, at an explosive shootout in a small pousada (hotel). The scene is surreal and gratuitous, and is where the tale begins to unravel. With the goal of retrieving Alice alive, a full scale assault is completely insane. A real pro especially a sniper, would not waste ammo the way Hugo does. In the melee, Staro is hit in the crossfire. Hugo patches her up, and things seem calm, until Alice runs off to find her father, trailed by Eva's goon. Hugo and Anita are not far behind, and when Eva arrives on the scene, the stage is set for an unsettling, but somehow not completely unexpected ending.

Red Siren begins promisingly with a heavy atmosphere of suspense, but in the end, it is only a decent thriller with some timeline issues, and a somewhat unsatisfying resolution, that includes an instant sunset. Various flaws, and items that are not fleshed out, contribute to the impression that the film could have been much better.

Mark my words on this Lions Gate Films is going down in history as the only major studio with balls.
Granted they have had their flops but in the past 10 years they have picked up movies noone would touch!!
Go look them up make a list seek out some of their titles chances are you wont be disappointed!!
Hell start with Red Siren a drama/action vehicle starring Asia Argento as a detective who winds up with a kid handing her a dvd of her nanny being brutally tortured with a chainsaw!!!
Oh yeah the kid claims it is her mother and oh god save me from this crazy women!!!
Her mother by the way is evil incarnate times infinity you never really see her do anything physical(sort of)but her power is felt everytime she pops up on screen.
Red Siren has some of the best cinematography ive ever seen as well as people you actually feel for and root for.
The gentleman who plays the little girls eventual guardian angel later on in this film is superb he carries the part like a pro!!!!!
Nothing is too complex in this movie nor does it ever need to be it runs smooth warts and all.
The only fault is that it borrows from Leon errr The Proffesional but it does so in its own way Red Sirens story is just as engaging as The Proffesional yet really different in tone and style and worth a look by anyone craving something good to watch!!!!

This is a good rental if you like an action thriller, but to buy the DVD would be a wasteful investment. As I watched the movie, I felt it was a hybrid between the "Bourne Identity and "The Transporter" with a couple of others thrown in. Obviously, the film borrowed way too many ideas from other movies to make it an interesting plot. Another problem to the movie was there wasn't a focus main character to develop nor was there an enthralling villain. So, who was the main character, Asia (hot tuff chick from Vin Diesel's XXX) or the little hostage girl and her assassin companionate?

Asia paid second fiddle to Triple X and she did again this time. Asia's character is a typical tuff police officer that does not like to follow normal procedures. They started to develop her character in the beginning, but as the movie developed, she had only one major action sequence and appeared in many minor scrimmages, which did her no justice. Her potential could have been much higher. For the other half of the movie, we were stringed along watching an Assassin helps a little girl, like in "The Professional" (mentioned by another reviewer.) The worst part is the main Villain who was not even believable, what was her crime again? (She supposedly killed a maid, but nobody knows for sure, because the director really did not care to develop the reasoning, except she was a bad woman). For a while I though the Assassin in this movie was the same mono-tune, harden exterior, but soft-hearted Assassin that played in "The Transporter".

Both the "Bourne Identity" and "Red Siren" are Euro-thriller, which intrigue me living in the US. Europe has a beautiful setting and to have a rampage shooting spree contradictory to such a homogeneous peaceful society is great. The scenes didn't really engaged much into the movie nor enhanced it. Spain as far as I could remembered could have been S. California in this movie. Not too much detail in the scene except for the warehouse.

With above average acting and a fast storyline make this an enjoyable to watch; even if the plot was not too convincing and dry. It's a rental.

i have watched well over my fair share of garbage movies... luckily, this aint one'a em.

then again, 'red siren' will NEVER win any awards either!

maybe my reason for lovin this lil movie so much has somethin to do with psychology. 'cause i had rented it first, but the dvd had glitches at what i thought to be two key parts of the flick and i had to skip those chapters, missin out on what was bein said or done. dammit.
so, whats the first thang i do??? i get online and find out that amazon has it for under ten bucks... shoot, i owe the movie rental place TWICE that much in late fees!

so i went on and bought the damn thang, naturally.

but i enjoy this movie primarily for the same exack reasons that the others didnt: it asks the viewer to be acceptive of the discrepencies and just sit back and watch already. i watch real good; i should be paid to do it, but that's another story.

um, but yeah, i like it. doesnt come off pretentious in any way. it jus does what it does without begging for forgiveness.
(catering to the needs of others is somethin else i do real good. i hate that about me sometimes, but such is life, right?)

'the professional' WISHES it was this movie! that was a good flick until the hitman turnt into 'old uncle molester'... that disturbed me.

but if you liked movies such as 'the replacement killers' or 'long kiss goodnight' or, um, any of the new star wars trilogies then you'll love this one too.