Rent Subway (1985)

Don't Bother To Rent - Subway review by CP Customer

This is the edited version, cut from 104 mins down to 98 mins.

In addition, the American accented English dubbing is dreadful.

Stick with the Channel 4 broadcast from 1987 for the uncut version if you still have on VHS (French with subtitles) or watch this in French with subtitles if you don't.

Young Funk Rebels - Subway review by Steve

What was once called Cinema du Look, now appears to be an assortment of mannerisms lifted from contemporary Hollywood imports. Now it seems less satisfying- and more dated- than the previous generation of French cinema which Luc Besson was reacting against. Like the Hitchcock inspired thrillers of Claude Chabrol. 

This is nominally in the same genre but the McGuffin is so spurious that it is essentially plotless. The concept is interesting; Christopher Lambert (in a dinner jacket) enters a labyrinthine network of subterranean crime in the Paris Metro; much like the mysterious tunnels and passageways of the Casbah in Pepe le Moko (1937)!

And he meets up with a gang of maverick hipsters, including Jean-Hugues Anglade as a roller skating purse snatcher and Jean Reno as a gnomic drummer. Isabelle Adjani is the cool rebel who follows the hero underground, evoking the period more through her cartoonish shoulder pads, than any thematic content.

When a dude with designer stubble in a sleeveless t-shirt and shades plays slap on a fretless bass, it may be the most '80s thing that ever happened on screen. What was once groovy is now a period piece with a surplus of awkward comedy and a funky soundtrack. It hasn't aged gracefully- and that is now the attraction.