Le Raid (2002)
Directed by Djamel Bensalah

Film Review

After making a promising directorial debut with Le Ciel, les oiseaux et... ta mère! (1999), Djamel Bensalah failed to win many plaudits for this chaotic adventure comedy.  Although the film offers a few decent laughs, its shambolic script, over-abundance of special effects and totally haphazard direction land it a place firmly in the bottom drawer of cinema entertainment.  The film's only saving grace is the infrequent appearance of Gérard Jugnot, the only actor in this incoherent mess who is capable of injecting some real comedy into it.

Film Synopsis

Sami and his loyal friends Tacchini, Yaya and Kader form a gang of petty criminals who scrape by in the suburbs of Paris.  Their boss, Carlito, is unimpressed when they bungle a straightforward robbery but he gives them a chance to redeem themselves by spying on his fiancée, who is presently based in Canada.  Sami and his friends are engaged on this fairly innocent assignment when they are mistaken for a group of professional hitmen.  Before they know it, they are tasked with a new mission - to find and kill the wealthy heiress Léonore de Segonzac.   

It seems that Léonore is a young woman who is addicted to taking risks. Even though several members of her family have recently managed to kill themselves by indulging in their passion for extreme sports, she cannot resist entering herself in the most dangerous competition on the planet - an adventure race called 'Le Raid'.  Sami and his three friends manage to get their mission off to a good start by entering themselves in this contest, with Léonore as their team leader.  As the competition gets underway in South America, the hired killers who were originally assigned to murder the heiress show up and begin chasing after Sami and his friends.  Even if Léonore and her three hapless crew members do manage to survive the ordeal of Le Raid, it is doubtful that they will evade the ruthless assassins who are close on their tail, armed to the teeth...