Customer Reviews

Vidocq (Version française)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

VIDOQ defies words. Words could not do this movie justice. I watched it and was speachless. I had to watch it again just to understand the mystery better. The movie is like watching a dream and a nightmare on speed. The movie is a cross between the Matrix, Moulin Rouge and From Hell. It is basically an investigation of an investigation into a serial killer. This killer is unlike anything you have ever seen, the assasin has been stalking Paris for Centuries and the movie is set in 1830 just before the Revolution for the Charter of Human Rights. The movie is visually stunning and very freaky. Everything in the movie is a clue to the mystery, yet the mystery haunts you, because as you watch it, the reality you understand becomes irrelevant. This is the best movie I have ever watched and even the subtitles didn't bother me... they added to something that was mysterious and visually unique.

This movie, Vidocq, is a french action movie with a detective investigation style plot. I bought it because it was connected to Brotherhood of the Wolf through links on the amazon.ca site, and I'm glad I did because this is a very thrilling and amazing movie.

Being the first film shot entirely digitally (ahead of SW: Attack of the Clones) it is the forerunner for great movies yet to come. The look is very clean and showy, but has a dark and gritty feel because of what is going on in the story.

I loved the music however I don't remember it using the 5.1 surround to the full extent it could. Maybe I should just re-watch it during the fight sequences. Even though I say that, it does have excellent sound, and has english subtitles if you cannot understand spoken french. The subtitles are easy to follow without taking too much attention away from the details of the video.

The story is terrific! It's a very fast paced investigation of three men and their despicable acts and their subsequent murders by the ultimately evil character, The Alchemist.

If you like visually exciting movies with great stories, definatly find some way to see this movie. I haven't been impressed by a movie this much for at least half a year, and I see lots of movies. The story works out in the end and is not confusing or open ended (though it has a little weird thing in the last few seconds), and it left me with the feeling that I had just seen a top quality mystery movie.

As said, I'd recommend this film to anyone who likes movies that are full of visual goodness, heh that is to say special effects, but also have a great intelligent story and fast-paced action. I spent 36 bucks (CAD) to see this and I'm glad I did.

This movie was great! The scenery was very etheral and fantasy like, it had Matrix like special effects and a gripping story line. You barely notice that it is in French and you are reading subtitles!

VIDOCQ is simply stunning to watch. The visuals, shot on hi-def dv by Pitof, who should make another film like this. (forget CATWOMAN!) Even great directors make a crap film now and then. But he has directed a masterpiece. VIDOCQ is one of the most underrated films around. Why haven't they released the dvd with subtitles on the extras? Lions Gate said they would, but they lied. (not for the first time!) The film still hasn't benn released in the UK. BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF has, so why not the superior VIDOCQ?

"Dark Portals" is set in the Paris Revolt of 1830, but it looks and feels like something out of a Hong Kong movie factory: a fast-moving visual fantasy with little character development and less plot credibility. It reminds me of an animated film using humanoids as actors.

I purchased "Dark Portals" out of an interest in the French detective Vidocq and as a fan of Gerard Depardieu, one of the most versatile actors to grace the international screen. I have seen Depardieu in an astonishing variety of roles. But this time he outdoes himself and comes across as a computer-generated character, only so does everyone else in the film. It is surprising that a man of Depardieu's standing would diginify "Dark Portals" with his presence; but then there is the drawing power of his name.

Obviously, my criteria are radically different from those of the people who reviewed this film previously. While the cinema can entertain without the need for thought, I look upon it as an art form with vast potential because of all the media of expression it is able to combine. Not to end without a favourable comment though, I recommend "Dark Portals" as excellent fare for Thanksgiving Day, if you get my drift. However, I do not deny the merits which its admirers have heaped upon it.