Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Of course, no one has noticed that this story is freely inspired by actual events that occurred in Paris in january 1986. Two elite police squads, Brigade de Recherche de d'Intervention, and Brigade de Répression du Bandistisme, were so rivals that they fired at each other when they were just about to nail a gang of bank robbers: The Disguised Gang. A group of hoodlums who pulled heists in broad daylight, cracking safe deposit boxes, whilst they used fire arms in the same time to attack the bank vaults. So it was armed and cracking heists in the same time. So, back to Olivier Marchal's masterpiece, Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu's characters are very close to those real life policemen involved in this 1986 Paris killing, when one gangster and a cop died. Just because of the two police squads rivalry.

******Spoiler alert*****Meeeehhh. It all starts very promising, one cop pitched against another fighting over the same promotion and apparently there is a connection between them via loved one. The cop portrayed by Depardieu blows a major operation but still gets the promotion because the 'good' cop screwed up when he covers for an informant who kills three people while himself being present there. The thing is, the evidence against the god cop is based on the declaration of a hooker (witness to the killing) threatened with deportation. The good cop only had to deny the charges because no one would believe the hooker. But I guess the movie would then stop there: good cop gets promotion and bad cop not. After this the good cop loses everything: freedom, reputation, his wife. Everything except his daughter and the kitchen sink. That all btw, goes very sloooooowly and serves as way to somehow create the image of a great injustice being done to the good cop.After being released he seeks up the bad cop and presents him a gun so he can take his own life (because the bad cop was responsible for the death of the good cop's wife -the love connection-). Why would a ruthless career cop do that at that point if he hadn't considered it before (having in mind he also shot the wife after she was already dead; sounds pretty ruthless to me)?The end where the bad cop gets killed because of some other event in the movie was soooo predictable. I was disappointed by the movie. Lot's of potential and despite the acting of the main characters, it didn't deliver. It couldn't quite portray the rivalry between the two main characters. Too bad because I really like these rough French movies (but without the unnecessary and unbelievable fight scenes which this movie thankfully did not have too many of).

36 (36 QUAI DES ORFEVRES) is a 2004 film that is just now making it to DVD: it should do very well with audiences who enjoy fine thriller/suspense dramas that depend on brilliant acting as opposed to endless pyrotechnics and CGI gimmicks. This film was inspired by a true story as related by director and actor and writer Olivier Marchal (with Franck Mancuso, Julien Rappeneau and Dominique Loiseau) of some corruption uncovered in the Paris police in 1985. The film is tense, forces the audience to think as the action jumps around showing simultaneous events in a smoothly cut and paste method of cinematic magic, and is populated with some very unforgettable characters who are a able to make us believe the fact that good cop/bad cop is a matter of interpretation in the vagaries of police action. There are repeated serial heists in the criminal underbelly of Paris, hijacking and murders that confound the headquarters of the Paris Police headed by Robert Mancini (André Dussollier). Two departments are challenged to put an end to the madness: the BRI headed by Léo Vrinks (Daniel Auteuil) and the BRB headed by Denis Klein (Gérard Depardieu) who are competing to head the police division now that the head Eddy Valence (Daniel Duval) is retiring. The personalities of these two competitors are quite different and the tone of past mistrust pervades every conversation and confrontation they have. Each is determined to be the one who brings the heinous group of criminals to justice. The violence escalates when Eddy is killed: the policemen are devoted to Vrinks who has considerable connections with the underworld such as Silien (Roschdy Zem) who seems to pull Vrinks down with an unexpected incident. Klein is the power obsessed cop who seems to stop at nothing to assure that he is responsible of the end of the hijackers/murderers, even to the point of involving Vrinks' wife Camille (Valéria Golino) in an event that results in Camille's death. Vrinks and Klein each commit blunders that result in a chain of events that blurs the lines of morality and enters the realm of vendetta and revenge. In addition to brilliant performances by both Anteuil, Depardieu and Golino there are memorable cameos by Francis Renaud as Titi, a cop with a heart, Anne Consigny as Klein's wife Hélène, Mylène Demongeot as the sassy older tart with a heart Manou. Daniel Antueil's daughter Aurore Auteuil who plays his screen daughter Lola as well, and even director Olivier Marchal as the criminal Christo. The musical score by Erwann Kermorvant and Axelle Renoir is unusually fine as is the cinematography by Denis Rouden who appreciates the importance of closeup shots of the intense psychological aspects of both Anteuil's and Depardieu's faces. This is a film for those hungry for intelligent and thought-provoking dramas. In French with English subtitles. Grady Harp

I certainly got hooked into this tale with all its characters possessing certain flaws and everything in shades of grey. The beginning is ambiguous and draws you in, you don't know where the sides are drawn and even by the time they are revealed they still appear blurry and hazy. There were plenty of moments that left me reeling as things came left of field to surprise you and you fall deeper into the moral fallout of the two leads. There was also some moments of real panache too... I love how Auteuils character took some 'time out' to go see his wife Camille and calmly returned to his fate. It was a touching scene and I gave a small cheer at it too because it was such a nice thing for him to go and do. Unfortunately I missed the ending though, it was on TV late at night so I taped it but didn't have enough tape left to catch it all. So it cut off halfway through Auteuil's character catching up with his grown up daughter Lola... So I'd definitely appreciate any kind souls out there emailing me with a what happened next run down...