Thanks for the memories!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

In my experience fellow user-reviews like on IMDb can be, but don't have to be of course, very helpful. Either in deciding whether to watch a movie, or for the purpose of getting a better understanding of it afterwards. So I am always grateful when a reviewer took his time, and actually helped me along in a good way. That said, 'L'empire des loups'by director Chris Nahon is a case in point. The cinematography is ambitious, and it's not just l'art pour l'art, it works in enhancing our viewing experience, at the same time keeping up with the several plot twists this movie abounds, or drowns, in. The musical scores aren't some ready-made products but try to punctuate the action,sometimes successfully, sometimes less so; but always staying high enough above average to strengthen their scenes. The lead actors are engaged, and deliver mostly believable performances of the characters they are given. Especially Arly Jover as „Anna", anyway Jean Reno as the shady and brutal ex-cop Schiffer, but also Jocelyn Quivrin as the not too stereotypical younger homicide cop Nerteaux. The occurring shortcomings seemed to me to be not their fault but clearly the director's. Watch 'L'empire des loups' in the French original by the way, with your preferred subtitles as I did (German), to make the most of the cast's efforts. But these caveats concerning the actors' performances – 'the characters they are given' and so on – lead me to the main problem of this on a superficial level entertaining, partly also quite captivating movie. On the one hand it contains rather a few plot twists. Some generally foreseeable, others considerably unbelievable. And although I'm unable to come up with any better alternatives for the script writers to get out of the - in the structure of this plot inevitable, I guess – dead ends, they still should have made a better effort. On the other hand, and that brings me back to my introduction, beyond just plot twists and the like this movie simply degrades the further it progresses. This process works just as fellow IMDb reviewer „kosmasp" has already shown in a rather moody review in 2007. He writes „… you will notice the point where the movie breaks ... where it won't only get ridiculous, but the movie also falls to pieces." And he's right. I noticed this - in a way, to be honest - while watching it, and could see it clearly in retrospect after reading his review. In fact, this movie is a textbook example of the Hegelian notion that merely quantitative changes beyond a certain point pass into qualitative differences – Marx's words, not mine. Anyhow, thank you, kosmasp, though I don't follow in your harsher rating of only four stars, because I still think that 'L'empire des loups' displays many positive facets that I enjoyed on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Four stars I assign to the many, sometimes seemingly unavoidable, movies much worse than this one. It deserves a five, I gave the lead actors a six. But maybe that's being a bit too friendly?

This is basically on the same lines as the two CRIMON RIVERS thrillers, also starring Jean Reno; the muddled narrative involves two separate plot lines (a young cop on the trail of a serial killer and the tribulations of a woman apparently suffering from memory loss) which gradually intermingle. The title necessitates a few misleading 'horror' images relating to the girl's disorientation (especially since it all boils down to revolve around a drug-trafficking organization, with Paris and Istanbul for backdrops!); Reno is an iconoclastic ex-cop to whom the rookie turns for advice, but who is driven to distraction by his violent ways! Though action-packed, the film is more intriguing for its thematic pretensions: the heroine discovers that she has had her features altered, eventually reverting from bourgeois housewife to her true self – a Turkish immigrant with connections to the underworld, finding herself therefore suddenly resourceful enough to outwit or otherwise deal with her pursuers! Her 'husband' is revealed to be among them, but also Reno (actually a double agent), as well as a man she seemed to be familiar with but could not quite place; the latter, in fact, turns out to be the serial killer eluding the Police, driven towards recreating the anguished expression of a statue through his crimes (and with the woman herself being next in line)! A mildly interesting and enjoyable film, then, especially during its first half (if not especially memorable or rewarding) but, apart from feeling decidedly overlong at 128 minutes, its latter stages unfortunately turn into just another action movie.

You can always recognize a good movie by these elements : 1- good story with an interesting intrigue 2- great actors 3- a few young & promising new faces in moviesThis one has it all. The views are great, the ambiance is dark, the dialogs precise & intriguing, a lot of twists and turns, never really understand how it'll play out until the final chapter is upon you.In short, if you like police movies with some political twists & some great suspense and action, you're @ the right stop !!!Enjoy this one. Peace

When the young detective Paul Nerteaux (Jocelyn Quivrin) finds the third slashed female corpse of illegal Turkish immigrants, he decides to ask for support to the experienced dark retired detective Jean-Louis Schiffer (Jean Reno) to chase the serial killer. Together, they infiltrate in the Turkish mafia trying to find the answer to the crimes. Meanwhile, the worker Anna Heymes (Arly Jover) is being submitted to a brain treatment and has severe headaches and glimpses of memories and visions. When these two parallel events collide, disclose that the Turkish organization "The Wolves" is behind them."L'Empire des Loups" seems to be a good story, but with a very confused and flawed screenplay. I have never read the book, where probably I would find the explanations for many situations, but watching the way I did, in a DVD spoken in French with English subtitles, I found lack of explanation for many points. I repeated some scenes, trying to see what I could have missed, but I believe the plot is really flawed. For example, Schiffer wears a necklace identical to the criminals, but it is never clear if he is a dirty cop or if he also belongs to or worked undercover in the organization. What are the reasons for the brainwash of Sema, and her visions of monsters and reference to the Four Moons? Was she a mule of the Wolves? Why waste such a woman as a mule and as a subject of an experiment? A simpler screenplay with fewer subplots would work better and better in a movie. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "O Império dos Lobos" ("The Empire of the Wolves")