The
cars are sleek and the scenery is picturesque, but this job still isn’t worth
it. The four-car convoy is ferrying a load of marijuana from Spain into France,
but the whole operation goes down twisted right from the very start. Imad insists
they left together, so they will arrive together too, but none of the other
smugglers really believe him in Frédéric Schoendoerffer’s super-slick Fast Convoy (trailer here), which releases today
on VOD.
The
convoy is not on the road long before Majid looks in the backseat and sees the
drug kingpin included a bonus duffle bag fill of cocaine. If caught, they would
potentially face ten times more prison time, spurring the family man to have a conniption
fit. Ironically, his freak out contributes to the initial mishap that leads to far
worse trouble. Soon bullets fly and an innocent motorist is taken hostage. Yet,
it is not the cops the drug-runners are really worried about. It is the mystery
driver the admittedly paranoid Yacine is convinced is following them.
Obviously,
Convoy has plenty of car chase
action, but what really makes it work is the complicated dynamics between the
well-differentiated crew-members. If the gang has organizational charts, the
manipulative Imad would certainly be at the top, but strong, silent Alex, their
Winston Wolf figure, clearly has operational control when the smack hits the
fan. You can tell he’s bad, because he gets the Porsche. Even their hostage
Nadia starts to dig him, which is admittedly problematic, but this is a French
film, so what can we expect?
Regardless,
Schoendoerffer’s high-performance execution powers through any politically
correct objections, building to a crescendo of violence worthy of vintage 1980s
Hong Kong action spectacles. This is a lethally effective auto smash-up that
calls shenanigans on the Fast and Furious
franchise’s bogus “family” talk.
Benoît
Magimel is ultra-cool and uber-hardnosed as Alex. He just has instant cred as
the fixer, which continuously deepens and compounds. Tewfik Jallab and Amir El
Kacem are all kinds of intense and jittery as Imad and Yacine, while Léon Garel
doubles down on the edgy, Tarantino-esque humor as Rémi, the prospective Muslim
convert.
This
is the sort of film that just flies by. Schoendoerffer definitely knows how to
stage a car crash and a shoot-out. Yet, Convoy
is quite well crafted beyond the stunt work and pyrotechnics, particularly Vincent
Gallot’s stylish cinematography, which evokes the look and vibe of Michael Mann
and Luc Besson fan favorites. Very highly recommended for action connoisseurs, Fast Convoy is now available on VOD
platforms, from Under the Milky Way.
