Brisk and technically efficient, The Assault is a dull film based on a real event that certainly wasn't.
The Assault(L'Assaut)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France · 2011
Rated R · 1h 28m
Director Julien Leclercq
Starring Vincent Elbaz, Grégori Derangère, Mélanie Bernier, Aymen Saïdi
Genre Action, Drama, Thriller
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The Assault is an action packed thriller based on a haunting true story. In 1994, Air France Flight 8969 was hijacked by Algerian fundamentalist terrorists. The tense, fast-paced drama follows the SWAT team tasked with saving the 227 hostages on board.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Despite toggling among the three characters' story lines, the film is barely concerned with the who, what or where of the incidents, much less a deeper why. It simply wants to milk this real-life example of courage (and chaos) under fire for multiplex thrills, reducing everything to a cheap adrenaline rush set to a pulsing soundtrack.
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
In place of emotional stakes, we get gleaming, stylized, occasionally slow-motion violence, filmed in such extreme close-ups and cramped spaces that it's impossible to differentiate gunman and victim.
So gripping and focused that it easily bests Hollywood movies with 50 times its budget.
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