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i must have seen a different film!!

Crappy film

A different way of telling a story

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This is the story on how France in 1994 was able to avoid their "9-11" tragedy. Unfortunately the lessons learned from this incident didn't prevent our 9-11 as some critics have claimed it should have done. This story is told from 3 points of view. One is from the action on the plane itself in the runway in Algeria. The second is told from the story of Thierry (Vincent Elbaz) the French GIG (SWAT team) leader. The third and most important is the story of Carole (Mélanie Bernier) an assistant in the foreign minister's office. She was the one who realized this was really a suicide mission and there was no negotiating with the GIA terrorist group. She oversteps her authority and steps on a few toes in order to prevent a take off. I believe her role was a bit of a dramatization, but it made the film watchable as we end up with a woman, who is given no credit, saving Paris from burning.The story was good paced drama-thriller. The voice overs were no better than 1960 Italian film voice overs and has been an on going problem for every French film I have seen in the past few year. I know there are people who can do better voice overs.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.

As much as I hate to discuss technical or format details, do not watch this with dubbing. The dubbing is so bad that it's a different movie in many ways. For anyone who thinks something is unlikely, this happened. And this is about as historically accurate as a theatrically-released movie is going to get. I am not sure about the political parts, but it seems to be based on the reports of the terrorist actions and the assault. Footage shown on TVs during the movie is real. I thought all in all it was very well done (no evidence of low-budget, so no idea what those reviewer's complaints are) combination of action and drama. It's got a rather good pace, with something happening every few minutes. Sometimes it's just political drama, sometimes it's spycraft like stuff, sometimes its preparing for or executing the assault. 8 of 10 for a slightly too-weepy wife. Realistic support system, going to hang out with the other GIGN members, and wives, but I'd like more explanation why she is so incapable of handling what her husband does for a living.

I was fascinated and totally on the edge of my seat for this one. Despite flaws in the production and irrelevant scenes involving one of the GIGN member's wife and little daughter, included obviously for the sake of emotional pull, this film is an accurate reenactment of the Air France hijacking of 1994 and subsequent raid to free the hostages. This film is a stark reminder why we have to endure airport security and how crazy these Muslim religious fanatics are. The movie had a made-for-TV quality and could have done with higher production values; perhaps the budget was limited. The version I saw had dubbed voices which made the acting seem worse than it really was. I think it would be a lot better in French with subtitles. A lot of the technical details of the planning of the raid were just not explained, no doubt the film makers were more interested in dramatic effect. But the fact that it was an accurate reenactment of real events made these flaws appear minor and the events more gripping. At one point the French Government tries to appease the Terrorists by giving them a large sum of money without any hint or assurance that the hostages would be released. I said to myself, "Did that really happen? I mean, could they be that dumb?" Those leery of French politics will just have to groan and say "Not again!" But then at the time they didn't have the lessons of 9/11 to inform them.All in all I was immersed in this film and was quite willing to overlook its minor flaws in light of the important lessons it teaches. Historical accuracy counts for a lot in this kind of drama.

First, I was afraid before seeing this film. I was afraid of an American way of filming and showing the characters. See the topic: Four muslims fanatics take an airplane as hostage on a big airport. I was afraid of the clichés such as good policemen vs bad, nasty Arabs, terrorists. And I was damn wrong. What a good surprise. While watching it, I thought of Paul Greengrass' masterpiece: UNITED 93, where the terrorists and their opponents are very well described, in a way where you can make your own opinion. No useless pyrotechnics here, no over explosions, nor over talking. Just the real, authentic, genuine needed action packed sequences, breathtaking ones, I can assure you. All characters, on both sides, are convincing in this story based on actual facts.The young film maker, Julien Leclercq, is very promising.