Subway

1985 [FRENCH]

Action / Thriller

25
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 74% · 8 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 74% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.5/10 10 17625 17.6K

metropolis paris, france culture clash blackmail subway criminal

Plot summary

Fred, a raffish safe blower, takes refuge in the Paris Metro after being chased by the henchmen of a shady businessman from whom he has just stolen some documents. While hiding out in the back rooms and conduits of the Metro, Fred encounters a subterranean society of eccentric characters and petty criminals.

Director

Luc Besson Photo
Luc Besson

Top cast

Jean Reno Photo
Jean Reno as Le Batteur
Richard Bohringer Photo
Richard Bohringer as Le Fleuriste
Jean-Hugues Anglade Photo
Jean-Hugues Anglade as Le Roller
Magali Guidasci Photo
Magali Guidasci as La Punk
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay 2160p.BluRay
943.55 MB
1280*546
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds 4
1.71 GB
1916*816
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds 28
4.58 GB
3840*2160
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles fr  
23.976 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds 11

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by LCShackley 5 / 10

A fine-looking muddle

If you want an early-80s French film that looks good and has a perceptible plot, try DIVA instead of this eye-popping failure.I agree that Besson has a wonderful visual sense, and he obviously loves the Metro (as I do too, having visited Paris not long after this film was made). But all the cool costumes, chases, and quirky characters can't make up for the absence of a decent story. (Jeunet figured this out and made MICMACS, a much better film about quirky characters who live at the fringe of society.) There's a wonderful car chase at the opening and then it's literally downhill from there. Blackmail, a holdup, a bizarre rock band in an underground music store (featuring composer Eric Serra on bass), a dysfunctional marriage...they're all mixed together, topped off with an awful ending.Serra's score is a great example of 1980s synth/jazz, unfortunately spoiled here and there by completely idiotic lyrics. Fans of Besson, lovers of subways, or folks needing an 80s overdose might enjoy this film. And whatever you do, avoid the dubbed version, which unfortunately was all that was available from my streaming video source.
Reviewed by allyjack 5 / 10

Doesn't look much better fifteen years on

I watched this again to see if the integration of flashy Hollywood values into French cinema looked any better fifteen years on, and it really didn't. The movie's extremely loose plot and visual restlessness have their engaging elements, although more in theory than practice: I wish, for example, that the contrast between the initial elegance of the spiky-haired tuxedoed Lambert suggesting a punkish James Bond, and his ultimate incarnation as a doomed Robin Hood, were more interesting. The movie also contains traces of anarchy (Adjani disrupting a constipated upper-class dinner party); conventional send-up (the ineffectual cops); scattered cultural references; and apparent unapologetic self-indulgence. It occasionally makes it as a kind of scrapbook of high-concept images and impressions, but is probably best summed up by Lambert's ineffectual, smirking central void of a protagonist. The final delivery of a would-be significant message through an utterly trashy song doesn't cap it off much.
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