Vincent-Cassel Movie Reviews

This is such a cool movie because it takes a different look at romantic and racial relationships today in contemporary Europe. Kassovitz doesn't try to be politically correct and talks straightforward about the realities of racism. The movie is well scripted and directed. I also like how Kassovitz trys to show the diverse opinions about interracial dating; Europeans are not as accepting to these types of relationships as a lot of people think. An interesting movie about interesting people!

Cafe au lait is an excellent movie. In HATE and Cafe Au Lait he artistically condemns racism and the walls that we build around ourselves. Kassovitz challenges us and makes us re-evaluate the categories we put ourselves in. C'est comme nous voyons des anges!

A truly endearing fun movie with a great sound track that isn't available in stores or anywhere! The movie's so neat I rented it twice in one week! See also HATE (la haine) by the same director with the same characters - produced by Jodie Foster!

I'd have to echo the previous reviewers and say this is an excellent road picture. WIth a great cast.

Patricia Arquette and Michael Madsen are amazingly wonderful in this film. And I don't understand why this film is not on sale anymore. Is there any way we could get it back. I'm dying to buy it. This is the best road movie I've ever seen in years !

This is one rockin road pic, it just keeps getting stranger, I cuoldn't stop laughing. Rustam Branaman and Billy Bob thornton are great as bad guys.

I'd have to echo the previous reviewers and say this is an excellent road picture. WIth a great cast.

Patricia Arquette and Michael Madsen are amazingly wonderful in this film. And I don't understand why this film is not on sale anymore. Is there any way we could get it back. I'm dying to buy it. This is the best road movie I've ever seen in years !

This is one rockin road pic, it just keeps getting stranger, I cuoldn't stop laughing. Rustam Branaman and Billy Bob thornton are great as bad guys.

La Haine is basically a day in the lives of three guys from ghettos on the outskirts of Paris. After an apparently race-motivated police beating/murder, the ghettos are rife with looters, rioters, and many bigoted and intrusive police(or pigs, as the characters fondly refer to them), suspicious of anyone not caucasian or under 30. In its most reductive form, it's about a flawed society whose seams are bursting under the pressures of ignorance, intolerance, and various -isms. In the movie itself, this tends to remain below the surface of the characters' existences, but for in a few moments (namely encounters with police and skinheads) and brought to the forefront with a bathroom scat anecdote and repeated reference to a (very bitter) joke involving society, man, and rabbit jumping off a building (the movie is frequently funny). Although it takes place in France, where these issues are perhaps less closeted (what with Le Pen getting 15 percent of the vote...), any close examination of pretty much every "modern, 1st world" nation will reveal just how ingrained these problems are in the present state of the world.

I loved this movie the first time I saw it and have seen it at least a dozen times since. It is a powerful story told as seen through the eyes and lives of three friends who are living in Paris during the riots. The direction of this movie is delicious and so is the character development. A beautiful job is done in introducing each of the three main characters and in giving a bit of insight in to each of their personal lives. One is a tough guy with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove, another a good guy who has no choice but to sell hash to support his family, and the third a kid who doesn't seem to care about much other than getting laid and trying to impress his friends. What really caught me about this movie was how realistic I found it. It was funny and hard and real and disturbing and fabulous. I highly recommemend this film to anyone who enjoys quality and substance. It has an AWESOME soundtrack too!!!

I love this Movie! I'm obsessed with everything to do with this movie. Vincent Cassel RULES! If anyone is wondering what the cow in the film is supposed to mean the answer is that it is Vinz's pastorial metaphorical (get a dictionary! ) chance of escape that is fleeting due to his obsession for revenge.(there!) Please! release this on DVD in DIRECTORS CUT! (Kassovitz had more brutality scenes that the distributers obviously made him take out). Anyone who saw this should check out other works of the man Cassel:ESPECIALLY DOBERMANN! (it doesn't seem to have got a release in America but surprisingly it is readilly available in Britain and UNCUT! (were the BBFC sleeping? ) IMPORT IT!

