Lino (Alban Lenoir) is a mechanic who specialises in retrofitting cars for smash-and-grab robberies and outrunning the police.
While helping his brother (Rod Paradot) with a robbery, Lino is caught and put in prison.
In jail, Lino is offered a deal by police detective Charas (Ramzy Habib El Haq Bedia): stay in jail, or serve your sentence by working for him, applying his skills to making Charas's officers as fast as the criminals they are chasing.
The arrangement works - until Charas is murdered and Lino goes on the run to prove his innocence...
This movie does not waste time so I'll try to keep this one in that same spirit.
Tight, efficient thrillers like this are a favourite of mine, but what sticks out the most about Lost Bullet is what a slow-burn it is.
Unlike a lot of action movies which try to jam-pack their runtimes with set pieces, Loose Bullet builds toward a final car chase.
The car chases are shot in extended takes, the fight sequences are shot wide to show off the choreography. But the movie has the patience to build up to each scene.
The finale, in which Lino converts his boss’s car into a killing machine, is a marvel and feels special because the movie has the restraint to keep its best set piece for the ending.
Lead player Alban Lenoir is an experienced stunt man, which adds to the film's sense of verisimilitude.
The story is fairly straightforward: Lino is betrayed, has to go on the run and spends most of the movie trying to outrun/gun the villains.
A lot of movies about undercover cops get tied up in plot lines and double crosses. There is a clarity to the storytelling that the stakes are never deflated.
Anyway, it is a great action movie, and on Netflix.
The sequel came out last week. I'll be checking that out ASAP.
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