I gave it a 7.5 out of 10

Excellent, a Must See

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

A young girl named Alice(Alexandra Negrão)calls on Inspector Anita(Asia Argento, playing a normal person..seems to be going through the motions)to help put her assassin mother Eva(Frances Barber..one evil bitch)away because of the torture/execution of a maid recorded on disc. The killer, however, had a mask and the voice was mechanically altered. Even worse, Eva is a wealthy, powerful woman no matter how cold-blooded she is. Alice will go on the lam as Eva's goons are in hot pursuit. Luckily for Alice she hides in the car of Hugo(Jean-Marc Barr), a freedom fighter for a assassin group called Liberty Bells, who we saw in the opening accidentally kill a child he thought was a soldier. Hugo will assist Alice in the search for her boatmaker father Travis(Johan Leysen)while Eva draws on her lover, the Colonel(Carlo Brandt)and his top mercenary Sorvan(François Levantal)to find their whereabouts. Meanwhile, Anita will be given leave by her boss to go on the road to find Alice herself. It will all lead to a final showdown in the secret location/residence of Alice's father..that is if Hugo can get her there in one piece and if he's even alive.While, like many of it's kind, this polished, ultra-stylish Euro-actioner asks the viewer to accept a lot of improbable situations(such as the bullet-ridden hotel sequence where several of the Colonel's soldiers attempt to flush Hugo out from hiding resulting in lots of hi-tech gunplay)and coincidences(Alice just happening to choose a talented, top-notch assassin's car to hide in while running from Eva's goons). I enjoyed it even if logic is completely thrown out the window. I liked Jean-Marc as the hero Hugo and thought Barber was effective as the reptilian Eva.

I heard about this film and thought 'meh, sounds like a corny action b-film', expecting something along the lines of XXX. But was taken by delightful surprise after seeing it one night on the Movie Network. Olivier Megaton does a very good job filming this movie, with points for action sequences and style. There are no corny one line phrases you see in typical 0ver-rated action films, and it provides a good selection of characters. The action scenes are beautifully filmed, preferably the gun battle in the hotel and the when the film climaxes at Alice's father's place near the end. The rotating camera around Alice as she kills her mother was a pretty damn cool idea. Acting itself was decent, nothing spectacular but nothing to complain about. Good mix of characters and satisfactory storyline. 7.5-8/10

In Paris, the twelve years old girl Alice (Alexandra Negrão) arrives to the police station, and asks to meet detective Anita (Asia Argento). In her office, Alice tells that her mother Eva (Frances Barber) is a sadistic killer and delivers a video showing Eva torturing and killing their maid Sunya. The chief of police does not believe in Alice, but Anita decides to investigate by her own and finds that Eva is a powerful and wealthy leader of an international criminal organization. When Alice escapes from the guard of the detective in charge of her security, she decides to travel to Portugal to meet her father, who is supposedly dead, and is chased by two gangster of Eva's organization. Alice meets the traumatized mercenary Hugo (Jean-Marc Barr), who protects and travels with her to Portugal, trying to find her father, while Eva and Anita also travels to that country."La Sirène Rouge" is one of the most unbelievable and flawed screenplay I have ever seen. The storyline is actually a great absurd since the very first beginning until the last scene. Nevertheless, there are many action scenes and shooting and this movie entertains. I personally am a fan of Asia Argento, and her name in the credits was the great attraction for me to see this movie. In the hotel, in the check-in of Hugo and Alice, the soccer game is between Flamengo and another Brazilian team. Later, we can hear the speaker narrating another soccer game in Brazil. Therefore, the language is Portuguese, but the teams and the accent are not from Portugal. I found this sequence ridiculously hilarious. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "O Alerta Vermelho" ("The Red Alert")

I went to see this film because I had read the novel by Dantec. The litterature is not a masterpiece but constitutes the basis for a wonderful film. Unfortunately, Mr Megaton(the director), seems to have misunderstood the strength of the novel. This story is a psychological one based on the relationship of a daughter with her murderer mother and the one of a little girl with an idealistic Bosnia Mercenary. The Director Olivier Megaton does a very poor job at expressing these complexities beeing to buisy showing long shooting and actions scenes, giant explosions etc... Except from Jean Marc Barr who is somehow convincing as Hugo, the actors interpret the complex characters whith very talent and little complexity. The mother murderer seems like a movie version of Cruela Devil from the 101 dalmatians. The plot beeing somehow far fetched, this film's characters needed to be given realism to make the experience fulfilling. Yes the shooting scenes are filmed with talent and the sound quality is astounding but pure technique and craftmanship are not enough to make a movie. The film lacks layers and depths. Few people in Europe needed to be convinced that a European director could make an action movie. The problem is that this movie is the synthesis between the worse in European and American films It is filled with useless actions scenes, flat acting and unfinished characters(like in usual action hollywood films) and it has the badly explored psychological, philosophical and social themes of an unsuccesful european film