I saw this just days after `The French Connection', which allowed me to make a valid comparison about the quality of sequels, and how they're nearly invariably inferior to the original. This is, alas, no different.
Well this time we have Doyle - being hard-nosed as ever! - investing the French connection to his previous case. To this end he actually travels to France (where people are very accommodating in their speaking of English.). Again there's not much of a plot, perhaps even less so than the previous movie. In fact the movie suffers because there's a sort of forced break in the middle, an event that seems injected solely to try and get Hackman an Oscar. This drug-related storyline relating to Doyle, seems somewhat pointless - it's like the writers wanted to force character building into Doyle by having a traumatic event, rather than build it up in a more creative manner. It left a bad taste in my mouth. The rest of the movie seems to be a blend of rebelling against authority, racing around, and a few fairly weak gun battles.
Hackman is obviously acting his heart out here, particularly when his drug plotline surfaces. You can almost see him dancing about, performing his little heart out to the Academy for another Oscar. He's good, but the manner in which it was forced on his character left me uncaring. Yes, there's a raw edge to it, but it's not emotionally affecting enough. The rest of the cast, I've little to say. They did their job, without making any faux pas, and that's enough.
Problems with the script aside. was it interesting? Frankenheimer was a competent director but the script's fairly limp here. There's no spectacular chase for him to show off in, and the gun battles seem fairly tame. Perhaps it's the fact that more modern pictures and shows have spoilt me, but I never got wrapped up in the action. It seemed to just float by in a haze of Doyle being `hard' and `tortured' and a load of other adjectives applied to the clichéd tough cops of the cinematic world. Nothing struck me about his work here at all.
`The French Connection II' isn't necessarily a bad movie, but it certainly isn't a great one. It's trying too hard in places, and not hard enough in other areas. The plot's lazy, relying too much on Hackman, and the action uninvolving. It's suffering far too much from being a sequel, rather than trying to expand upon its predecessor's premise. You won't be bored watching it but don't expect to come away with anything much. 5.5/10.
Well this time we have Doyle - being hard-nosed as ever! - investing the French connection to his previous case. To this end he actually travels to France (where people are very accommodating in their speaking of English.). Again there's not much of a plot, perhaps even less so than the previous movie. In fact the movie suffers because there's a sort of forced break in the middle, an event that seems injected solely to try and get Hackman an Oscar. This drug-related storyline relating to Doyle, seems somewhat pointless - it's like the writers wanted to force character building into Doyle by having a traumatic event, rather than build it up in a more creative manner. It left a bad taste in my mouth. The rest of the movie seems to be a blend of rebelling against authority, racing around, and a few fairly weak gun battles.
Hackman is obviously acting his heart out here, particularly when his drug plotline surfaces. You can almost see him dancing about, performing his little heart out to the Academy for another Oscar. He's good, but the manner in which it was forced on his character left me uncaring. Yes, there's a raw edge to it, but it's not emotionally affecting enough. The rest of the cast, I've little to say. They did their job, without making any faux pas, and that's enough.
Problems with the script aside. was it interesting? Frankenheimer was a competent director but the script's fairly limp here. There's no spectacular chase for him to show off in, and the gun battles seem fairly tame. Perhaps it's the fact that more modern pictures and shows have spoilt me, but I never got wrapped up in the action. It seemed to just float by in a haze of Doyle being `hard' and `tortured' and a load of other adjectives applied to the clichéd tough cops of the cinematic world. Nothing struck me about his work here at all.
`The French Connection II' isn't necessarily a bad movie, but it certainly isn't a great one. It's trying too hard in places, and not hard enough in other areas. The plot's lazy, relying too much on Hackman, and the action uninvolving. It's suffering far too much from being a sequel, rather than trying to expand upon its predecessor's premise. You won't be bored watching it but don't expect to come away with anything much. 5.5/10.