Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30273 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-07-18
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Synopsis
While escorting an Albanian mafia kingpin to trial, a special police unit led by agent Laborie (Nadia Fares) is ambushed by a gang of assassins hired to free the very mobster they're escorting. She manages to hold on to her prisoner, but she and her unit must quickly take refuge in a warehouse in a nearby industrial park. There, they encounter a gang of thieves who are in the process of stealing a cache of computers. The two factions must team up when the faceless army of mafia assassins converges on the warehouse in an attempt to reclaim the prisoner at any cost. This thrilling, high-tech action film from French director Florent Emilio Siri features a talented cast and a relentless pace driven by tense, nonstop action sequences.

Customer Reviews

Impressive French action movie
A very slickly produced and directed French thriller combining elements of Rio Bravo, Night of the Living Dead, Assault on Precinct 13, and James Cameron's Aliens.

A bunch of disparate characters (security guards, petty thieves, and a unit of French Special Forces troops) find themselves holed up and under siege in a high-tech warehouse. Their attackers, who wear night-vision goggles that make them look like alien insects (the wasps of the French title "Nid de Guepes"), are members of a ruthless Albanian mafia-style militia intent on recovering their captured leader who is also inside the warehouse.

What follows is a spectacular series of action set pieces that would put many Hollywood directors to shame. Importantly, though, director Florent-Emilio Siri has not forgotten the importance of character in this kind of film. A first-rate cast which includes Samy Naceri, Nadia Fares (as a Ripley-style kickass heroine) and Pascal Greggory (a veteran actor of French film and theatre), and an intelligent, pared-down script, make this one of the most surprising and impressive French films of recent years.

enjoyable, frantic and slightly different
I have to agree with the positive comments made by the other reviewers. Its a frantic battle for survival for a rag tag bunch of petty thieves, french special forces and a few factory workers who fall under siege from a vicious Albanian criminal and his high tech forces. It's an enjoyable romp with elements of assault on precinct 13 and it's a nice change from the similar genre hollywood churns out by the dozen.

Top notch unmissable French action/thriller...get it!
This film has an almost similar plot to John Carpenter's 'Assault on precinct 13': An elite group of judicial escorts (transporting in an armoured vehicle an ultra dangerous mobster to stand trial) and a bunch of petty thieves end up in a remote hi tech factory and join forces (including the factory's security guards) to survive when an army of dangerous and ruthless mafia assassins will do anything to free their captured leader. The director conjures up desperation, hopelessness and genuine evil from his group of characters as well as successfully re-creating Carpenter's feeling of an unstoppable army out to get them.

From the start, where thieves and cops prepare their missions, to the last minute where under siege, the cops, security guards and thieves desperately and relentlessly fight to keep themselves alive, this film doesn't let go. It has it all: Intelligent script, incredible suspense, spectacular action, genuine almost unbearable tension, excellent character development, top notch actors and acting and it's beautifully filmed. It also features one of the most impressive long single shot in cinema history (yes in history!) where the camera travels above a car crash on a highway involving at least 70 cars slowly revealing the horrible carnage bit by bit to end on a close up that will send chills down your spine and prepares you for the horror to come. Although not mentioned on the site, it has an English 5.0 soundtrack, a French 5.1 soundtrack as well as English and French subtitles.

Until someone does a decent remake of 'Assault on precinct 13' this is an exciting, stylish, unmissable first rate film for action/thriller lovers way above most of the trash that has been coming from Hollywood recently. Get it you will not be disappointed!