User reviews

Over the time Olivier Marchal created his own sub genre of gritty French movies and some of them could be treated as niche classic. The formula of success was quite simple: down to Earth cops who often forced to work with the criminals in one way or another to stop the bigger evil, dark story, complete disregards for happy endings and visually dark cinematography. You can find sun in some of his movies, but it always feels like a dark cloud forms above the character on the screen even if action is set in Nice or Marseille.

Sadly, this one is never going to be one of his best films, neither will it be even close to pieces like MR 73 or 36 Precinct. First of all, story. It feels like the script was made from some leftovers and it lacks common sense. Criminals could be stupid, but organized crime, the focus of this movie, usually is not. Their complete disregard of operational security, useless violence, reckless behavior are only serving as reasons to provide the viewer with dramatic, clip-like scenes of fast cars and automatic weapons in action. While some action scenes are quite decent, the story feels nonexistent and the script feels incoherent to the point of discomfort and total disbelief. I will not spoil the story, but it is as unrealistic as it even could be and any Marchal fan will spot it after first 10-20 minutes of runtime.

If you are in the market for a good French action, check out Stronghold (2020), Les Miserables (2019) or Athena (2022): all of them are doing better what Marchal have started while maintaining a good, believable story.

The only reason Overdose exists is to make cash to its creators and you can do much better with your time.

This kind of product contains a set of ingredients that we find in all films of this genre, precisely. You need cars and motorcycles, with crumpled canvas and chases. You need a more or less intense police war, in this case less so, as the different police forces communicate: Spanish, French, Parisian, provincial, special units. You need weapons. It needs villains, thugs, who when they appear shout it (hairstyles, costumes, make-up). It needs gore and extreme violence, here unnecessary (the hammer) and off behind a wooden door (good idea). It needs sex, which is totally unnecessary here. And a romantic story between police officers. All this is conventional and unoriginal. But it's well tied together by a script that integrates these ingredients.

Olivier Marchal deserves credit for his talent in directing the actors, all of whom are excellent. The film is perhaps a little long (20 minutes too long) and could have been tightened up a little. But on the whole, it lives up to its brief. A nominal quality in a conventional package for the genre to which it belongs.

Not best Olivier Marchal's movie but action in all scenes, good young actors for a classic drug / go fast movie.

Nice to watch, not a master piece but a good moment front of TV. Not that all scenes are making sense or a bit twisted but you let the adrenaline making you float through the movie. Alberto Amman is what you can expect from him if you saw narcos.

It's dark, a bit violent, typical Marchal and that's why you came for.

Just sit, turn the light off and watching a drug movie. Do not consider people talking non sense or being arsh with 4he movie, they overthink the idea of entertainment.

Well, I certainly don't agree with the majority of reviews here. OK, this is as far as I know the first film directed by Olivier Marchal that I have seen BUT I can compare this with some others of a similar nature like Heat. I'm not saying this is as good as I personally thought that was though this was fast-moving. Had a good plot/storyline and was without any CGI or similar. Drugs received/transfered/undercover cop/ unnecessary murders/investigation. A few sex scenes - nothing excessive but a violent film but nothing really gratuitous, although it did receive an R18 rating. Stars Sofia Essaidi, Nicolas Cazalé, Alberto Ammann. Dubbed into English from French Original.

Are usually very good at this kinda genre, but this flick really undermines the reputation. Its not the cast, by all means they do their job, so it has to be something else...who overdosed is still a mystery.

Quite a few things i might mention without spoiling the fun for thos who loves french police-bandit action thrillers. The story is full of plotholes and the actual caracters are poorly presented. The plotspeed is like a 118 minutes roller coaster of gutwrenching action and...nothing..., that repeats itself at least 10 times. The cinematography could might as wellve been made by a youtuber, its mostly and merely only close-up-inside the communicative comfort zone camera zooms, and dark musky , fathaired blackeyed hyperpupilllated gangsters and policemen hunting and carchasing eachother in a clonical fit-like ad/hd-amfetamine pace, can be pretty dragging and you loose the thread in the heat of the hunt....

but that aint the actors fault, its rather a wannabe french superdirector who wants to hang on to a great french franchise genre. So if you can deal with a lot of confussion in a mach2,2 speed, then its a recommend from the grumpy old man.

