RAID Dingue
“RAID Dingue”
Considering cinema of good quality, France today is the biggest movie maker in Europe. There are countless cases where French productions have been remade by American industry, so good were these films. However, there is a reverse movement from time to time, and films such as “Raid Dingue” (2016) appear in the market, a clear adaptation of nonsense American comedies.
The film tells the story of Johanna Pasquali (Alice Pol), a young policewoman who dreams of being part of an elite body of French police, the RAID group. The problem is that the girl, despite being very hardworking and idealistic, is completely clumsy, which causes her great problems.
When she tells her fiancé (Patrick Mille) that because of her refusal to be accepted in the RAID, she is going to enlist in the Foreign Legion, the father (Michel Blanc), who is the Minister of Justice, uses his influence for the girl being accepted in the RAID training program.
Johanna is in the care of veteran Eugène Frossard (Dany Boon), who lives a bad time after his wife leave him to run away with his brother. Between the confusions the girl creates, and the constant actions of the group, there begins to exist an attraction between the two, against the will of Frossard.
While Johanna is in the midst of a feud between the RAID commander (François Levantal) and the girl’s father, everything leds to a major terrorist attack that – believe it or not – only she was able to perceive.
I did not like the comic part of the movie, which come down to the implausible situations and grimaces of Alice Pol. But, the nonsense genre has legions of fans who will adore it, as they did in “Hangover”, “Due Date” and other pearls.
Lovers of action movies will enjoy good scenes, especially the climax, well stuffed with shots and explosions.
It’s a shame to see great actors totally wasted, all of them protagonists of great films in the past, like Dany Boon and François Levantal, but especially Yvan Attal, one of the biggest names in contemporary French cinema, who lives here a villain more ridiculous than Javier Bardem in “Skyfall”.
“RAID Dingue” is on the schedule of the Varilux French Film Festival 2017, which premieres this week in several Brazilian cities.
Original Title: “RAID Dingue”