Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse

HKFanatic3.0

Is this the most 'Luc Besson back on his bullshit' movie of all time? As far as I know, the controversial French filmmaker had noting to do with the original "Crimson Rivers" (although his regular DP shot the film), but he stepped in here to handle scripting and production duties. Why? I'm not sure, as this has the most tenuous connections imaginable to the original "Crimson Rivers"—you have to wonder if Besson simply wanted to make an action/thriller with Jean Reno and figured it'd be more financially successful if he piggybacked off a known property. The result is like if New Line Cinema had followed up "Seven" with a sequel that felt more like "The Da Vinci Code" or "National Treasure" with a dash of the Wolfenstein video games. "Crimson Rivers 2" is stylish but its style is all over the place. This was the same year Besson was producing his parkour-and-martial-arts flick "District B13," so he even drafted one of that film's stars, Cyril Raffaelli, to play a parkour-practicing monk, who gets one of the longest chase scenes ever committed to film. The sets resemble a Nine Inch Nails music video, and young Benoît Magimel has a very 'early 2000's cool guy' look with dyed black hair and a vintage West German Army jacket; he kinda looks like Tim Wheeler, the lead singer from Ash. There's even a fight scene against a drug dealer set to the music of The Stooges (it's actually a pretty damn brutal fight scene).Is this as good as the first "Crimson Rivers"? No. Is it a good movie, period? No. But it moves like a freight train from one bizarre plot point and action setpiece to the next. One minute Jean Reno's car is being shot up by a German artillery weapon hidden for decades in the French forest, the next he's shooting off the fingers of a super-powered monk in a grocery store. Even Christopher Lee shows up...speaking French! I cannot say I was ever less than entertained.

Helmchen's Filmstube2.0

Da hat aber jemand in seiner Freizeit jede Menge "Dan Brown"-Romane verschlungen. "Die purpurnen Flüsse 2 - Die Engel der Apokalypse" legt das Augenmerk hauptsächlich auf mysteriösen Religions-Nonsens, wodurch der Thrillerpart am Ende noch enttäuschender ist als beim Vorgänger. Auch gelingt es dem Film nicht, abseits seiner Killer-Mönche auf Gummibärensaft, irgendwelche interessanten Figuren zu installieren. Zwar hat man Jean Reno wieder mit an Bord, doch Vincent Cassel wollte sich das hier wohl nicht antun. Sein Stellvertreter bleibt bis auf ein paar Kampfeinlagen allerdings recht blass. Was immer noch besser ist als das, was Christopher Lee hier darstellt. Die Story wird leider ebenfalls recht schnell uninteressant, da hilft auch die düstere Atmosphäre nur wenig. Sämtliche Polizeimitarbeiter, inklusive der beiden Hauptdarsteller, agieren völlig stümperhaft und dilettantisch. Zudem ergibt die brutale Inszenierung der Morde, wie so vieles andere auch, überhaupt keinen Sinn. Denn die Auflösung lässt diese Vorgehensweise völlig unnötig erscheinen. Wer Fan von religiösen Mystery-Thrillern ist, kann es gerne mal mit "Die purpurnen Flüsse 2 - Die Engel der Apokalypse" versuchen. Für mich wurde der Film mit zunehmender Laufzeit jedoch immer langweiliger, wodurch ich ihn nicht wirklich empfehlen kann.

cherryz2.0

Day 15 Colour in the title. Well I messed up and pressed the rent button on Crimson Rivers 2, not noticing the 2 part in the title. - Here's hoping I can figure it out without seeing part one.😂 Benoit Magimel offers enough for me to not care anyway.Oh wow the killers can move, parkoring all over the place, fast and furious on the phetamine. In search of a treasure Christopher Lee has been coveting since he was a wee laddie. I was half expecting him to hiss and bear his pointy teeth, but alas not he's greedy for the book. I wonder if its one of Dan Browns