There's no way to describe this terrible movie, a total disappointment. So many flaws and bad logic arrangements. So many omitted and conveniently bypassed scenarios. The directing was so lazy and brainless, almost to a ridiculous level. The undercover/snitch was so obvious, yet the bad guys failed to figure it out who's who. This movie also made the French police look so lame and so slow to react to all the obvious attacks, they just sat in the cars, or leaned on the car smoked and did the small talks, or flirted. There were so many scenes such as the intercourse in the sheep farmer's house. The murders of the kids were completely clueless without any reason. Transport large quantity of drug with a car parade and two motorbikes to the lead the way, Jesus, ain't that so obvious and stupid? After killed two of the cops in the car, the guy just ran away, all the other cops, including the female so-called leading detective, just helplessly looked at him running away, and nobody chased him? Jesus, what a load of crap after crap. This is a very lazy movie from the very beginning to the end. I wouldn't even want to write a review, 'cause I'm pissed.

I really enjoyed this predictable but pretty well drug crime drama. It is below of masterpieces like Sicario, but still watchable.

The storyline is based on the usual crime drama's that include some action here, some violence there and not really any great twist or surprise here.

Best here are some of the characters that you can root for. So it is interesting to know more and more about them and how the story ends. I think the story is quite decent and the conclusion obvious but pretty well executed.

So, overall good but not great, it could have been far better with a more risky script. I don't know why movie's directors are always using the same formula, an acceptable 6/10.

No pun intended - the movie is not so much on the funny side, in case my summary headline confused you. Just saying. That said, I did not make the connection to Sicario (though I can see why some would do that) ... it would or rather kind of is unfair to this movie to compare it to a masterpiece though. This has a right to exist on its own - away from Sicario.

That said, the story is easy to follow and you have crime fighters going against bad guys ... I mean if you are into that sort of action orientated genre stuff ... I won't have to excite you any further. It is well shot and there is enough suspense from start to finish to keep you interested ... action is well shot too ... what more do you need? If the answer is not much ... well watch and enjoy.

I never understand why people go on making mediocre films about the same old stuff, cops, drug-lords, endless shots fired off at anything that moves. None of the characters here are interesting or likeable and nothing unexpected ever happens. The acting and technical stuff are OK, just about, but the story is useless, even though we've seen it so often before. Why would drug runners, depending on secrecy for their big delivery, travel across Europe in a motorcade, with cycle-outriders, thus drawing maximum attention? And you will never see a more ridiculous escape from custody. One cop is a woman, the drug-runners have two on board for no known reason, and none of the three ever does anything - only there for the purely gratuitous sex scenes.

I'm not wasting more time on this. If you like people driving around and shooting lots of guns, however little sense it makes, this might amuse you. Otherwise avoid.

I unfortunately guess that the director of 36, QUAI DES ORFEVRES, MR 73 and LES LYONNAIS has lost his soul, because in this movie, and also the four previous ones, are far from being as emitionally powerful as the three first; I won't mention GANGSTERS, very first film from OM. OVERDOSE is only a very efficient crime drama, very well done, in terms of directing, editing, and acting, even without any great bankable movie stars, such as for instance Jean Dujardin or Gilles Lelouche. But the actors here are perfectly cast, pretty good figures, faces, for such a story. But not great stars, that's all, as was also OM previous feature : BRONX. And notice that Marchal has also the taste to hire female old timers: here Catherine Allegret; in BRONX, Claudia Cardinale; in 36, Mylène Demongeot.... There is no real lead character here, many supporting ones, a very convincing Nicolas Cazalé, the French actor with Antonio Banderas' eyes, who had never worked with OM before. Some gruesome torture scenes, not for the squeamish. I am sure that Olivier Marchal will always make crime films, very good ones, but without the awesome atmosphere he had in 36, MR 73 and LES LYONNAIS. Maybe because he will never have great movie stars any more...Anyway, I am surprised that Gaumont company, the oldest and most famous in French movie industry, still produces his movies. I hope it will continue though. He seems to have lost all his ambitions here.

