France, Belgium · 2008
1h 48m
Director Jérôme Salle
Starring Tomer Sisley, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mélanie Thierry, Miki Manojlović
Genre Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller
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When a powerful billionaire financier is murdered, his second-in-command must locate his only heir – a heretofore unknown adopted son. The heir – a twenty-something adventurer – must race against an onslaught of assassins, corporate raiders and double-dealing insiders to prove his legitimacy, find his father's killers, and stop them from taking over his financial empire.
Slant Magazine by Andrew Schenker
Like most of the film's performances, Sisley's comes off as flat and impenetrable, the result both of a certain stoical conception of character and the dissipation of focus that arises from the movie's perceived need to encompass so much.
Fortunately for the company, Largo turns out to be a formidable knife fighter in the corporate sense; fortunately for this sleek, empty thriller, he turns out to be a formidable knife fighter in the street sense too.
Euro-financed production throws large chunks of change at a corporate espionage saga spanning several continents, yet most of the money seems to have landed in locations, with too little allocated to the script and stunt departments.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
It's handsome, large-scale escapist fare - and has as its costar the formidable, versatile Kristin Scott Thomas.
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
The movie is a mess.
Village Voice by Nick Pinkerton
It's impossible to imagine how anything this convoluted could have already earned a sequel, but it has.
Whether sleuthing or smacking around thugs, Sisley makes a dashing hero, but this glossy action flick is heavy on tedious convolutions and depressingly light on character depth, suspense or political-economic intrigue.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Did I care if Largo Winch won his struggle for control of Winch International? Not at all. Did I care about him? No, because all of his action and dialogue were shunted into narrow corridors of movie formulas.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
About halfway through, the wheeling and dealing becomes so elaborate and the villains so numerous that the only way to enjoy the movie is to let its preposterous story wash over as you sit back and take in the scenery.
The generic plot is redeemed by exciting action sequences, good-looking location photography and a hot sex scene involving a femme fatale named Lea (pixie-haired Melanie Thierry).
A French secret agent is going to pursue his murderous mission --- whether France wants him to or not.
When you need somebody, anybody will do.
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