Mesrine: Killer Instinct (15)

GLAMORISING violent men in film is a controversial subject - and I'll shoot anyone who says any different.

Mesrine: Killer Instinct is the first of a pair of French movies that most definitely glamorise the life story of Gallic bank robber Jacques Mesrine.

Because cold-blooded, brutal and conniving as the man might be . . . you have to admit he looks damn cool.

Vincent Cassel plays the titular tea-leaf who's a suave charmer with a nerve-janglingly vicious streak.

Mesrine (pronounced May-reen - he's got a chip on his shoulder about that) returns from the Algerian War to late 50s/early 60s Paris, where he gets sucked into a life of crime. And he soon realises he's pretty damn good at it.

His party trick is robbing two banks on the trot. And his sense of style (don't be misled by the picture - this is 1960s France, remember) and flair for self-publicity quickly earns him mythic status in the media. This is an old-fashioned gangster epic in the same vein as Goodfellas and City of God. And while it doesn't reach the lofty standards of those two genre classics, it's still a must-see for fans of angry men with guns and period-accurate facial hair. Cassel dominates the film with a stupendous, magnetic performance. And support from his long-suffering wife Sofia (Elena Anaya), mentor Guido (Gerard Depardieu) and mistress (Cecile De France) is also fab.

It climaxes in a stunning jailbreak sequence - made all the more stunning by Mesrine going straight back with a Jeep and machine gun to bust his mates out. Anyone disappointed by Public Enemies will find loads to love here. It's got the same myth-making agenda but none of the muddy sound mix and jerk- o-rama camerawork.

Part two, subtitled Public Enemy Number One, is due out at the end of the month but this first half works perfectly on its own as a brilliant gangster flick.

And you can take that to the bank . . . except Mesrine will probably nick it.

OUT FRIDAY

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