Subway (1985)

I can't believe I just wasted over an hour and a half watching this movie. To make it even worse I'm spending another 3 minutes telling you this.

I'm a fan of Besson and have been since "Leon" and will continue to be. I was curious about this film since I read the reviews posted on this site.

This movie starts out with a bang and then goes flat for the next 90 minutes or so. I love 80s movies but this one just lies there like fresh roadkill. Let me put it into perspective.

It's as if John Hughes and John Carpenter had a kid and that kid wrote and directed this movie. I'm sure the creators were thinking, "Does Molly Ringwald speak fluent French? No? Well let's get Isabelle Adjiani and dress her up to look like Ringwald". They even cast a guy whose name is Jean-Hugues Anglade to be "The Roller". Jean-Hugues = John Hughes. Am I the only one who sees this? I'm not exaggerating these things. I was reminded of movies like The Warriors/Escape From New York/Sixteen Candles & Ferris Bueller's Day Off but I failed to see the humor in anything except seeing Jean Reno with hair and playing the drums. He must have practiced for weeks with those drumsticks.

At least HE learned to play the drums and picked up a paycheck at the end of this film. I was only left with option of rewinding the tape and returning it or destroying it so no one else would have to endure what I just did.

Fmovies: Before Christopher Lambert's downfall into garish sci-fi flicks such as Highlander 2 & 3 and Fortress, he starred in some very good French films. 'Subway' is one of them.

The film opens in the midst of a car chase, and from there, Fred, the protagonist, finds himself sifting through the underground maze of the Paris Metro (or the subway).

During his escape from the authorities, he meets all sorts of colourful characters. Vagabonds and thieves who introduce him into the seedy underworld of the Paris Metro. The film keeps up a decent pace and the character study is of top notch.

A quality production. Eight out of ten.

This film is about an upper class woman falling in love with a thief, who lives an alternative lief in the underground passages of the subway.

I was hoping this film would be as exciting or suspenseful as the "Leon", "The Fifth Element" or "Joan of Arc". I must say I was disappointed by this film. Maybe it was because Subway is an earlier film, and he had yet to develop his skill and style. I found Subway rather boring as there was not much going on. I was expecting more chases, drama, violence and psychological games.

Instead, the film is slow paced, dialog sparse and content sparse. We get treated a 90 seconds scene of cops walking down some stairs. Is this scene interesting or even necessary? I also am disappointed that there is little portrayal of what goes on in the subway passages. Just having some cat and mouse chases is not interesting enough.

Subway fmovies. There are a lot of people who rate this film so perhaps I just didn't understand it but I suspect that there wasn't much that needed understanding. I am a great fan of French films but this one seemed pretty pointless to me and there is little to say about it. It didn't satisfy either as an "entertaining" film (it has no real plot) or as a "thought-provoking" film (no character development, no analysis of human relations, etc). It also seemed to me to be very self-consciously American in style, if not a rather crude attempt to make a French film more palatable to the US market. There's nothing wrong with imitating the style of a country whose movies have conquered the world but I didn't think the director achieved it with any subtlety. Even the title of the film is a US English word. I guess it's just not my kind of film.

This is a brilliant film worth watching several times. I have at least. But when I first found this film on VHS, I accidentally got the English dubbed version which more or less ruins the film as it is a French movie with particular emphasis on the French language and its articulation. When Gesberg, the head of police, refers to his two agents as "Batman" and "Robin", there is a hell of a lot difference between pronouncing it in English or French. Hear it for yourself and enjoy the movie. Very entertaining. The opening scene with the car chase really gets the movie going and it just keeps up the speed and at the same time remains ironic and tongue-in-cheek. A classic 80's movie!

When I first saw this movie I was magnetized by its unique atmosphere. Luc Besson created amazing out-of-genre movie. "Subway" inherits traditions of european films of the 70-ies and has something new and magnetic at the same time; and it is certainly Besson's most european film. Maybe it is the reason of it's not so high ratings by american critique. Strange, but Lambert's early and best roles in "Subway" and Marco Ferreri's "I love you" are crossed out by his later films. Talking about "Subway", this movie stands in a row of other films of the middle and the end of the 80-ies that were last before the sunset of european cinematograph and the wind of pan-american influence. And although many american movies are real masterpieces, two traditions can't be mixed. This is one of those cult films that create amazing style that can't be repeated. And although I find "Leon", "Nikita" and "5th element" really good movies, they all were commercial projects. And "Subway"... well, who saw it, they will understand. And maybe not. 10 out of 10.