Lost Bullet 2 (Guillaume Pierret, 2022)

Lost Bullet 2 picks up with Lino as a part of the team.

He has a falling out when he realises that the cops have made a deal with one of the villains from the previous movie so that they can catch a bigger fish.

Lino will have to go rogue again in order to outrun his former colleagues and catch the bigger villain behind it all...

Lost Bullet is one of the best action movies I have seen recently. So efficient and economic in its vehicular mayhem, it made most big-screen action movies look like overlong, airless messes.

In a key action sequence early in Lost Bullet 2, three police cars collide with an articulated bus which is hurtled across two roads. This one scene speaks to the bigger canvas director Guillaume Pierret and his stunt team have to work with.

 I am never a fan of too much continuity between movies - there were a few times in the first 30ish minutes where I had to explain why something was significant.

There is an interesting development where Lino is revealed  to be in a relationship with the ex-wife of the previous villain. 

But ultimately the set up for this movie is relatively simple - protect a witness and get him from location A to location B.

Even more so than the original, Lost Bullet 2 is essentially a car chase - with Lino, Julia and various other players playing hot potato with Marco (Sébastien Lalanne), the surviving scumbag from the first movie.

Rather than just adding more ingredients or extending the runtime, Lost Bullet 2 shares a similar relationship with its predecessor as Mad Max: Fury Road does to The Road Warrior - taking its final car chase and refining it down to become its own narrative.

With the emphasis on vehicular action, and simple motivations, the film is more tense than its predecessor, with the filmmakers throwing as many obstacles in Lino’s way as possible.

The stunts are jaw dropping, with multiple cars being launched into space or colliding with each other. Photographed in clean wide shots, with the sound design emphasising every metal-tearing, tyre-screeching moment.

And the choreography and timing of the setpieces is perfect - there is no scene which drags on too long, and is filled with painful-looking moments of physical comedy. Sébastien Lalanne (Marco) becomes a bloody Wile E. Coyote, as he is dragged/thrown/punched/hit with a car door.

A third film is currently in development, and I hope that Guillaume Pierret and his collaborators are given the space and resources to keep making movies like this.

Action movies like this are not made in Hollywood, and it is great to see filmmakers like Pierret on a platform with as broad a reach as Netflix. There is a clarity and economy of vision here that needs to be nurtured and celebrated.

Lost Bullet 2 is probably the best action movie I have seen this year. Check it out.