Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

A lot of ''serious'' film critics consider the ''New French Cinema''(with Luc Besson as the biggest exponent)as an artistic prostitution which destroys Godard's,Truffaut's and Rohmer's legacy.I have to say I appreciate a lot that kind of movies because they take the Hollywood's clichés and they give them ''new life''.In other words,films like Dobermann,La Femme Nikita and The Crimson Rivers take the typical clichés but,in the hands of talented directors and screenwriters,they take ''new life'' so the final result is something innovative.L'Empire des Loups is another example of what I just mentioned.This film adapts the North American clichés to the French style and the result is a very entertaining and interesting thriller with a lot of energy.Director Chris Nahon and his screenwriters(Nahon is also one of them)do not stop in giving too much explanations in this movie,so the spectator has to pay a lot of attention.And I really appreciated that as the best element from this movie.I'm tired of the Hollywood movies which explain everything thinking the spectator is stupid.Nahon and his screenwriters trust that the spectator will be enough intelligent for taking out conclusions.This film always keeps the suspense and there are some really unexpected revelations.The fail I found on this movie was that,near the ending of the film,there's an imbalance.I mean,this film has a mysterious noir style and near the ending,the film suddenly becomes in an action film with explosions,chases and shootings.That parts are fun and exciting for themselves but they seem like out of place.In spite of that,L'Empire des Loups is a very entertaining and tense thriller that I totally recommend.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film and have also wondered about the negative reviews. The movie has two problems 1) a problem of perception: it starts off looking like a fairly routine mystery / police procedural, but elements of other kinds of movies begin to trickle in as the plot reveals itself -- which may have confused some reviewers wanting a pure genre piece, 2) the plot IS a little hard to follow in places and depends on one important coincidence in particular. However, the overall story makes sense in a "gestalty" kind of way and I don't think it's a killer issue. Oh, and 3) the English dub (which I turned on a couple of times) should be confiscated and burned. It's a fairly good dub in syncing the lips, but the voicing is as inappropriate as any bad dub of a Japanese film. For Pete's sake, hire a mimic next time you dub an actor as well-known as Reno.But I take real issue with the critics who labeled as "ridiculous" this or that aspect of the film. People have given high marks to James Bond films that stretched belief far more painfully. The real issue is that the French filmmakers aren't telegraphing the genre to the viewers. Good for them.Offsetting any problems is the wonderfully mysterious setup that ends in a real surprise about 40 minutes into the picture. That's the point when the picture shifts gears and we start seeing the "action/adventure" film which is quite well done.

This excellent thriller owes most of the credits to it's author (the book) Jean Christophe Grange and actor Jean Reno. You will find some similarities of the film with Crimson Rivers, which is also based on Grange's book and Jean Reno played the lead character Commissioner Pierre Niemans. Like Crimson Rivers, the movie begins with seemingly two different events and a pair of cops trying to unravel the mystery. Anna Heymes (Arly Jover), the wife of a respected government official Laurent (Philippe Bas) is having a rare amnesia and nightmarish hallucinations of horrible murders, while in the Turkish neighborhood of Paris, Police Captian Paul Nerteaux (Jocelyn Quivrin) is trying to solve the possible serial killings of the illegal Turkish women with the help of an ex-cop Jean-Louis Schiffer (Jean Reno), who is also an expert in Turkish underworld and organized crime. Eventually these two seemingly unrelated worlds begin to collide into a web of danger and dark mysteries. As usual, Grange's work made this movie a cerebral action thriller. Cherish it.

I completely understand the plot it goes like this :Girl without memory has face changed for some reason - The police changed her memory - She changed her face because she did a drug rip-deal - Here brother likes to kill people who look like her - Actually she is a Turkish terrorist - Jean reno is involved in something - The turks kill another group of turks in a bath filled with mintThen it gets better :The girl is a ninja - The drugs are in an enormous cave filled with death people - The case collapses and Reno is death - No he is not deathNever mind all that the end is amazing :Reno, the cop, the girl, the brother all end up in Turkey - At the same time of course, the whole France police force is also there - The girl kills here father - The cop, reno and the police kill everyone else in the village - The serial killer brother tries to serial kill the girlThe best thing about this movie however is the final end :Switch of DVD player, throw disk in bin, and sue the french for wasting your time.Movie seem to be made by a bunch of spaced out french with a high budget. Awful just awful, worst waste of time and money ever (well, there's french cars which are a step below that...)