I love this movie so much

Simply Perfect

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It had to happen: After watching many good french crime films, I found the first stinker. It's the worst kind of film, thinking it's smart when it's not. The lookout is just plain stupid. The plot has so many holes that it looks like swiss cheese. The film is totally unbalanced, trying to be many things at once: a cop film, a crime film about bank robbers, a serial killer film, a jail film and even a whodunit. The characters are weak and cliché. It sucks because the cast was good. I wonder why Daniel Auteuil made this awful film. He deserves better. I was misled by Auteuil and Placido (Romanzo Criminale is highly recommended). But why they turned this mockery of a script into a film is just beyond me. I hope the screenwriters didn't give up their day jobs.

I'm being generous, I know, but consider the misleading 5.something score for this movie to be an anomaly. I first thought this was a 'Res Dogs' copy but it developed into a thoughtful thriller with enough plot to make it compelling. The absence of an obvious 'hero' figure is, perhaps, an obstacle to begin, but a strong ensemble cast contributes to maintaining interest in the conclusion of the movie. The question at the heart of the film, if there is one, may lie with the motivation of the Policeman, rather than the identity of the traitor. A genuinely classy European thriller of a type that can no longer be considered rare ( tell No-One, The Secrets...) but which is well worth a look.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningDetective Mattei (Daniel Auteuil) is on the trail of Vincent Kaminski (Mathieu Kassovitz) a rooftop sniper who took out a bunch of police officers while a daring bank robbery was in progress. But as he digs deeper in to the case, he uncovers even more dark, disturbing secrets.It always seems to be the case that the continentals seem to make the better quality films, in terms of writing and general production values, and if their market doesn't get the best exposure, it certainly receives the greatest critical acclaim and there are quite a few who want to imitate it. They seem to come up with all the original ideas, that's for sure, and that's something Hollywood certainly can't claim. This familiar truth may be the case with The Lookout, even if it's not maybe the best example, perhaps.It's an intricate, absorbing thriller, quite faultless but still unremarkable, but you can't help but get the feeling that someone, sometime will try and do it again. ***

What's better than one French policier? Answer: another French policier. If this falls slightly below recent efforts like 36, Quai des Orfevres, it's still far from chopped liver. Daniel Auteuil, packing a tad more weight than of late - possibly for his role of Cesar in the great Pagnol trilogy that he is remaking even as we speak, both directing and taking on the role created by the immortal Raimu - plays the vigilante cop determined to catch the sniper who took out half his squad. He tells us this in an ultimately meaningless opening sequence when he has the sniper in an interview room. We then cut back to two days previously when Auteuil had his squad waiting to catch a gang of bank robbers red- handed. They would have done, too, had it not been for the sniper, Kominsky, who picked off the cops from a rooftop. After this things get a tad convoluted and if it weren't for stiffs piling up we may well wonder who is doing all the coming and going. It's shot in a drab non- color color with blue the predominant shade which suits the downbeat tone. Worth a look.