The skirmishes are alternately silly and wan. The film's gloomy techno score is its most lasting attribute.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme
It’s a mildly interesting thriller — Paris through the eyes of a director who doesn’t know how to make its beauty menacing.
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
Slickly executed with glossy, neon-drenched cinematography and a throbbing techno-music score, Paris Countdown sacrifices substance for stylishness, as has become the distressing tendency of so many recent crime dramas. But its fast pacing, compelling lead performances and frequent doses of action prevent boredom from settling in.
This been-there-done-that story marks a pretty banal debut for writer-director Alain Marie, who seems far more interested in aping Refn and early-career Michael Mann than in finding his own style.
The New York Times by Rachel Saltz
Mr. Marie, making his debut as a director, swathes their tale in a thick coat of style that teeters between cool and mannered.
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
If Michael Mann, Luc Besson and Quentin Tarantino all ate the same bad sushi together, the unfortunate end result might just resemble the pre-digested pap that is the French thriller Paris Countdown.
Paris Countdown has style to burn, where “style” means “uses lots of lighting gels and some camera flourishes,” but it doesn’t have a coherent point of view or a solid take on the genre.