Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Opération Casablanca Movie Review

Above Pic: DVD cover for Opération Casablanca (C) 2011 Bord Cadre Films.

A few years back, 2007 to be precise a cool action comedy called Shoot Em Up came out. In that movie Clive Owen is forced to take care of a baby after the mother is killed in a shootout. Monica Bellucci is the sexy prostitute he asks to watch the baby and crazy Paul Giamatti is the villain hell bent on killing sweet Monica and Mr Owen. The movie is super violent, all tinged with maniacal humor, like a black comedy. That film is somewhat like Opération Casablanca, but with a much more torrid pace, and hyper violence.

The story opens as a Dishwasher is fired from his job, he takes money he is owed and walks through a forest to get to town to find work. He comes upon a  wild shootout, and tries to help the victims. He comes across a beautiful young lady in the back seat of one of the cars, and she threatens to kill, him, she passes out, soon he is surrounded by armed gunman, and suspected to be a terrorist. Now that is a bad start to one's day.

Opération Casablanca is mainly a dark comedy, the wild predicaments the lead character goes through are outlandish, almost like he is a mixture of the smirky face of Bean and Inspector Clouseau. He is forced by the agency to assume the role of terrorist Saadi, to infiltrate the organization.


Elodie prepares for origami torture, count me in! (c) 2011 Bord Cadre Films.

Elodie Yung plays Isako, the agent assigned to him. Elodie uses origami as a means of torture. Not really sure how this is done, but if anyone can use folded paper as a weapon, my guess is Elodie will be the one to do it. Elodie lights up the screen with her wry humor and fighting skills towards the end of Opération Casablanca. 

Moving at a relaxed pace, Opération Casablanca is never dull, but perhaps could have benefited from more action. That being said, the characters in the film are well developed, and by the frantic end, the audience will surely care about their fate. The acting is good in the film, the participants all have engaging personalities.

Director Laurent Negre has a keen eye for keeping his characters focused on the bizarre story. The filming and camera angles make for a evocative presentation worthy of art house film status.

Overall this is an entertaining film, hopefully Opération Casablanca will find it's way to the shores of the U.S. soon. I rate the movie a 7 out of 10.

For more info on the film, like the official page on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/OperationCasablanca?fref=ts

Go to the official Bord Cadre website @ http://www.bordcadrefilms.com/


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