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New Century of Cinema
DOWSE Guide to the
Movies
by Tony Lee editor of
Pigasus
Press
Dobermann
99 minutes (18) widescreen 16:9 Tartan DVD Region '0'
Director: Jan Kounen
review by Tony Lee
French crime thriller, starring Vincent Cassel as the successful
bank robber of the title, Tchéky Karyo (who has made distinguished appearances in
everything from Nikita to GoldenEye, 1492 to Wing Commander,
as a misogynistic cop - our antihero's nemesis, and Monica Bellucci (one of the
vampire brides in Coppola's versio nof Dracula), who plays Dobermann's mute
girlfriend. This is the sort of low budget thriller where the intensity of its over-
the-top stylised action is leavened, and actually redeemed, by comic book style
flourishes such as a handgun which fires missiles, and an unfortunate police
motorcyclist with a primed grenade lodged inside his helmet. It's no surprise, then,
to hear that this film is actually based on some pulp novels (which I've not read) by
one Jöel Houssin. There's a masked stickup spree, some stupid detectives who only get
each other shot in their hurry to arrest Dob's wacky gang, a transvestite traitor,
and an audaciously violent showdown at a fetish club that descends into nightmarish
scenes of mutilation and death. The aberrant moral stance of the film's milieu is
evidenced by a quite touching scene at the junkyard grave of a beloved pet, being in
stark contrast to the callous beatings meted out to wives and gays (even a baby is
threatened at one point) by cops and others, throughout. Fans of Robert Rodriguez'
El Maraachi and its remake, Desperado, will lap this up (pun intended)!
DVD extras: fair. Scene access in 16 chapters, star filmographies, a gallery of
stills, the original cinema trailer, plus a review of the film by "Billy Chainsaw".
Back to Movies on Dowse index.
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