Crimson Rivers - Angels of the Apocalypse (Special Edition)

Starring:Jean Reno, BenoÃ®t Magimel, Christopher Lee, Camille Natta, Johnny Hallyday, Gabrielle Lazure, Augustin Legrand, Serge Riaboukine, AndrÃ© Penvern, Francis Renaud, David Saracino, MichaÃ«l Abiteboul, Eriq Ebouaney, Jo Prestia, Cyril Raffaelli, MylÃ¨ne JampanoÃ¯, Eric Chevallier (II), Nikita, Victor Garrivier, Olivier Brocheriou
Director: Olivier Dahan
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

French sensation The Crimson Rivers was a serial killer thriller with a difference--it was genuinely thrilling. It was also pretty disturbing, but Jean Reno (The Professional) brought some light to the darkness with his sly performance as dog-phobic detective Niémans. Fortunately, Reno has returned in this highly stylized Luc Besson-penned sequel. Vincent Cassell has not, but Benoît Magimel (The Piano Teacher), as new partner Reda, makes for a decent replacement. Alas, Olivier Dahan isn't in the same league as Matthieu Kassovitz and the story line, which has something to do with the Last Supper, the Maginot Line, and gravity-defying killer monks, is even more convoluted than before. Then there's Johnny Hallyday (The Man on the Train) as a mysterious one-eyed man and Christopher Lee (The Lord of the Rings) as a bad German dude. It's all a little ridiculous, but entertaining nonetheless, and the chase sequences are a treat. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Description

Jean Reno is back in action as Commissioner Niemans. The body he found in a monastery seems to point to a ritualistic sacrifice and a portent of something strange to come. At the same time, young police captain Reda finds a man in agony who's an exact DNA match for Christ. Reda quickly finds out his case is directly linked to Niemans, but is the Apocalypse really about to begin as all signs seem to indicate?

Customer Reviews:

ANGELS WITH DIRTY WINGS.......2006-03-22

This second CRIMSON RIVERS entry suffers from its predecessor's curse of having too intricate a plot that ultimately doesn't satisfy the viewer with its complex undertones. Jean Reno is back investigating the murders of a cult fashioned after the twelve apostles. Christopher Lee has a smallish role as a demented German out to instigate the Apocalypse. It's all rather confusing but it is done with such flair and finesse, it's an entertaining conundrum at best.

More Crimson Rivers..........2006-01-09

A very good movie, Crimson Rivers-Angels of the Apocalypse, sheds light on a series of horrendous murders committed in the province of Lorraine near the French-German border. When a pair of investigators team up to solve the mystery they soon realize that all is not as it seems in this quiet and picturesque part of the French countryside...
There are slight hints of Seven, the Ninth Gate, the Da Vinci Code, and the X-Files, so the movie falls into the action/adventure/mystery/thriller/horror type of category.
Jean Reno, Benoit Magimel, Camille Natta, Christopher Lee, and the rest of the cast have truly outdone themselves with their performances, which are outstanding to say the least! All the actors, without exceptions, give it their 100% and it really shows allowing for a highly entertaining movie.
The plot, the setting, and the music are all EXCELLENT.
Overall, it is a movie definitely worth watching, as it is one of those films that gets you and keeps you thinking long after it's over! 4½ Stars

Sweet way to spend an afternoon.......2005-11-20

I saw this while visiting family in Poland, so it was all ready translated into my language and I could concentrate on the movie instead of reading subtitles.

This movie had murky, creepy and dark foes that were insanely fast and unstoppable. It starts off with a bang and it takes you on a search for the Holy Grail type of a ride with evil superhuman monks, dead bodies, catacombs and monasteries with deep dark secrets.

I sat down and didn't stop paying attention till it was over. Jean Reno is great; you just have to enjoy his presence because he does what he knows well. Also there was a scene where his fellow officer Reda who runs amok chasing this monk and they are running on roofs, trains, jumping off buildings, for like 3 minutes. No strings and computer magic just run out of breath chase. It was amazing; my favorite part of the movie and it really imbedded itself into my head.

Great flick, it has action, suspense, blood and gore, secrets and history; a sweet way to spend an afternoon.

Excellent - BUT - allow extra time for viewing - good script*.......2005-11-03

(Be sure & read my entire opinion before deciding how much YOU will like 'Crimson' -- after all, I do give it 4 stars. The dialogue is way more important than in most films of this genre.)

I remember Jean Reno from "the Professional" which I really liked, otherwise the description of Crimson was not enough to convince me to watch. I am GLAD I did watch! It's a very enjoyable film. The description on the cover and on most reviews I've seen left me thinking this was just another in a long long list of tales in this genre. And it is that -- then again it's much more than that. AND, there are more than enough SURPISES to keep even a cynic like me interested. I watched it again right away -- had to, really, because...

The movie is far easier to watch if you are fluent in French, which I am not. Like all native English-speaking people, I find that Europeans speak a lot faster than do Americans. In Crimson, the actors speak at a very natural pace in fine French. Because it's subtitled in English, however, that makes it impossible to keep up BECAUSE it's also an ACTION movie so that you need to focus first on the action, yet there's a lot of dialogue that you need to read -- and the dialogue is in no way superfluous. That is to say, the dialogue IS important.

Still, it's a VERY GOOD MOVIE, just be aware that you will frequently be reversing the DVD to pick up on many things BECAUSE there are nuances and a surprise or three tucked in there, which also is a GOOD thing. For example, near the very beginning there's something many viewers will find very 'interesting' -- though different people will assign different things to it -- but you'll be reading subtitles, and only catch a hint of it later deep in the movie, which means at some point you may want to go back (It took me 'til the very end of the movie to realize I thought maybe there was 'something' in that scene and then I went back, but even then I needed the dialogue to 'see' what was happening, and I had to watch that scene about a dozen times to be sure what I was seeing. Then again, YOU might very well 'get' it right away! LOL But I doubt it)

*Much as I enjoy the movie I feel a duty to advise you that the translations used in the subtitles frequently are not even close to the French being spoken in the movie. A very well-scripted film like Crimson gets hobbled a bit by a number of poor translations.

ENJOY the movie, allow some extra time for doubling back to pick up on some very interesting things you didn't quite 'get'.

(The reason I put that note at the top is: I am very detail-oriented, so that the less detail-oriented YOU are, the less you will notice any of the things that I took issue with)

Film is as unbalanced as the killer in it..........2005-09-02

The first Crimson Rivers film is pretty entertaining and beautifully filmed; this sequel's plot and the murky production values hobble an otherwise entertaining film.

The story revolves around a series of religiously-themed murders, and a secret cabal of monks. The plot is straight from a Captain America comic book (minus the Red Skull).

If you can get a used copy or rent one, then this film is worth a look.

The Crimson Rivers/Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse

Average customer rating:

Let the buyer beware

The Crimson Rivers/Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse
Starring: Jean Reno , Vincent Cassel , Nadia Farès , Dominique Sanda , and Karim Belkhadra
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz , and Olivier Dahan
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007KZQA2
Release Date: 2005-03-29

Customer Reviews:

Let the buyer beware.......2005-08-09

The movie itself is very good. Unfortunately, the film was made in French and dubbed in English. The quality of sound is poor. Such much so, that one cannot understand everything that is being said. I thought buying the DVD and using the subtitles in English would make the dialogue easier to follow. Not so. The subtitles do not match what is being said by the actors. They left out descriptions. They rephrase conversations completely. They botch up slang. They did a POOR job. It is amateurish and distracting. Good movie spoiled by shoddy translating.

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