This film is shot with beutiful locales and is packed with fantastic gunfights and car chases to keep the adrenaline running. It's some sort of "Mission: Impossible" and "Speed" combo. Robert DeNiro headlines an ensemble cast. He's okay as a wisecracking ex-CIA agent, but it's not his film. With John Frankenheimer's assured direction, and an array of some of the best European actors working today, playing ex-intelligence and military personnel (CIA, KGB, British Navy, etc.) working with a rogue Irish rep. (Natascha McElhone) to retrieve a case from some French thugs en route to selling it to former KGB operatives. The case is wanted by a renegade IRA member, Seamus O'Rourke (Jonathan Pryce) who is in hiding in France.
The other members of the mercenary team are Frenchman Vincent (Jean Reno, "The Professional"), a German ex-KGB agent Gregor, (Stellan Skarsgard) who is a computer whiz and is working an angle with the Russians, Spence (Sean Bean) an arms dealer, and the getaway driver, Larry (Skipp Sudduth, "Third Watch").
Gregor turns out to be a wild card, and the case turns out to be something people would rather kill for than bother paying money.
The streets of Paris and other towns around the country and give the movie a hard-boiled look. The characters are trigger-happy enough to be featured as the villains in an episode of "Alias," but they are not nearly as flashy as in that show. And the chase scenes rival "The French Connection."
On one last note, this was the movie where I first took note of Jean Reno (who I'd previously seen on "Mission: Impossible") and Stellan Skarsgard (who I'd seen already in "Good Will Hunting" and "Amistad") as European talents to watch for.
The other members of the mercenary team are Frenchman Vincent (Jean Reno, "The Professional"), a German ex-KGB agent Gregor, (Stellan Skarsgard) who is a computer whiz and is working an angle with the Russians, Spence (Sean Bean) an arms dealer, and the getaway driver, Larry (Skipp Sudduth, "Third Watch").
Gregor turns out to be a wild card, and the case turns out to be something people would rather kill for than bother paying money.
The streets of Paris and other towns around the country and give the movie a hard-boiled look. The characters are trigger-happy enough to be featured as the villains in an episode of "Alias," but they are not nearly as flashy as in that show. And the chase scenes rival "The French Connection."
On one last note, this was the movie where I first took note of Jean Reno (who I'd previously seen on "Mission: Impossible") and Stellan Skarsgard (who I'd seen already in "Good Will Hunting" and "Amistad") as European talents to watch for.