I saw this film twice in a cinema and I really like it. The acting was really good and the plot was very sharp. You have Carla who is disadvantages cos she doesn't know how to let loose and relax. But she still can recognize a good time and she takes on The other guy, who isn't qualified for the job she interviewed him for. The plot twists about how they help (exploit?) eachother are clever and it shows what Paris is really like, not the fake, eternal sunshine spring Paris of Amelie or Le Divorce. I get really tired of films that take place in Paris and glamorize it like it's a vacation commercial, it's another huge metropolis like any other and full of grittiness, and you get a lot of that in this film. It's sexy and violent as hell, but sexy in a different way, kind of like intellectualism turning one on instead of sex.

Another great film from France, I recommend it highly. And don't be put off by subtitles, if you let that stop you from watching a movie, you're missing probably 2/3rds of the world's best cinema. "the decalogue" is in Polish, for example.

This 2001 French film is done so well that my emotions were touched in every scene. Carla, played by Emmanuelle Devos, is a secretary in her mid thirties. She's mostly not noticed by her peers and is often called upon to do favors for her friends. She has a hearing aid and, when she uses it, she can hear everything. She can also read lips.

Because she is overworked, her boss says she can hire an assistant. She chooses a good looking male ex-con without any skills, played by Vincent Cassel. She asks him for a favor which has to do with stealing some documents which will result in her getting a promotion at work. After that, he asks her to use her lip-reading skills to help him out in a caper. It's not all as simple as that though. Eventually, everything spins out of control and the caper takes over. It's a fast paced romp from here on in with the bittersweet beginnings of a romance. There are twists and turns of the plot which sometimes seem a bit contrived but by then I was so caught up in the story that I didn't care.

This is a fine film with a unique theme. Recommended.

READ MY LIPS -- an Official Selection to the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival, 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, 2002 Rendezvous with French Cinema, and the 2002 San Francisco International Film Festival -- is nothing short of flawless.

Carla Behm (Emmanuelle Devos) plays a frumpy-looking administrative assistant to a real estate development firm, always relegated to second place due to near-deafness which requires her to wear hearing aids. The object of constant ridicule, she spends her work days mildly obsessed with reading the lips of her coworkers ... only to be driven further into seclusion by the nasty things they say about her.

Paul Angeli (Vincent Cassel) is an ex-con who lies in order to obtain a position under her supervision -- the parameters of his parole require that he work ... and, through a curious set of circumstances, the two find an undercurrent of attraction to each other that neither is willing to act upon.

However, when the two discover that their mutual gifts -- her reading of lips and his planning of the perfect heist -- can suit one another's needs, their relationship takes a wealth of Hitchcockian turns until they find themselves fighting for their lives ... and fighting for one another's heart.

A truly wonderful film, READ MY LIPS should be 'read' by all.

This movie was ever so funny. It's absolutely so bad it's good. Derek is her usual beautiful self and her acting is as flat as ever. If you're looking for Bo's famous nudity, you will need to look elsewhere, ... If you get this movie, just go with the flow. Enjoy the over the top gardener, the frequent pastoral dairy scenes. Watch Bo wax eloquent over a cow you would swear has Mad Cow Disease and chuckle after each deadpan romantic scene. But don't turn it off till the end. All this has worked you up for the total groaner of an ending. An outrageously stupid fight scene and . . . I'll leave you the pleasure and torment of the final minutes of the hilarious monstrosity.

Bo Derek shows here that she is an underated actress. Under the right direction, she is capable of giving a great performance. She is definitely due for a comeback. In this movie, she shows that she is capable of more than taking her clothes off. She should star in more romantic comedies. All she needs is the right script and right director.

I watched the last part of this movie years ago on cable then never saw it again to watch the whole thing. I finally bought a copy and loved it! Jeff Goldblum & Kathy Baker spar as Satan and his doubtful doctor, who finally is convinced of who he is after a few dramatic events occur. Nothing gory or especially suspenseful happens; it's more a terror of the mind and not the heart, as Baker's character realizes the depths of Satan's power and what she must do for him. Very unusual movie which almost no one has seen, but for anyone interested in the battle between true good and pure evil, it's a not-to-be missed psycho-thriller.

