Customer Reviews

Ultimate Heist

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

 

 

I don't know why everybody is hating on this movie. I preferred to set the audio fo french with english subtitles so I could hear Gaspard's voice. If the movie is in french and dubbed in english of course their mouths aren't going to match the words. The scenery is beautiful and Gaspard is absolutely wonderful. I didn't feel the title was misleading at all - it is about this family's Ultimate Heist. I loved this movie and have watched it over and over again.

Let me start this review by saying that I am a big fan of Jean Reno, and without his name I wouldn't have seen this half-baked French film "Le premier cercle" ("Ultimate Heist"), in which Jean Reno plays Milo Malakian, head of a crime family thinking of retirement. "Le premier cercle" has one great thing about it and it is, not surprisingly, Jean Reno himself. Sadly he and his charismatic acting is the only thing I can recommend about the film.

Jean Reno is credible as Milo, head of the Malakian clan. Gaspard Ulliel ("A Very Long Engagement" "Hannibal Rising") is his son Anton. Anton is beginning to be fed up with his father's business. Anton is also in love with a care worker Elodie (Vahina Giocante) and thinks of leaving his family when his father devises a plan for a big heist.

This film may be promoted as a heist movie, but its "heist" is only uninteresting and unoriginal part of the narrative, which is more about the relations between Reno's character and others surrounding him. There is a shoot-out sequence, which is simply bland and uninspired. However, what is really frustrating is not the absence of "big" actions, but the lazy and unimaginative storytelling of the director Laurent Tuel. In spite of the decent jobs from the capable cast, the film fails to build up the tension. The strained relationships between characters lack emotional impact, which the film desperately needs.

If you are an avid Jean Reno fan like me, you might love this one. He is as wonderful as ever, believable as concerned father and ruthless killer. Otherwise, just stay away and watch "Ronin" instead.

The movie centers around the Malakian crime family, an Armenian heritage family living in France. Anton is the son of the crime boss. He wants out, but doesn't want to offend his family so he stays in because he is now French and sits on a fence post. The cops are after the family, but are too ineffective to make a case against them. The movie starts out with a clever car theft, but then quickly digresses in a series of boring scenes. You don't get to feel for any of the characters, and you are confused as to which side to root for. You just wish somebody would do something. The family plans a final ultimate heist which will succeed if the French cops are too stupid to use their radio to stop their get away. The music at times was more fit for a B horror movie. Brief nudity, sex, and a little violence. Keep the fast forward on the remote handy.

It has another name "Inside Ring" ...or something like that ..... whatever it's supposed to be, its not a "Heist" move - but it incorporates a few escapades as background .... its much more of an "art film" - with some solid performances. Its entertaining and has more substance than appears in its marketing or promotion. I recommend it.

I like Jean Reno as an actor and 'so far' every movie he has played a role in. When I had seen this title, and that Jean Reno was starring in it, I wouldn't have given a second thought about purchasing it. Even without having seen it before, ever seeing any previews of it, or seeing any reviews of it here, which I figure I take at a 50/50 average, as everyone is going to have different opinion anyway. I had never even heard of this movie before, but yet I was still willing to purchase it, until I had seen that $26.99 price! Guess I'll wait until the price comes down and buy it through a marketplace seller.

UPDATE:

Wish I can go back and rate this at one star... After the price came down, I purchased this movie. Hard to believe this was a '2009' release. With Jean Reno's pictue on the cover, and as lead actor, and a title of 'Ultimate Heist' one would suspect this just has to be a good action movie.

It might have been, can't say for sure, fell asleep watching it. From what I did see, all the dialoge had been dubbed, and not very good! Reminded me of an old typical Japanese Godzilla movie, where the spoken words were a second or two before or after the actor's lip movements.

So okay, Jean Reno has an accent, but after watching other movies he had been in, something, (if someone is paying attention to), can pick up on easily. His accent is unique, and I think added to him as an actor in his previous charactor roles. But it's certainly not so bad that his natural voice needs to be dubbed.

After taking a look at the IMDB to see if this was really a new 2009 release, or if this was a movie made early on in Jean Reno's acting career, I was beginning to see the whole picture.

This film 'was made' in 2009, but for the 'world' market, released in numerous countries, under various different titles. This is what I had found in the IMDB;

Le premier cercle (2009)

Germany 5 February 2009 (European Film Market)
France 4 March 2009
Belgium 18 March 2009
Estonia 19 June 2009
Latvia 19 June 2009
Lithuania 26 June 2009
Italy 11 November 2009 (DVD premiere)
Kuwait 19 November 2009
Netherlands 23 March 2010 (DVD premiere)
Canada 20 July 2010 (DVD premiere)
USA 20 July 2010 (DVD premiere)
Hungary 16 September 2010

Also Known As (AKA)

Inner Circle USA (informal English title)
Inside Ring Europe (festival title) (English title)
Krev mojí krve Czech Republic
La legge del crimine Italy
Sisering Estonia
Suç zinciri Turkey (DVD title) (Turkish title)
The First Circle Australia (cable TV title)
Ultimate Heist USA (video title)

Would appear that the producers wanted to capitolize on Jean Reno's success as an actor, and attempt this release in all these different countries, but with no reguard as to the quality. People in other countries might very well be used to watching movies with dubbed languages, and totally accept it. But in the U.S., I believe we expect a little better.

Other than those old Japanese Godzilla movies of years past, (well I'll include a couple old classic Bruce Lee movies), I can't remember the last time I had seen a movie, on DVD, recently released, that had dubbed dialogs in them.

Guess when you haven't seen trailers of a movie, there wasn't a theatrical release of it, it sometimes pays to do a little research on it before you buy.