A.k.a. Les Rivières pourpres II: Les anges de l’apocalypse
D: Olivier Dahan. S: Luc Besson. P: Ilan Goldman. Cast: Jean Reno, Benoit Magimel, Camille Natta, Christopher Lee. UK dist (DVD): Sony.
A tongue-in-cheek fusion of Edgar Wallace, Seven and Raiders of the Lost Ark, Crimson Rivers II is daft as a brush and doesn’t make a lick of sense (a trait it shares with Matthieu Kassovitz’s original) but succeeds as kinetic B-movie trash of the highest order. With plot ingredients including a religious cult led by a dead ringer for Jesus, an evil bunch of ruthless and seemingly superhuman cowled monks dedicated to slaughtering them all (usually by crucifixion), a sinister (possibly ex-Nazi) German religious affairs minister played by Christopher Lee, all tied together by the search for a mysterious Christian artefact of tremendous importance, you have all the elements for an unexpectedly entertaining adventure thriller, part-policier, part-Sinister Monk, part-Indiana Jones: irresistible fun, in other words.
Directed at a terrific pace by former pop-promo whiz-kid Olivier Dahan (from a script by Luc Besson, no stranger to the nonsensical), Crimson Rivers II is much, much better than it has any right to be. Dahan demonstrates a real flair for bone-crunching action, a hand-to-hand martial-arts confrontation in a nightmarish industrial loft apartment and a punishing foot-chase through windows, streets and rooftops (giving Keanu Reeves’s similar pursuit in Point Break a run for its money) being particular stand-outs. There’s even watery peril in a subterranean maze of tunnels, so energetically filmed in the best cliffhanger style that you’ll forgive its over-familiarity as a cinematic device. And any film that presents, with an apparent straight face, a squad of Darth Vader-like monks striding through a busy supermarket, shrugging off fists and bullets alike, frankly deserves all our respect.
The cast is solid, if not over-stretched. Despite losing Vincent Cassel from the cast this time around – he’s replaced here by Benoit Magimel, from Dahan’s previous feature Déjà Mort (1998) – we still have the monumental force that is Jean Reno, still one of the finest actors working today; his gravel-voiced conviction helps to sell even the loopiest of plot details. But Camille Natta’s police religious expert (not a job title you’ll often see advertised) is little more than a fetching vehicle for plot exposition, and is almost entirely absent from the tracer-bullet-spewing finale. Still, this is a minor caveat; with a cameo from French pop legend Johnny Hallyday (L’Homme du Train), lashings of grue and a score brazenly cribbed from Carmina Burana, Crimson Rivers II is loud enough and silly enough to leave most action fans pleasurably dazed.
Sony’s region 2 DVD is excellent, with a strong 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer and worthwhile extras including a feature-length Making Of, a number of surprisingly informative technical featurettes and a deleted scene (set in a strip club, for those who feel the finished film lacked a certain je ne sais quoi). All in all, a very respectable package, and one well-worth your time.