Nest, The (2002)
Action | Crime | Thriller

"I love this film. One helluva flick!" - Ain't It Cool News

The Transporter meets S.W.A.T. and Die Hard. Three gangs, on the run from their own respective demons, take refuge in the same massive warehouse. Everyone's armed, tense and ready to shoot the next person they see.

Laborie is a high-flying officer in the French special forces. Her mission is to escort Abedin Nexhep, a godfather of the Albanian mafia. Charged with heading a wide-reaching prostitution network, this formidable criminal is due to stand trial before a European court. During the transfer, killers hired by Nexhep set up an ambush to free their boss but Laborie and her men manage to escape. After a frantic chase, the officers seek refuge, with their prisoner, in a warehouse located in the heart of an industrial park. There they meet up with a gang that has come to steal computer material. Meanwhile, Nexhep's killers surround the warehouse?

User Comment: Simon Booth from UK, 17 August 2004 • Watching THE NEST I was reminded in quite a few ways of DIE HARD, which I consider to be the archetypal action movie. Very pure of focus, very lean and taught and *incredibly* intense. It's been a long time since a movie kept me on the edge of my seat like this one.

The premise is very simple. A group of special forces soldiers are escorting a mafia head to trial when they're attacked by his men and take refuge in a warehouse. As luck would have it, a gang of thieves choose the same night to rob the same warehouse, and they get caught in the crossfire.

Once the groups of characters are introduced, it's not long before the bullets start flying... and flying, and flying and flying. It's almost non-stop action for the rest of the film, and easily outdoes HARD BOILED for bullet count. I'm sure some people will find this very boring, so if intense adrenalin-inducing action isn't one of your things then skip the rest of this review (and the film). The rest of you, skip the rest of this review and go rent/buy/acquire this film. Hollywood only wishes it could make an action film this pure or this exciting these days.

As regards purity (since I've mentioned it twice), this means that the film focusses on building intense action, and doesn't let itself get distracted with other concerns, except in a few cases. The characters are given just enough development to let us know who they are, and pretty much no back story. One character in particular seems like he must have a story to tell, but all we learn is that he was once a fireman. There was surely more to him than that, but it's kept a mystery. Maybe that's a good thing, but I'd have liked to know a little more. A few times the movie teases you into thinking there's going to be a twist, and you say to yourself "Ha, I see what's coming later", but the plot remains refreshingly twist-free. It doesn't need them, so it doesn't have them. Pure.

It's just a shame that Hollywood's marketing machinery has such an iron grip on the world's cinema distribution that junk like Alien vs Predator will be seen by millions of people, and a movie as good as THE NEST will remain inexplicably classed as "Indie" or "Arthouse", even in its home country.

Summary: Most intense action movie in years.

User Comment: blamire from Los Angeles, California, 22 February 2003 • This is a beautifully mounted action thriller that creates suspense with a deliberate setup and then wonderfully delivers on those expectations. When it gets going it's truly relentless. This is far better than any American action film of recent years and there's a lesson to be learned here. Especially with creating interesting multi-layered characters we care about coupled with the unpredictability that anyone can get killed at any time. When the audience cares about the characters the main battle of any action flick is won--we have a vested interest. At that point there's no other place to be but on the edge of your seat. If this is not picked up for US distribution it'll be a crime, and our loss.

Summary: A Relentless White Knuckle Ride.

[CSW] -4- A straight forward plot with lots of action and lots of bullets which make for a near perfect action movie. I liked it an if it comes out on Blu-ray I may get it..

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