Vincent Cassel's contention that he waited several years for a script that was not "black and white" has resulted in this two pronged depiction of the - famous in Europe but not necessarily recognised elsewhere - Jacques Mesrine. Mesrine is in many ways a stereotypical gangster. We are shown him returning from National service as a clean fresh faced young man but that very night he is lured away to the Parisian night life by a friend of his, Paul, who is already ensconced in Gerard Depardieu's family of thieves. This seismic shift from familial normality avec mama and papa into the life of a career crimimal is never explained in any satisfactory manner. His parents are present throughout both films but aside from Mesrine's simultaneous love and pity for this father the relationships are perfunctory and predictable. The major issue with these films is a far more pragmatic one; Each robbery that Mesrine commits - and he commits hundreds - are choreographed in exactly the same manner. They go into the bank with guns raised and lots of "bouche pas"ing. They exit and jump in a (usually) rickety unassuming jalopy and race off with the flics in pursuit exchanging gunfire like demented children on the sunny D. On more than four occasions this results in Mesrine and one of his many partners in crime slamming into another vehicle. Hardly anyone gets hit and the whole thing has a certain A Team quality to it. There are variations but basically this is what Mesrine does to help him (in film 2) earn his Public Enemy Number 1 tag. A thought arises at this juncture; Why are these action sequences so unimaginative and borderline farcical. There are two possibilities to consider - These are re-enactments of the actual crimes in a logistically accurate manner to give credibility to what is a fairly unbelievable account of one man's fortuitous rise to the criminal summit OR these are lazy action sequences from a director who has no real spark when it comes to this aspect of action film-making. A glance at the remake of Assault on Precinct 13 from a few years ago shows a dark, claustrophobic, by the numbers actioner with little flair so perhaps we should not be surprised that Richet's handling of Mesrine's story fails to be compelling when the action starts. Either Mesrine was not the criminal mastermind his kidnappings of high profile targets would suggest or the law enforcement of France through the 50's, 60's and 70's were not as opposed to his nefarious activities as we would expect.