I first saw this film when it came out on video in 1991. I was working at a Blockbuster Video and this movie came in. Nobody had ever heard of it and it ended up in the section where we would put new releases that we only got 1 copy of (usually reserved for cheap, sex-laced mysteries starring Shannon Tweed or really bad horror flicks). I took it home and was absolutely astounded. I then proceeded to recommend it to everyone I knew, none of whom had ever heard of it before either, but who were equally impressed with the writing and acting of the film. This is definitely a thinking man's picture. The Jeff Goldblum "you talk too much" and the Dr. Reynhardt farewell scenes are especially classic. If you are like me and see movies because you want to see something that you've never seen before, then this is the stuff for you. (The only problem is that the film is almost completely unknown to most and will likely be hard to find at the local video store in 1999.)

I think my title says it all, but this is the scariest movie I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot. No other movie, not "Poltergeist," not "Amityville," not "Jason," not "Freddy," not "Damien," or even "The Exorcist" ever scared me like "Mr. Frost" did. This movie f***** me up for a good week and ruined my sleep like no other movie has ever been able to do. Now THAT'S a good horror flick!

I think the brilliance of this movie, and what many present-day directors forget, is that we can imagine things 1,000 times worse than they actually are. And in "Mr. Frost" the director doesn't show us the gore, death, and destruction caused by Mr. Frost. Instead the director alludes to the horrible, torturous deaths Mr. Frost has caused and lets us, the audience, fill in the gaps with our incredibly creative minds.

There is also the added bonus, as other reviewers have mentioned, of the wonderful dialog between Mr. Frost and his psychiatrist about the nature of the world. Is there true evil in the world, and is the true evil really manifested in Mr. Frost? And if there is true evil, how will the psychiatrist respond to it?

All in all, a great movie, especially for those of you who like to think about movies.

The single most entertaining and successful film of the year "SHREK" (DreamWorks...), arrives on DVD in a double disc set that includes widescreen and full screen versions and bonus material skewed towards younger kids. The unusually sharp digital transfer is about as good as is technically possible and brings to life a beautiful world inhabited by all manner of questionable but mostly lovable characters. Mike Meyers' inspired voice work for the title ogre is dead on in every aspect and implies much more humanity than even the words he says. Eddie Murphy is consistently in the zone as the up-beat, bluntly honest wise guy Donkey. Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow bring the princess and the vertically challenged king to life. But the most interesting thing that looms over this hugely successful film is the personal war between Disney's Michael Eisner and DreamWorks' "Shrek" producer Jeffrey Katzenberg. The rivalry and bitterness between the two former Disney associates has resulted in several extraordinary animated products that are probably much better than they might have been. Let's hope they keep competing on a personal level because "Shrek" is just about perfect. Of all the bonus material, making of stuff and commentaries, the thing that's most lacking is something, anything, from the two brilliant writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio. It's the best screenplay of the year. By far. One to own.

Have you ever read the book Shrek by William Steig? This fantastic movie is about his delightfully fractured fairy tale. This movie is the right stuff for this computer-animated adaptation full of verve and wit. Shrek, The Ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) is an agreeable enough ogre who wants to live his days in peace. But when the mean, and evil Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) evicts local fairy-tale creatures (including the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and the Gingerbread Man),from there own home, they settle in Shrek's swamp and Shrek wants answers from Farquaad. A quest of freedom starts for Shrek and his new buddy, a talking donkey, who was one of the creatures evicted ( voiced by Eddie Murphy), where battles have to be won and a princess(voiced by Cameron Diaz) must be rescued from a dragon lair. The story is stronger than most animated fare, but it's the humor that makes Shrek a winner. Shrek is never as warm and inspired as both Toy Story films, but the perfect realistic computer animation and an pretty good soundtrack (Smash Mouth, Baha Men) keep the entertainment in fine form. Know I know what you are thinking, "It has to be a famous Disney movie!" But it's not. It's is prouduced by DreamWorks, who does a spectacular job.

