Dobermann Review

• 21st Apr 2011

Between making his mark in cult classic La Haine and cutting it in more mainstream fare stateside, Vincent Cassel starred in this ultraviolent French actioner from Jan Kounen.

Cassel – painfully cool as always – stars as the titular character, a crook of estimable badassery who, with real-life spouse Monica Belucci, leads a rag-tag crew of heisters, the scourge of the Parisian constabulary, who are foiled at every turn by the gang’s antics, until one rogue cop (Tchéky Karyo, in a terrifying turn) enters the fold, a psychotic character who will stop at nothing to get his man. Explosions ensue.

The French might be better known for their arthouse output but Dobermann sits right at the other end of the accessibility spectrum; a loud, brash and unashamedly pulpy production, in which the appealingly simple cops-n-robbers premise plays out through an action-heavy hour and a half where you’re never more than five minutes from the next big shootout or novel way of blowing something up. It’s terrifically entertaining stuff.

Though certainly not for the squeamish, marked by extreme violence throughout, the often cartoonish nature of the execution – for example, one bystander emerges sooty and ragged but conscious from a direct hit from a grenade launcher – mitigates the shock factor. This comic aspect is further evident in the whacky cast of characters that make up Cassel’s gang – a puppy-loving psychopath, a permanently-on-edge cokehead, a vicar and a transvestite hooker, among other colourful types, provide lots of broad humour and remind the viewer not to take things too seriously.

Adam Richardson