Went to see this after the rave reviews. However it's actually not that great. In fact, it's a very muddled film: there's no sense of identification with the quiet, cunning lead, Malik. By the time he's released from prison, at the end of the film, he has a gang of henchman that follow him in a car and van at a respectable distance.
What goes on in between is his rise to power, playing off the Corsicans (who he works for initially) and the Arabs (who are his kinsmen). It is definitely gritty, and the scene that stands out most is him practising putting a razor blade in his mouth for one of the earlier scenes. The prison life is also 'grim grim' (not 'clean grim' like The Shawshank Redemption!). It is also a crime film about the rise of a nobody through the ranks, via his own ingenuity and networking.
But so what? It's not as entertaining a crime film as many others. The actors aren't fleshed out memorably, including the lead, who broods a lot and talks little, so who knows what he feels (except for scenes when you see the first person he murdered, haunt him again). It just isn't all that exciting after being told it was.
One point that sums it up: he is called a 'prophet' on his way to meet a drug dealer in a car, when he shouts out to stop after seeing a warning sign by the roadside for deer. A deer then leaps out a second or two later and hits the car. That's it. No other explanation, and one of the guys in the car nicknames him 'The Prophet'. It's not even alluded to again later on.
What goes on in between is his rise to power, playing off the Corsicans (who he works for initially) and the Arabs (who are his kinsmen). It is definitely gritty, and the scene that stands out most is him practising putting a razor blade in his mouth for one of the earlier scenes. The prison life is also 'grim grim' (not 'clean grim' like The Shawshank Redemption!). It is also a crime film about the rise of a nobody through the ranks, via his own ingenuity and networking.
But so what? It's not as entertaining a crime film as many others. The actors aren't fleshed out memorably, including the lead, who broods a lot and talks little, so who knows what he feels (except for scenes when you see the first person he murdered, haunt him again). It just isn't all that exciting after being told it was.
One point that sums it up: he is called a 'prophet' on his way to meet a drug dealer in a car, when he shouts out to stop after seeing a warning sign by the roadside for deer. A deer then leaps out a second or two later and hits the car. That's it. No other explanation, and one of the guys in the car nicknames him 'The Prophet'. It's not even alluded to again later on.