Mike Meyers is the voice of Shrek: an ugly yet endearing ogre who is sent on daring quest with the help of his loudmouthed donkey friend (brilliantly named Donkey, voice by Eddie Murphy) to rescue the somewhat annoying and feisty princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) by the evil spirited Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow), who is too much of a chicken to do it himself. He promises Shrek the deed to his beloved swamp back in exchange for the Princess. But, this journey gives Shrek a lot more than he EVER bargained for: friends, introspection, and love!!!
I love this movie and I love that my kids love this movie! During the course of the movie it is revealed that there is a spell on Princess Fiona - during the day she is a beautiful princess - but as soon as the sun sets, she is turned into a very much less attractive ogre. She is mortified by this and tries to keep it a secret, but by the end of the movie she realizes that beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, but it truly is what lies within. I love that the movie sends this message out to young girls -- with so many movies out there that tell girls that they have to be beautiful or change who they are to be accepted (i.e. Grease, The Princess Diaries, Ms. Congeniality, etc.)... I'm glad to see that there is a movie out there that lets girls know that it's okay to be who you are and to be proud!
I recommended this movie for everyone!
And the DVD-Rom has a really fun feature for kids that lets them dub their voices to the characters lines exactly! It keeps kids entertained for hours!

The single most entertaining and successful film of the year "SHREK" (DreamWorks...), arrives on DVD in a double disc set that includes widescreen and full screen versions and bonus material skewed towards younger kids. The unusually sharp digital transfer is about as good as is technically possible and brings to life a beautiful world inhabited by all manner of questionable but mostly lovable characters. Mike Meyers' inspired voice work for the title ogre is dead on in every aspect and implies much more humanity than even the words he says. Eddie Murphy is consistently in the zone as the up-beat, bluntly honest wise guy Donkey. Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow bring the princess and the vertically challenged king to life. But the most interesting thing that looms over this hugely successful film is the personal war between Disney's Michael Eisner and DreamWorks' "Shrek" producer Jeffrey Katzenberg. The rivalry and bitterness between the two former Disney associates has resulted in several extraordinary animated products that are probably much better than they might have been. Let's hope they keep competing on a personal level because "Shrek" is just about perfect. Of all the bonus material, making of stuff and commentaries, the thing that's most lacking is something, anything, from the two brilliant writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio. It's the best screenplay of the year. By far. One to own.

Have you ever read the book Shrek by William Steig? This fantastic movie is about his delightfully fractured fairy tale. This movie is the right stuff for this computer-animated adaptation full of verve and wit. Shrek, The Ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) is an agreeable enough ogre who wants to live his days in peace. But when the mean, and evil Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) evicts local fairy-tale creatures (including the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and the Gingerbread Man),from there own home, they settle in Shrek's swamp and Shrek wants answers from Farquaad. A quest of freedom starts for Shrek and his new buddy, a talking donkey, who was one of the creatures evicted ( voiced by Eddie Murphy), where battles have to be won and a princess(voiced by Cameron Diaz) must be rescued from a dragon lair. The story is stronger than most animated fare, but it's the humor that makes Shrek a winner. Shrek is never as warm and inspired as both Toy Story films, but the perfect realistic computer animation and an pretty good soundtrack (Smash Mouth, Baha Men) keep the entertainment in fine form. Know I know what you are thinking, "It has to be a famous Disney movie!" But it's not. It's is prouduced by DreamWorks, who does a spectacular job.

Mike Meyers is the voice of Shrek: an ugly yet endearing ogre who is sent on daring quest with the help of his loudmouthed donkey friend (brilliantly named Donkey, voice by Eddie Murphy) to rescue the somewhat annoying and feisty princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) by the evil spirited Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow), who is too much of a chicken to do it himself. He promises Shrek the deed to his beloved swamp back in exchange for the Princess. But, this journey gives Shrek a lot more than he EVER bargained for: friends, introspection, and love!!!
I love this movie and I love that my kids love this movie! During the course of the movie it is revealed that there is a spell on Princess Fiona - during the day she is a beautiful princess - but as soon as the sun sets, she is turned into a very much less attractive ogre. She is mortified by this and tries to keep it a secret, but by the end of the movie she realizes that beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, but it truly is what lies within. I love that the movie sends this message out to young girls -- with so many movies out there that tell girls that they have to be beautiful or change who they are to be accepted (i.e. Grease, The Princess Diaries, Ms. Congeniality, etc.)... I'm glad to see that there is a movie out there that lets girls know that it's okay to be who you are and to be proud!
I recommended this movie for everyone!
And the DVD-Rom has a really fun feature for kids that lets them dub their voices to the characters lines exactly! It keeps kids entertained for hours!

