Requiem (II) (2001) User Reviews

Predictable and painful

[juan_not514 · 3/10 · 27 July 2003]

French cinema can be very violent and smart at the same time. This movie is somehow violent, but is not smart at all.

Scenario (first 15 minutes): Some people die in a hold-up and one of the thieves become a police informer. His buddies are thrown in jail while he hides in some monastery, trying to save his soul. The buddies escape from jail many years later and conveniently end up at the monastery.

Scenario (remaining time): Monks (including the informer) and a young lady try to escape from the thieves in the monastery. Most people die. Bad guys torture good guys.

Spoiler: There is no point to write the "punch" here, because if one does not guess the whole thing after 20 minutes then he is probably not able to go on internet anyway.

Don't waste time on Requiem. If you want a good, violent French movie, go for "Doberman" or "Nid de guepes". Beginners can go for "Killing Zoe".

this is clearly a rip off

[Tibbletoad · 3/10 · 23 September 2005]

this movie is clearly a rip off from the usual suspects and reservoirs dogs.

scenes in the movie clearly point to wards that. the Pace in the movie is way to slow and the end just sucks i watched it 4 times and still did not get the ending . not gonna tell it because i would spoil it.

but this movie isn't as good as it sounds on the back oft he cover

the action was good but only the surprises were kinda stupid . there was some mind play and some action but not enough to satisfy me. some of the scenes in the prison hinted to something but they never used it. the movie clearly cant decide what it wanted to be action or thriller.

Great and Violent French Movie

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 19 July 2004]

In a violent heist in a house of a French family, one of the members of the gang leaded by Marcus (Moussa Maaskri) and formed by Poupousse (Marc Chapiteau), Rafik (Jean-Louis Loca), Gippé (Jo Prestia) and Christian (Patrick Dell´Isolla) rapes the housewife. Christian protests, and is shot by Marcus with the rest of the family. Thirteen years later, Christian is converted in a monk, after putting all the criminals in jail in a life sentence. One night, in the monastery where he lives, the young woman Carla (Julie-Anne Roth) is lodged by the monks for one cold night, while the four guys escape from the prison. Their car has a problem in the radiator close to the monastery, they trespass the gate, and arrest and torture Carla and the monks. The story has a weird end. I liked this movie: it has a magnificent quite gothic photography and atmosphere, an excellent soundtrack, a good screenplay and, although exaggerated, it has very violent and realistic scenes. The conclusion of the plot is very confused and I am not sure that I have really understood, since it seems that something is missing, but anyway it is a good French movie. I intend to see it again, trying to make the end of the story clearer for me. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Insanos' (`Insanes')

Not for violence-haters.

[the-war-of-genesis-three · 9/10 · 21 January 2007]

As far as action goes, there's a lot of shouting and shooting and running about. More violence than I like, and the plot is quite predictable, to someone who likes to think ahead, but I liked this movie very much anyway. The characterisation of the individuals and the way they reacted in each situation is very realistic, which I find refreshing, and the acting is brilliant. This is one of the movies which you can just watch without being dragged out of it by bad acting. The landscape can be a little fake at times, and some scenes are exaggerated, but it seems to add to the Gothic atmosphere than take away from it. The ending was quite clear to me, but many people find it confusing. Overall, I think it was the acting and realism of the characters that pushed this movie into my personal top tens. Go and watch! Even if you don't like it, you'll at least see a lot of realistic scenarios between characters.