Putain, I’ve got another slick-looking but gritty French action thriller to recommend! One of my more recent guilty pleasure genres is proving to be quite active. As soon as I saw the opening scene, I knew this was going to be a great movie. Just like with the last one we talked about here, Ad Vitam, which, compared to this one, now seems a bit boring. We first see a man speeding in a convertible on a busy highway. It’s night time and you can feel that magical air full of possibilities running through his hair. The next thing we see is a squad of heavily armed cops starting a raid. And that was the moment I knew I was in for quite a ride.
Hunting With Tigers is a visually impressive French neo-noir heist movie about a small-time drug dealer trying to get his stepfather out of jail. To do so, he will have to team up with a group of ruthless criminals to pull off a daring heist. So, you know the deal, a bunch of shady characters, an anti-hero trying to redeem himself, and a whole lot of cool action scenes. Hunting With Tigers gives new meaning to the word underrated as the movie currently sits with just two user and no critic reviews on IMDb. Why is this, I have no idea. It’s not like the movie is bad, cheap, or anything like that. On the contrary, it looks freaking awesome.
Additionally, the cast is perfectly balanced featuring both the new and the old guard. We have not one but two early 2000s heartthrobs, Olivier Martinez (Unfaithful) and Vincent Perez (The Crow: City of Angels). They’ve aged like fine French wine and still have an immense screen presence. When it comes to the new guard, first up is Sofiane Zermani, a popular French rapper-turned-actor whom you might remember from Close Enemies or Wages of Fear 2024 edition. The lead role went to the rising star, Mr. I Cut Stuff With My Jawline, Waël Sersoub and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of him.
Just like in any other movie in this underrated subgenre, the women are fucking beautiful. I wish Géraldine Nakache, who plays Iris, got a bit more screen time while Cassandra Cano was excellent as the shady lawyer Estelle. All of them were working under the steady hand of Jérémie Guez. His thrillers Burn Out and Black Box were not the greatest but they were fun to watch. Here, he proves that he can direct a tight neo-noir thriller and I expect great things from him. Hunting With Tigers or Tigers and Hyenas is not all doom and gloom. We have a bit of family drama and a bit of romance to lighten things up.
However, there’s constant suspense and tension in the air as our crew is operating on a tight schedule. Don’t forget, they have a youngin to train and a big heist to pull off. The pacing is just right and there’s barely a moment to stop and rest in this movie. The action scenes were wonderfully choreographed. A bit unrealistic but at least everybody was taking them seriously. So, it wasn’t hard to just go with the flow and immerse yourself in this crime story. The finale was the cherry on the top although it was a bit predictable.
Again, if you’re looking for a bit of light neo-noir entertainment, this will be a plus. And if you want the hard stuff, you can always go back to the seventies classics. I also want to mention that Hunting With Tigers AKA Tigres et Hyenes is available for streaming on Amazon Prime. So, if you have an account, this will be a no-brainer. Finally, if you’re looking for more French heist action thrillers, you can check out The Crew, Cash Truck, and Rogue City. I’ll just Nokas to that list because it’s just as gritty and also based on actual events.
Director: Jérémie Guez
Writers: Jérémie Guez, Louis Lagayette
Cast: Waël Sersoub, Sofiane Zermani, Olivier Martinez, Vincent Perez, Géraldine Nakache, Cassandra Cano
Fun Facts: The budget for the movie was 9 million Euro or just under $10 million.
Rating:
IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28639058/
