JaydoDre Crime Spree is a dark crime comedy about a group of French thieves getting into trouble in the US after a job goes sour and this movie is f-ing awesome! It is amazing that this film got stuck under the radar and almost faded into obscurity.Let us start with two notable participants: Harvey Keitel and Gérard Depardieu. These two people are a treat to watch and comedy suits them well, but it is nice that they do not overstay their welcome in scenes and there is a large supporting cast who also do a good job, though some do it better than others. One of the protagonists is Albert Dray, who is an obscure actor outside of France, but he gets a good amount of screen time and his appearance as a short nice guy really adds to the character of the main group to which he belongs. Another notable appearance is Abe Vigoda as a crime boss. He is not on screen for long but for long enough to be awesome. There is a Hispanic gang member that wasn't even part of any jokes but made me laugh with just his facial expressions and hand gestures.The only problem is that the main protagonists are not very fleshed out. There are quite a few of them and you do not learn much about their background. One of the thief protagonists dies mid-movie and I wasn't even sure who it was and when he entered the movie.The dialogue is smart and flows well. The jokes are subtle but still good. Sometimes they hit you 30 seconds after the fact. Sometimes they only work if you understand a little bit about the movie's background or the cultural differences. Perhaps this is another one of the movie's flaws, probably prompting a lot of the humour to go over people's heads. The humour would work if all the people involved were really famous and the cultural nuances were all well-known stereotypes, but the movie is at times too subtle and obscure for its own good.Let me tell you something and see if you are still on board. Half of the movie is in French with English subtitles. If you are already hesitating about this movie based on this information then it is probably not for you. It is that kind of movie with a foreign taste and a special peculiarity.Camera work is notably interesting. There is for example a continuous shot of a group of guys moving from room to room as the camera follows them from above going over the walls. No cuts. There are smart shots like panning over into the sky of one city and then panning back down to see another city.In general, you can sense the effort behind the film. There is a scene at one point in which one of the thieves needs to steal a wallet from a stranger. The thief bumps into the guy on a street and makes a move for the wallet. Now, how would this end in your typical American crime comedy? The thief would skilfully pull out the wallet (although slapstick may be involved) and the victim would not notice it and would keep on walking. In this movie however, the victim does notice and naturally starts running after the thief, though in the end the thief still gets wallet. This short chase scene did not need to be added. It takes more effort to add it. However, it does feel more natural, realistic and in line with the movie's premise that the thieving protagonists are bad at what they do.I heard about the similarities with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels but I watched that movie, and although it does run in much the same way, I like Crime Spree better. I did not laugh once during Lock Stock, but I did during this movie. And there are so many movies like Lock Stock now that you cannot call it plagiarism. It is just its own genre now.Crime Spree is a smart movie, perhaps a little too smart at times. It does not bring any revolutionary changes to the crime comedy formula, but is funny and well-made and is most definitely recommended.

arayner OK its a rip off, but thats no bad thing. You have all the same characters, maybe not as strong on the setup but the situation ends all but the same.Music not as good, but then how could it be.The film is good french based flick, and Gerrard is excellent, and Mr wolf what more can you say.The robberies are fumbled as only French Comic could, and the Diner scene straight from Res dogs.As I write this, i feel its is all negative, but who said Imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.A good DVD entertainment, for Pizza and a movie time, Enjoy....

dtketterer If the director of this movie (whose obscurity to me is such that, seeing it two minutes ago, I've already forgotten his name) has ever seen a Guy Ritchie movie, he is trying to mimic it. The problem is that he had neither the budget, nor the quality script, nor the finesse to manage the style that Ritchie indulges in.The technical flaws are evidence of a careless crew; Ritchie's style is so impeccable that there can be no failure of transition, no awkward cuts or slow moments. I can only assume that budgetary constraints were a limit here, because any self-respecting director would re-shoot the flawed scenes if he had the capacity to do so.The characters have no originality or dimension - you have the dumb robber, the dumb hired brute, the cocky (and dumb) American crimelord, and the dumb, loose woman. Redundant, you think? Stupidity is only funny if some hapless character with intelligence is submerged in it, not when a mass of idiots fumbles its idiot way through the plot. The lack of substance to the characters is not only appalling of itself, the dialogue can't begin go any farther than the personalities reciting it.And if this weren't enough, the director himself doesn't know what he's doing. The scene construction is ridiculous: one thing happens, concludes (maybe), then another thing happens, with no purpose of transition or changeover. During the second thing, the world of the first thing (usually in the same room) is put on total standby until the director feels it is time for the next purposeless changeover.I didn't have the stomach for more than forty minutes of "Crime Spree." The ineptitude demonstrated on virtually all levels of production (a talented cast doing what it can with so little is perhaps the only exception) makes this movie a total failure.

Chris Severn I bought this on sale at blockbuster sight unseen.. I figured how bad can it be .. harvey kitel .. it was excellent. An awesome crime/comedy i laughed and laughed .. from the beginning to the end.it just has everything you could want in a crime/comedy movie and more. i would definitely recommend it to anyone. there are a lot of movies that claim to be what this one is .. and just don't have the "get go" to make it through a feature length time frame. if i had to associated it with other films they would be Snatch, Lock Stock and two smoking barrels, Payback and others. This is one i would like to have seen on the big screen.