Search - The Nest on DVD

Parlez-vouz bang bang blammety blam?

H. Bala | Carson - hey, we have an IKEA store! - CA USA | 01/02/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I knew THE NEST was going to be a cool watch when an early scene had the gang of thieves en route to a heist in a humongous warehouse complex... and they're whistling the theme song to The Magnificent Seven. It's a nice touch, and zests up what otherwise is a plodding though necessary set-up. Most of us perhaps associate French cinema with pretentious, high-brow pictures, but these guys can occasionally crank out the sizzling action thriller. Check out, if you haven't yet, La Femme Nikita (Special Edition) or District B13, Brotherhood of the Wolf - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition) or TAXI and its sequels. THE NEST (a.k.a. "Nid de guêpes") falls in that same highly entertaining, extremely watchable mold.

In its essence THE NEST is an amped-up version of Assault on Precinct 13 (the original) and Rio Bravo (Two-Disc Special Edition). This is an ensemble cast, so I wouldn't say that there's one straight out lead character. But my lips twitch a bit in appreciation when I see the beautiful Nadia Fares taking on the John Wayne role. Calm, cool, collected, and spitting out dialogue in French, English and Italian, Fares is convincing as the lead officer in a joint police operation tasked with transporting an Albanian crime lord to his trial in Strasbourg.

It's not spoilering diddly when I mention that the police armored vehicle doesn't make it to its destination. The task force gets ambushed and forced to hole up in a warehouse, high profile prisoner in tow. Sucks for the gang of thieves who'd just about pulled off their caper but now find themselves trapped and caught in the unrelenting crossfire. This sets up an unlikely alliance.

Samy Naceri (of TAXI fame) is the most recognizable actor and he's got a good, small part. The rest of the cast are also solid, and I'm particularly pointing out the sexy Nadia Fares and Pascal Greggory who plays a resourceful night watchman. Pascal Greggory has a face that belongs on a bad guy and he's got a presence about him and makes you believe that the character he plays nurses a pretty interesting backstory. Angelo Infanti as the crime lord doesn't get a lot of dialogue - in fact, dialogue is pretty sparse in this film - but he exudes sheer menace and, oooh, you're just raring for him to get his.

THE NEST achieves this tunnel-vision sensibility. Enough characterization and side stories get thrown in so that it doesn't start feeling like a video game, but the focus stays primarily on point: on the tiny besieged crew trying to survive wave after wave of heavily armed gunmen. It adds to the mounting tension that these gunmen all have on night vision headgear, this element of facelessness making them even more alarming. The pace is relentless. Bullets fly with abandon and tear everything up. The sense of desperation is palpable. Those confined in the warehouse, the cops and the crooks, keep on bickering. The odds are ridiculously stacked against the "protagonists," and I like that the film keeps it as real as it does, and what I mean is that no one pulls a Rambo or a John McClane. You're not sure who makes it out. I think that THE NEST, with its pared down plotting and distilled essence and outrageously high body count, is a superior foreign action film. Yay the French."