Mike Meyers is the voice of Shrek: an ugly yet endearing ogre who is sent on daring quest with the help of his loudmouthed donkey friend (brilliantly named Donkey, voice by Eddie Murphy) to rescue the somewhat annoying and feisty princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) by the evil spirited Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow), who is too much of a chicken to do it himself. He promises Shrek the deed to his beloved swamp back in exchange for the Princess. But, this journey gives Shrek a lot more than he EVER bargained for: friends, introspection, and love!!!
I love this movie and I love that my kids love this movie! During the course of the movie it is revealed that there is a spell on Princess Fiona - during the day she is a beautiful princess - but as soon as the sun sets, she is turned into a very much less attractive ogre. She is mortified by this and tries to keep it a secret, but by the end of the movie she realizes that beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder, but it truly is what lies within. I love that the movie sends this message out to young girls -- with so many movies out there that tell girls that they have to be beautiful or change who they are to be accepted (i.e. Grease, The Princess Diaries, Ms. Congeniality, etc.)... I'm glad to see that there is a movie out there that lets girls know that it's okay to be who you are and to be proud!
I recommended this movie for everyone!
And the DVD-Rom has a really fun feature for kids that lets them dub their voices to the characters lines exactly! It keeps kids entertained for hours!

Shrek has probably been the funniest computerised movie next to Finding Nemo, which was done by pixar. The voices done by great actors were wonderful, especially as the part done by Eddie Murphy. Shrek isn't a very vicious Ogre, he just wants to be left alone, and for people to stay off his swamp. But when a small annoying powerful migdet sends all the fairyrtale creatures to his swamp, he'll do anything to get them out. When he is given a job by a quad of a semi-king, to get a trapped princess out of a castle so he can become a real king, Shrek sets out. So he "teams up" with a modern donkey, and they set out to find the castle for Lord Farquad with Princess Fiona inside. The DVD for the movie was great. You can play all sorts of games in the game swamp, and it has all sorts of other extra features as well, including a DVD-ROM with even more extra fearture games on it. Very well done movie and extremely well done DVD. I'd recommend this to anyone who needs a good laugh on a boring day.

To me, it seems that people are overstating how much tweaking Disney's taking in "Shrek." Unless I missed something, fairy tales didn't begin with the House That Walt Built, and that's what "Shrek" spends most of its time chipping away at. (Of course, there's also a very funny riff on Disneyland when Shrek arrives to see Lord Farquar, but that's really it for pure Disney-bashing.)

Adults who might think that they've seen all the funny fairy tales they can handle should think again: While there's enough fart jokes, talking animals and slapstick to keep the kids entertained, "Shrek" is an adult movie, with low key racy jokes (kids who even notice the "big castle compensating for Lord Farquar's deficiencies" gag will likely assume it's talking about his height, or lack thereof), some very (post-)modern looks at fairy tales (Cinderella's described as being emotionally abused ... well, that sounds about right) and the nerve to say that the princess/Prince Charming fantasy so many fairy tales were built around is garbage.

Sure, anyone who's ever seen a major motion picture can guess that it ends up with "They All Lived Happily Ever After," but any movie that starts off with an ogre using a book of classic fairy tales as toilet paper is going to get there in its own backhanded style. Surprisingly, "Shrek" steers around the pitfalls and never becomes cloying or trite or gives up on its own cockeyed realist view of fairy tales and destructive fantasies (as opposed to the perfectly fine and rather sweet, in their own dim way, fairy tale creatures endangered by the evil pro-rationality and pro-order lord).

While it's the writing that really makes "Shrek" work, John Lithgow and Eddie Murphy fling themselves into their roles, making what could have been fairly generic animated characters into memorable performances. Murphy in particular seems freed to do his best work when he's hidden from view as in "Mulan," and Lithgow, whom many now only know through his goofy "Third Rock from the Sun" role, gets to stretch out his more threatening riffs, as he used to prior to landing on the sitcom.

"Shrek" is that rarest of animated movies: One that's genuinely fun for the whole family. See it with or without kids, but see it.

All of this is further enhanced by a DVD package that, if not stuffed with extras, has all high quality additions actually worth checking out.

Highly recommended for kids from 8-80.