Stars: Jean-Pierre Cassel, Vincent Cassel, Nadia Fares, Karim Belkhadra, Francine Berge, Didier Flamand, Laurent Lafitte, Francois Leventhal

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

Summary: Two French policemen, working on separate murder investigations, find that the deatils of each case are very similar to the other. Will they find out the truth before it is too late?...

Jean Reno reprises his role as a laconic tough cop in Mathieu Kassovitz's disturbing thriller, THE CRIMSON RIVERS. Kassovitz, who rose to fame with his compelling racial drama HATE, brings his signature flare for character development and subtle direction to this unlikely alpine murder mystery. A horrifically mutilated corpse found in a remote mountain village signifies a serious enough crime to call in Parisian detective Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno). Meanwhile, less than 200 miles away, the young upstart detective Kerkerian (HATE's Vincent Cassel) investigates a similarly bizarre crime, the defacement of a young girl's grave. As the two intrepid detectives pursue their cases--Niemans examining bizarre circumstances at a local university and Kerkerian interviewing the dead girls recalcitrant mother (now a cloistered nun)--the two investigations pitch violently towards each other, forcing the detectives to join forces as they recognize the horrifying implications that may link the seemingly isolated crimes. The precarious mountain locale acts as a fittingly terse setting for Kassovitz's tight direction (and surprise ending) as well as Reno and Cassel's powerfully quirky performances, all of which make THE CRIMSON RIVERS a breathtaking and gut-wrenching instant genre classic.

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French sensation The Crimson Riverswas a serial killer thriller with a difference--it was genuinely thrilling. It was also pretty disturbing, but Jean Reno (The Professional) brought some light to the darkness with his sly performance as dog-phobic detective Niémans. Fortunately, Reno has returned in this highly stylized Luc Besson-penned sequel. Vincent Cassell has not, but Benoît Magimel (The Piano Teacher), as new partner Reda, makes for a decent replacement. Alas, Olivier Dahan isn't in the same league as Matthieu Kassovitz and the story line, which has something to do with the Last Supper, the Maginot Line, and gravity-defying killer monks, is even more convoluted than before. Then there's Johnny Hallyday (The Man on the Train) as a mysterious one-eyed man and Christopher Lee (The Lord of the Rings) as a bad German dude. It's all a little ridiculous, but entertaining nonetheless, and the chase sequences are a treat. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Director And Cast Commentary, Isolated Music Score With Composer Commentary, Trailers, Animated Menus, The Investigation Making of Documentary, 12 Featurettes, Cast And Crew Filmographies
Subtitles:	Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	2000
Release Date:	November 26, 2001
Runtime:	101 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C D R 31975
Keywords:	Two, General, Wide, Screen, Rivers, Thriller, Crimson, Discs, Pourpes, Rivieres
Genre:	Thriller