L'instinct de mort 2008

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Aren't these guys supposed to be a lot more charming? Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Richet's film is an engaging one, even if it often plays like a re-enacted, high-episodic documentary. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: Cassel is convincing and riveting as Mesrine, which helps balance out the film's problematic slick shallowness and disconnects. Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: Four hours of French gangsters may not sound like a cinematic joy, but with Euro-star Vincent Cassel in the lead role, the movie is utterly hypnotic. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Mesrine: Killer Instinct is a true-life French gangster film so in awe of its subject that it can't fit the entire story into one film. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Vincent Cassel sets a new standard for Gallic cool as the title character. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Cassel clearly is having the time of his screen life. His zest is infectious. Read more

Cary Darling, Dallas Morning News: Cassel, who took the best actor award at France's equivalent of the Oscars for this role, is compulsively watchable. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: The events may be accurate, but Mesrine is so episodic that it's slightly maddening to watch. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: It captures the rush of crime as a way of life for a man who did and took whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, simply because he could take it. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Performs the unlikely trick of being both taut and plotless. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's a fine opportunity for an actor, and the wolfish Vincent Cassell seizes it. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Cassel is a gifted actor, but he doesn't have enough to grab on to. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/2010/08/27/2010-08-27_short_takes_mesrine_killer_instinct_highwater_centurion.html#ixzz0xq7eUPID Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Lovers of car chases, shootouts, explosions and general mayhem will be turned on by director Jean-Francois Richet's work. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: An exhilarating old-school crime pic. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Killer Instinct is generally fast-paced but the need to cram about 15 years of Mesrine's life into less than two hours results in uneven patches. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The acting is macho understatement. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The screenplay, by Richet and Abdel Raouf Dafri, is a superb work of condensation, amplification and imagination. Read more

Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: While Mesrine: Killer Instinct ertainly deserves a place among memorable French gangster films, Richet never delivers a clear theme here, let alone a plot. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Why are we watching this? And what, in Little Caesar's name, could possibly make us come back for Part II? Read more

David Jenkins, Time Out: Read more

Robert Koehler, Variety: The effect of Richet's hyperventilating filmmaking is akin to that of an extended-play trailer. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, Village Voice: No small problem, too, is that the film yields only a rudimentary sense of what it was like to live in France or Canada in the '60s and '70s if you weren't a gangster in a movie. Read more

Jen Chaney, Washington Post: Much of it plays like an unintentional mash-up of the numerous wrong-side-of-the-law sagas that preceded it. Read more