Raegan Butcher If you crossed Wages of Fear with Killing Zoe you might end up with something like SWEAT. The plot involves four crooks who hi-jack a truck load of gold from an airport.Then they drive it across the desert. The North African desert, to be precise. They drive that truck over an endless vista of sun baked sand dunes. The location photography is stunning. As the heat works on them the men start to turn on each other. (Maybe there is a bit of Treasure of Sierra Madre in there too.) Jean-Hughes Anglade gives another of his patented ferocious Frenchman performances. Joachim de Almeida plays the Air Traffic Controller who plans the heist. The director shoots everything as if he were overdosing on amphetamines. The editing is similarly jagged. But the overdose of style clashes somewhat with the material.I had to watch it twice to digest all of the information thrown at me. Still a great thriller in the Gallic tradition, complete with excellent downbeat ending.

pphree I think critics of this film have the wrong approach. It isn't highbrow, or even pretending to be, it may to some be a waste of good actors, but I couldn't care less because I think it is great. There are times when I just want to switch off and be entertained by a mindless action movie, and this one not only delivers, but is pleasantly far from mindless.We do see the robbery in flashes during the opening credits, the airport crew get shot and the flatbed driving away from the empty plane. On a side note I thought the music here was excellent. There are four main characters who have pulled off the job - the organiser, the driver, the mechanic and the gunman, all of whom are unhinged in some way and whose worst sides come out as events conspire to stop them making their deadline for converting the gold into cash.But the biggest character is the desert itself. It's beautifully shot, really getting across the effect of the harsh environment on the crew as they begin to bicker and fall out. You know it will descend into violence but it is fun getting there - although the characters are shallow the mind play between them is still very interesting as their quirks and psychotic tendencies emerge and set each other off. I like the black humour of old French action movies so I didn't care how derivative it was here, it was good to see it again and a refreshing break from some Hollywood offerings, nor did it have their tendency to moralise or patronise. You won't have to be Sherlock to figure out what's coming but it's fun finding out and there were still a few surprises.Sit back and enjoy the ride.

jeff-491 I choose to see this film because I'm an Air Traffic Controller, and the review mentions an ATCO as one of the main characters... The action takes place in a North African country. A gang robs a gold container at the airport ,a good reason for the ATCO to be involved. He is also 'the brain'... They have to bring this cargo to the coast through the desert on a huge truck . So you get two additional characters : the truck driver and the mechanic. The last part of the trip is a large mine field. To go through, they need a guide, a native girl (or supposed to be) This gives room for a lot of violence between the protagonists, hate-love relationship, betrayal every other minute.. They try to revive the famous HG Clouzot film, "le Salaire de la Peur", but with machine guns and a sort of "Mad Max" atmosphere. Just boring....

Phroggy The film is a take on old adventure movies of the seventies, usually featuring Lino Ventura or other French heroes. The beginning is quite slow and even boring : the characters lack dimension and the direction shows off a bit in the Michael Bay tradition (something that will make nowadays movie look dated in a short amount of time.) But after the first half an hour, the film picks up, the characters gets some interest and you wind up really engrossed in this chase, though the scenario remains by-the-numbers. JH Anglade & company all bring out their hysterical best and, in the unnamed country where the action takes place, there are enough weirdo characters (The gas station owner.) and strange happenings to keep you on your seat. The final image is a great way to end a movie which just keeps on gathering speed until the end. Definitely worth a look.