Sorry, this movie sucks

Excellent but underrated film

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

(Flash Review)A 19 year old boy has just started a six-year stint in a French prison and is immediately in a kill or be killed situation. Take out someone a prison gang wants dead or he'll be taken out. How he handles that situation sparks a side of him that emboldens him to succeed in the political games of prison and the gang structures. Watch to see how far he'll climb the ranks and if or how he'll fall as Scarface did spectacularly. This film is gritty and real feeling with an engrossing story that smoothly blends in key scenes amongst the daily life of that prison. Good character development and there is no main story objective so you watch the protagonist's daily challenges unfold as the story develops. Very effective piece of French cinema.

"Un Prophète" is the living proof that sometimes you don't have to have a huge Hollywood budget to make an excellent movie. This french movie is one of the better "prison" movies that I saw lately. The main actor Tahar Rahim did a great job playing the Arab going to jail, starting at the bottom, needing protection, and making his way up in the criminal world. A hard movie about how prisons are supposed to rehabilitate people but most of the time you just start as a low criminal, meet the wrong people in jail, and then climb up the ladder with your criminal offenses. The whole movie is quite long but you won't get bored for a second as you are completely in the story from beginning till the end. Excellent directing by Jacques Audiard and very good performances by all the actors.

I remember a quote from an international trailer: 'Epic as the Godfather'. It made me laugh. This film is everything I (never knew) I missed from the Godfather. Or any other 'epic life- career drama' I have seen before. As a realized that I was watching the protagonist's way of 'making it', where normally making it would mean getting from 0 to 10, but in this case it's more like from -3 to 10, I also realized I cannot predict anything. If you watch it as a thriller, it's amazing: there is not one predictable moment in this film. And when the cathartic moment came, I couldn't count on it. There is an epic moment in this film, when you see him smiling in a somewhat, well startling situation, and your mind runs crazy to put it together. And then, you go 'Oh my God, he did it! He did it!'But then again: it's not a thriller :) Seriously. I consider this effect as an extra. Even weeks later I caught myself thinking of this movie.

i first came across this movie in a international cinema and just from the 1 min preview clip it had me wanted to watch the movie. At first its always fascinating to know about the true and grit of another countries underworld and to compare it to others you've seen. so it sets place in a french prison were its dominated buy the Caucasians (mafia) and the Muslims. Malik is just a lone ranger when you first meet him he has no possessions and more than a couple of franks to his name things quickly escalate for him when the Caucasians boss Ceaser need a favor. I wont say no more on the story because it speaks for it self but its nice to see some fresh actors and a film that portraits the way things go on in prison from every day living to the gangs and i love the fact it the first prison film iv'e seen in a long time that has that started from the bottom to the top aspect of it.one of my all time films in any genre instant classic