Pierre Niemans: Jean Reno	Max Kerkerian: Vincent Cassel
Fanny: Nadia Fares	Remy: Laurent Avare
Captain Dahmane: Karim Belkhadra	Dr. Cherneze: Jean-Pierre Cassel
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz	Hubert: Laurent Lafitte

30 Second Bottom Line: Two detectives investigate crimes that appear to have nothing to do with one another only to find that they are closely intertwined. Both like to work alone but for this challenging case to be solved, they must form a team.

Story Line: The Crimson Rivers is a "who done it and why?" that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Some things you can figure out yourself and others will elude you. Director Mathieu Kassovitz gives you plenty of clues throughout that are not as confounding as those in Memento. You know what will happen, but not when and what effect it will have on the overall story. That all adds up to cold-blooded fun.

The film will turn some people off because it's been compared to the grossest parts of Hannibal, and while that is a fair comparison, I found the objectionable scenes to be done in a non-gratuitous manner. There is however a definite yuck factor when we see bodies with insects crawling all over them. People are mutilated and we see their bodies in the morgue as the ME tries to draw conclusions about what happened to them. These people have been tortured but we don't participate in the act. We only see it after the fact.

Commissioner Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno) is a detective who comprises a special elite force of one. He comes from Paris to the small university town of Guernon to investigate a murder. Niemans is renowned and has taught many classes on criminology to some of the local police officers. This earns him both respect and some slack when he needs it. Still, Captain Dahmane (Karim Belkhadra) is less than thrilled to have an outsider looking over his shoulder. The first victim of the serial killer is Remy Caillois (Laurent Avare) who worked at the University as a librarian in charge of books and seating arrangements. Each student has an assigned spot in the library for their entire tenure while working on their degree. This university is also self contained with it's own water supply and electrical power plant, which tells us right away that there is more than meets the eye going on here. Hint: human eyes have a lot to do with how the story unfolds and provide a link whereby one body leads to the discovery of another.

When a Nazi sign is placed on the tomb of a child, Judith Herault, who was killed at the age of ten, 20 years ago, Lt. Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel) investigates what at first appears to be a misdemeanor. He's a cop who is not opposed to doing his job by beating up people, breaking into their homes without a warrant, or stealing a car when his police car won't run. Soon we discover that Judith Herault's fingerprints show up on a gun used to shoot at Niemans 20 years after her death. This brings Niemans and Max together as a most unlikely team that does a great job of evading the usual cuteness of the buddy film.

The more I think about this movie, the better I like it. It keeps unfolding with each passing minute with a payoff. You realize something that you had guessed at before while being shown new things all the time-stay alert.

Tell Me More About It: Anyone who was a fan of Hannibal will like The Crimson Rivers. It is gory in parts and deals with innate evil, but of a different kind than we are used to seeing. What is heinous here is not something as loathsome as cannibalism-it's worse-an evil conspiracy. This conspiracy seems somewhat far-fetched, until I just happened to see something on television later in the evening of the day I saw this film that validated it. It was a program on The History Channel called The Hitler Youth. Hitler was trying to accomplish something that relates to the mystery in this film.

Mix the conspiracy with two rogue cops competing with one another, along with a female mountain climber, great scenery and mountain action on par with The Vertical Limit; throw in a car chase and an avalanche, and you have a great serial killer film like you've not seen before.

The Crimson Rivers is an adult summer film much as Tomb Raider, The Mummy Returns, Planet of the Apes and Jurassic Park III are to youngsters. It's far fetched in certain aspects of its plot and action, but it also gives you something to think about that comes easy. As strong as most of the film is, the ending is so over the top that it detracts from the overall effect a bit.

The music is one of the better scores I can recall that gives you a feeling of intense drama while the opening credits are rolling. It's been a while since I looked at an action picture and did not peek at my watch for over an hour. This is one of those pictures, and I do intend to see it again. There's more than meets the eye at first; and in this film, that's a major league pun.

Jean Reno: Rollerball	Vincent Cassel: Shrek
Nadia Fares: A Monkey's Tale	Mathieu Kassovitz: Assassins