| p>It is tough to be a gangster. Sure, the life can be | | | | and in the heat of the moment Mesrine says to the |
| glamorous and filled with excitement if you are really | | | | cameras: "Vive le Québec libre" (Free Quebec). I |
| good at what you do, but as one character informs | | | | am pretty sure General de Gaule had beaten him to |
| the audience in Mesrine: Killer Instinct (directed by | | | | the punch by a few years, but that statement |
| Jean-Francois Richet), the best you can hope for is | | | | probably gave him some new fans. |
| to be able to run a nice bar in your golden years. | | | | Unfortunately his fame leads him to a prison whose |
| Even that character doesn't make it to the end of | | | | guards could have given the warden at Guantanamo |
| the movie. | | | | Bay a few tips on how to torture prisoners. He is |
| Vincent Cassel plays Jacques Mesrine, a Robin Hood | | | | routinely beaten, gassed, hosed, blinded by the ceiling |
| like figure whose criminal career apparently became | | | | light, and deafened by a blaring siren. The guards |
| legendary in his native France. Like all gangsters, he | | | | were apparently trying to attack all five of his senses |
| started small and climbed his way up. After returning | | | | since of course the food seemed barely eatable at |
| from Algeria where he was a soldier, he decides to | | | | best. |
| follow his criminal friend Paul (Gilles Lellouche) around | | | | Once back with the general population he finds a |
| instead of taking a job from his father. He becomes | | | | friend he met outside, Jean-Paul Mercier a member of |
| a crafty burglar and gets the attention of a local mob | | | | the FLQ (Front de Libération du Québec) played |
| boss called Guido (Gerard Depardieu). At first Mesrine | | | | by Roy Dupuis. Together they hatch a daring plan to |
| is not intimated by a man he sees as inferior because | | | | escape, which is both amazing in its simplicity and |
| of his age, but he should mind his sidearm since the | | | | boldness. The best however comes when Mesrine |
| old man is still a good pickpocket. Guido gives him | | | | and Mercier decide to try break back into the prison |
| some valuable life lessons and valuable protection. Life | | | | in order to help others escape. No wonder he |
| is good and it is getting better. | | | | became public enemy number 1: he must have been |
| From burglary Mesrine graduates to bank robbery. He | | | | the only criminal crazy enough to attack a prison in |
| is not infallible since he is eventually caught, causing a | | | | broad daylight with nothing but a pickup truck and |
| strain on his domestic life. His wife wants him to quit | | | | two assault rifles. |
| his job or else she will run away and takes the kids. | | | | Despite all his fame and flash, the movie does not |
| He tries for a while, but old habits die hard. | | | | paint Mesrine as a hero. He is in it for the money and |
| As Mesrine grows bolder, he robs from the wrong | | | | will cause harm to anyone who gets in his way. The |
| people and even Guido cannot protect him. He flees | | | | way he treats his wife when she threatens to rat |
| France and tries his luck in Quebec, Canada. With his | | | | him out to the police even disgusts Guido. He could |
| new girlfriend Jeanne Schneider (Cécile de France) | | | | have indulged her and quit his life of crime, but it is |
| he becomes a headline sensation after kidnapping a | | | | clear that he enjoyed it too much. |
| millionaire and going on the run all the way to Arizona. | | | | As far as gangster movies goes, Mesrine: Killer |
| The papers love them and paint them as the new | | | | Instinct could probably rank somewhere between |
| Bonnie and Clyde. At the airport in Montreal, they | | | | Scarface and Carlito's Way. It doesn't reinvent the |
| smile at the crowd as though they were movie stars | | | | wheel, but knows which way it spins. |