Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

As this film opens our protagonist, Fred, is driving along barely noticing that he is being chased by another car even when it starts ramming him. Once he realises he heads into the Paris Metro where he abandons the car. Here he retreats into the maze of tunnels and meets a variety of characters who appear to live there; Roller, a roller-skating snatch-thief; Big Bill, a bodybuilder, a florist and even a band. We soon learn that Fred is a thief and he has stolen documents from a very dangerous man. He tries to blackmail the man's wife, Héléna, into paying for the documents but ends up developing feelings for her. While this is going of the authorities are looking for Roller and the gangster's men are still searching for Fred.The way this early film from director Luc Besson opens is clearly a hint of things to come; the car chase might not be as intense as those in the 'Transporter' and 'Taxi' films but shows a similar style and is a lot of fun. Once Fred is in the tunnels of the Paris Metro the characters he meets are as interesting as they are varied. The plot isn't exactly complex and there are few real surprises but that didn't bother me as it mainly served to introduce us to the characters and provide a series of entertaining and somewhat surreal moments. The mostly subterranean setting adds a lot to the great feel of the film. The cast did a fine job, most notably Christopher Lambert, who is on good form as Fred, but also Isabelle Adjani, as Héléna; Jean-Hugues Anglade as the Roller; Richard Bohringer as the florist and Jean Reno as the drummer amongst others. As the film reaches its end we are treated to an impressively bitter-sweet conclusion. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Luc Besson; it is good stylish fun.These comments are based on watching the film in French with English subtitles.

I was in high school when subway came out and it ran at the rep theater in my town. the first foreign and subtitled movie I even saw. It changed my life-I fell in love Christopher Lambert, car chases, foreign film and the buwaunwaun of the bass. I saw it 6 times on the big screen. All grown up now and its been a long time but I watched it again and loved it just the same. In no way is it a perfect movie, but in that is its strength. the kwirkyness of the story and characters blended with the atmospheric soundtrack creates a fun modern day twisted fairytale - a rare movie. a worthy movie. Like all good french cheese, a little stinky but thats what makes it all the better

Subway is Luc Besson's finest hour; it is one of those movies the self-proclaimed experts of cinematography love to hate for the very same reason aged rock critics hated Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode in the eighties because they didn't play guitars. The simple truth, however, is Subway is more of a MOVIE than many of the classics of the canon, simply because it deals less with narrative in the traditional sense and much more with visual aesthetics - compared to print media it is closer to comics than to books; Subway is the movie equivalent of cult comics such as Brothers Hernandez' Love and Rockets and Liberatore/Tamburini's RanXerox rather than the Great Gatsby. So when written off as empty and superficial it is hardly a fair criticism because Besson did so obviously not try to make a traditional movie when he did Subway. Writing it off as pure junk is like writing off instrumental music because there's no singing.Subway is, in many ways, an eighties postmodern fairytale where our young new wave hero, Fred, sets out to get the girl of his dreams, Helena. What follows, though, is exactly that, a dream, made of dark, underground labyrinths, cold neon light and electro-funk sounds courtesy of Eric Serra who, by the way, stars in the movie as himself, producing the music which is the soundtrack of the feature. The Paris metro underground is inhabited by its own community and the symbolism is stunningly clear and charming - we're dealing with the SUBculture of the SUBway, this is the underground. And of course Fred wants to form a rock band too.The plot IS very simple - after all, it's a fairytale - and this is not a weakness, quite the contrary. Subway is not pretentious at all but delves instead into style, humour and something which can best be described as sheer industrial aesthetics; quite frankly this is the movie that will make you love all the cold, neon-lit underground corridors in the world. And then you don't even know if you get a happy end or not.All in all an absolute favourite of mine plus a rare chance to see a stunning performance by Christophe Lambert. Oh and great haircuts.

When I first saw this movie I was magnetized by its unique atmosphere. Luc Besson created amazing out-of-genre movie. "Subway" inherits traditions of european films of the 70-ies and has something new and magnetic at the same time; and it is certainly Besson's most european film. Maybe it is the reason of it's not so high ratings by american critique. Strange, but Lambert's early and best roles in "Subway" and Marco Ferreri's "I love you" are crossed out by his later films. Talking about "Subway", this movie stands in a row of other films of the middle and the end of the 80-ies that were last before the sunset of european cinematograph and the wind of pan-american influence. And although many american movies are real masterpieces, two traditions can't be mixed. This is one of those cult films that create amazing style that can't be repeated. And although I find "Leon", "Nikita" and "5th element" really good movies, they all were commercial projects. And "Subway"... well, who saw it, they will understand. And maybe not. 10 out of 10.