The Red Siren (2002)

A 12 y.o. girl reports her powerful mom to the police for having killed the nanny. She runs away and is helped by an ex-soldier/assassin to find her dad in Portugal while the mom has her people try prevent this. Shooting follows.

Director:

Olivier Megaton

Writers:

Alain Berliner, Robert Conrath

Stars:

Jean-Marc Barr, Asia Argento, Frances Barber

Cast

Credited cast:
Jean-Marc Barr	...	Hugo Cornelius Toorop
Asia Argento	...	Anita
Frances Barber	...	Eva
Andrew Tiernan	...	Koesler
Alexandra Negrão	...	Alice
Edouard Montoute	...	Oliveira
Vernon Dobtcheff	...	Vitali
Johan Leysen	...	Travis
Jean-Christophe Bouvet	...	Lucas
Carlo Brandt	...	Vondt
François Levantal	...	Sorvan
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dominique Bettenfeld	...	Mitja
Antonio Calpi
João Pedro Cary	...	Child
Celia Charpentier

Storyline

Nearly 13, Alice rebels, telling the Paris police that her mother is a murderer. Alice has no evidence; her mother, Eva, rich and powerful, avoids charges. Alice promptly runs away, determined to find her dad whom she claims lives in Portugal. The police believe he is dead and that Alice is in denial. Nonetheless, they dispatch Anita, an Italian police officer on loan to the French, to find Alice and bring her back. Meanwhile, Eva has launched her own paramilitary force to hunt for Alice, and Alice has found a protector in Hugo, an ex-soldier turned hit man and gang member. He promises to get her to her father. All roads lead to a small town on the Portuguese coast.

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Plot Keywords:

police | police station | mercenary | girl | paris france | 

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Genres:

Crime | Thriller | Action

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

GP Group [Russia] Official site [France] (French)

Country:

France

Language:

French English Portuguese

Release Date:

21 August 2002 (France)

Also Known As:

The Red Siren

Filming Locations:

Carrasqueira, Portugal

Company Credits

Production Co:

Haut et Court, StudioCanal, France 2 Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jean-Marc Barr's character is none other than Hugo Toorop, the character played by Vin Diesel in Babylon A.D.

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Goofs

When Alice fires her handgun (a semi-automatic) even tho shot in slow-motion, the slide doesn't move back. This is a simple identifiable function of this sort of weapon which is shot in slow-mo intentionally in many other films for it's dramatic effect. Instead, Alice jerks the weapon back as if it were fired, and the target is magically struck by a bullet that could not have come from Alice's gun.

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Quotes

Vondt: You cannot endanger your whole organization for that kid. You have to concentrate on preserving what's essential.

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Connections

Followed by Babylon A.D. (2008)

User Reviews

Astoundingly bad

Another train wreck of an action movie (sort of) from the Besson stable... A totally ridiculous storyline about a girl on the run from her superpowerful mother who is evil incarnate (and makes sure everyone knows it all the tile). The girl gets help from a nice mercenary, who takes her to find her missing presumed dead father in Portugal. Acting is generally dreadful (and given the international cast, it's obvious that many actors have been dubbed - badly). There's no rhythm to the story : the first major action sequence occurs more than halfway into the film. And the second and final major action sequence is a ridiculously choreographed fistfight (without Hong Kong influences, for once). Dialogue is dreadful, the psychology is beyond unbelievable, major coincidences are necessary to keep the plot going... It's amazing that 5 people (including the original author AND science fiction great Norman Spinrad) were involved in writing this turkey. The opening part of the film is visually striking but as things go on, style is forgotten. I guess director Olivier Megaton should change his (pen?)name to Olivier Megadud... He's probably quite good at making videoclips or commercials but shows absolutely no talent for storytelling or working with actors. Which means he's perfect for Joel Silver's upcoming projects! Quick, someone call Hollywood!!!