Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

22 Bullets Blu-ray Movie Review

. . .and that's just the beginning.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 11, 2014

Lilyhammer: Season One posited Steve Van Zandt as a former mobster who enters the Federal Witness Protection program after having barely escaped an assassination attempt. One of the more disturbing images of the carnage that Van Zandt’s character of Frank “The Fixer” Tagliano survives is the sad sight of Frank’s little dog Lily being decimated in the attack. I mean, it almost seems fair game for gangsters to take each other out in hyperbolic style, but do they need to shoot the dog, too? That same question may append an early scene in 22 Bullets (released in its native France as L’Immortel), where, yes, a gangster named Charlie Mattei (Jean Reno) who finds himself at the wrong end of several guns virtually right off the bat in the film, ending up with the titular score-plus of bullets in his hide, and now lacking one previously living (and loving) mutt who had captured the crime boss’ heart. That’s enough to set even a grizzled kingpin off on a revenge fueled rant, and that’s pretty much what 22 Bullets ends up being. This film reteams star Reno with Luc Besson, who directed Reno in both Léon: The Professional and La Femme Nikita. Besson serves as producer here, but in fact the film plays rather like one of Besson's own films with Reno, with director Richard Berry balancing some excellently staged action set pieces with more penetrating character work. While the film ultimately may not have quite as much gravitas as it seems to be aiming for, it's still great to see Reno depicting a character whose best days may indeed be behind him, but who is definitely not going gentle into that good night.

In the moments leading up to the aforementioned disturbing shooting scene, one might almost think 22 Bullets is going to be a warm and fuzzy family drama. We see an elderly woman, obviously a mother and grandmother, tending to both her son (Reno) and grandson. The two guys then set off on a scenic car journey where Dad pops in a CD of Pavarotti singing Puccini, and begins singing along with the iconic tenor. Soon enough, the young boy is making it a trio, and all seems to be sunshine and roses (almost literally, given the gorgeous Marseilles setting. As they drive into a village, the little boy sees a kind of bizarre street performer who has a dancing goat who is performing to “La Vie en Rose” (what is this, a Buñuel film?), and he asks his father if he can get out of the car and watch. Dad of course says yes, and goes to park the car, at which point the carnage breaks out.

The film’s original French title, which of course translates to “the immortal”, gives some indication as to how Charlie is perceived after having survived such an onslaught. When an even more daring second assassination attempt is made upon him while he’s still recuperating in the hospital, Charlie begins to realize just how serious the situation is, and he vows revenge. Meanwhile, a widowed cop named Marie Goldman (Marina Fois) is keeping tabs on Mattei, suspecting him of having some part in the death of her husband, a Marseilles policeman. Charlie is visited in the hospital by his longtime partner Zacchia (Kad Merad), a guy we’ve already met via a flashback Charlie experienced while badly wounded which detailed the youthful escapades of three young toughs who had actually assassinated a notorious mob boss after he had killed another boss with whom Charlie had been jailed for a time. Zacchia pledges to find out who was behind these attempts on Charlie’s life, but investigations by Charlie’s consigliore Martin (Jean-Pierre Darrroussin), who is actually now married to Charlie’s first wife, along with Charlie’s aide Karim (Moussa Masskri) reveal that it’s actually Zacchia himself who is out to kill Charlie.

A rather multi-tiered cat and mouse game then ensues for the bulk of the rest of the film, with Charlie and Zacchia attempting to find each other and kill each other’s gangs, with a slew of rather bloody and often quite gruesome deaths accruing. But Marie is also on the hunt, first for Charlie, but then for Zacchia, and ultimately for Charlie’s family, whom Charlie has spirited away to keep safe. While the more standard thriller elements play out with ease here, it’s obvious that what the film really has on its mind is family. This is evident from that first bracing scene, where Charlie is shot horrendously in a parking garage while his little boy waits, alone, outside, wondering where his father has gone. But over and over again the film delves into personal relationships, including Marie’s own kind of sad situation with her son, who misses his father, and even with regard to Zacchia, who delivers a big speech about family at the wedding of one of his henchmen. There’s the none too subtle irony of Charlie having seen Zacchia as a “brother” of his (and in fact Zacchia calls Charlie his brother when he’s still pretending to search for, in the words of a certain O.J. Simpson, the “real killers”).

22 Bullets tends to work best as a thriller, however. It probably could have done without a late development involving a threat to Charlie’s little son (there is already tension aplenty in the film without this trite turn of events), but overall it provides an exciting and enjoyable ride through the lives of several intertwined characters. It may not have the consistent visceral intensity of films like La Femme Nikita, but it certainly delivers a jolt of adrenaline on several key occasions and it provides Reno a nice turn as an aging but still very effective “professional”.

22 Bullets Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

22 Bullets is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. The film has been released several times previous internationally, though this appears to have been culled from the same master that was used for the Canadian release reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov (I come to this conclusion based not on any definite knowledge, but simply from a cursory comparison of screenshots, which seem identical or at least nearly so to my eyes). The film features a number of subtle but noticeable color grading decisions which tend to cast a golden hue over quite a bit of the exterior scenes, but fine detail is never compromised as a result. Berry likes to exploit extreme close-ups throughout the film (see screenshots 6 and 7 for a couple of examples), and those reveal exceptional fine detail. Contrast and black levels are consistent throughout the presentation, and there was no overt artifacting that I noticed in preparation for this review.

22 Bullets Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

22 Bullets features a nicely boisterous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in the original French. The film has several nice set pieces which allow for good use of LFE and directionality, including the opening gun volley in the parking garage (which includes some impressive lower bursts as well as the shattering of several car windows), and a later chase scene where Charlie is trying to evade two zooming cars while on a mini-scooter. The recurring motif of opera sounds fine as well, and dialogue comes through completely cleanly at all times.

22 Bullets Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making Of (480i; 25:43), or "le making of" as it's somewhat humorously labeled on the actual documentary, features some decent interviews with Berry and Reno as well as quite a bit of behind the scenes footage.


• Director's Video Commentary (480i; 1:47:50) is not a PiP feature, as might be inferred from the title, but instead a feature length interview with Berry intercut with things like storyboards, brief snippets from the film and behind the scenes footage. This is interesting but perhaps would have been more useful as a PiP feature playing along with the film (I'm assuming this is the same supplement that did indeed appear as a PiP feature on the French Blu-ray release of the film).

22 Bullets Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

22 Bullets should certainly satisfy most Reno fans who love the actor's previous collaborations with Luc Besson. Besson may not be behind the camera this time, but his influence is most definitely felt in this film. While the plot is perhaps a bit too tangled for its own good, and comes to a probably too pat resolution (replete with a final freeze frame that tends to contradict Reno's voice over), overall this is a really exciting and well done thriller that has the added benefit of some absolutely stunning French scenery. Technical merits of this Blu-ray are top notch. Highly recommended.