Product Details

• Actors: Jean-Marc Barr, Asia Argento, Frances Barber, Andrew Tiernan, Alexandra Negrăo
• Directors: Olivier Megaton
• Writers: Olivier Megaton, Alain Berliner, Maurice G. Dantec, Norman Spinrad, Robert Conrath
• Producers: Carole Scotta, Rémi Burah
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English, French, Portuguese
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Lions Gate
• VHS Release Date: July 13, 2004
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00028G6XU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #443,438 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars French Thriller Starring Jean-Marc Barr & Asia Argento, June 6, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Red Siren (DVD)

"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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent, didn't live up to hype..., September 17, 2008

By 

Mendax (VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Siren (DVD)

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.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Asia is not just eye candy!, July 24, 2006

By 

Barry Brandon (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Red Siren (DVD)

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.