I love to watch a good French crime movie. The French are really at good at making them. Unfortunately this Netflix movie is just going through the motions...

The bad: this is just another, cheaply produced Netflix formula crime movie.

It has ONLY got (way below) average actors starring in it. And that is a problem, because there are LOTS of TEDIOUS talking scenes, in which these (way below) average actors have to try and elevate this story to a suspensful level.

And that is the other problem with this movie. It is definitely LACKING in suspense and thrill. Not even the (few) action scenes are any good.

Bummer. Just another (failed) formula crime movie. Incredibly tedious watch...

This movie starts off with no explanation of what is going on, there is no story development but there is just a series of seemingly disconnected scenes that are randomly stuck together. No matter how one tries to make sense of what is happening, it is impossible to do so. Little is done in the way of providing viewers with any context to the characters or background to the story. Most of the time viewers are in the dark as to who the people are. The cinematography is appallingly bad with many scenes too dark to even see what's happening. The script appears to be non-existent. One can only wonder where Amazon finds these movies, and why would they attach their name to them by calling it an "Amazon Original"!

First gripe. Some of the parts and scenes are dubbed. This is an absolute horror for me. Can't the French read subtitles? And don't they have enough decent actors that they can speak French even if they are playing Spanish characters? That would be far better than having Spanish actors being dubbed. Normally I switch a dubbed film off but as most of the action involved French actors speaking their native language, I persisted.

Next gripe. Who would move three hundred kilos of cocaïne in a convoy of black gangster cars with motorcycle outriders? They couldn't have drawn more attention to themselves that way. Even though the cops were tracking them (not a spoiler - this is revealed at the start) if they weren't, then the stupidest gendarme would have realised that something big was moving.

Third gripe. Why would the drug lords allow total idiots to ride along? Said brought his clearly drug addicted girlfriend and was was a loser himself. Putting him in charge would lead (and did lead) to disaster. The girl caused the first hiccup in the delivery all by herself.

That apart, one could sit back brainlessly and just watch the kill factor and derring-do.

Some of the acting was competent - Simon Abkarian is always a winner - but most of the rest was average. But what would we expect from a film like this? It's not Gone With the Wind after all. I watched it all and have already forgotten most of what happened, where and why.

Whilst French cinema likes to tend to the philosophical, French action films are often well watchable and underrated.

Overdose is well written, acted, directed and edited, and provides a satisfying drama. The villains are villainous, and the cops determined, and although this is only going to end one way, the turns along the way keep you entertained.

In places, it is not an easy watch (I said the villains are villainous), and there is little relief from the relentless focus of both sides. There is a little bit of sex, but it is not very sexy, rather unlike a French film in that respect.

The pacing of the film is enjoyable, through the borderlands between France and Spain, and the camerawork is hard to fault.

Definitely worth a watch if you like action crime drama.

Here is a real thriller like only Olivier Marchal is still able to make in France!

Wow! Black ! Violent ! It is not for nothing that it is R18 on Amazon. Like his previous Flims, the cops are human with their qualities and their weaknesses (should I say tortured?), the borderline between good and evil are not always well defined, the bad guys are real rotten without pity , there is perhaps more action than in his previous films and I loved the choice of presenting investigations that seem to have no direct link but which will (we suspected) collide sooner or later.

If one day I bought a theater ticket to go and watch a French movie, it's thanks to Olivier Marchal with 36 quai des orfèvres in 2004, where I took an incredible slap, 18 years later after having seen almost all his films, I have rarely taken so much pleasure in front of a thriller.

I m french and i hope my english was not so bad for this review :)

Overdose (2022) is a good police thriller that shows that Cinema is growing everywhere. A lot of nice movies rising to the audience through streaming services from places that we wouldn't imagine, showing us that America is not the only one that can produce high-quality stories.

The cinematography is good, with nice visuals and good pacing and cuts. The scenes are shot well, though no scene is really that complex.

Some events felt too spectacular, too movie-like. If I were a drug lord, I would try to keep a low profile. I know most people would pretend dumbness over high-grade organized crime doing their business, but everyone has a phone nowadays and has a crave for a fluke.

The synopsys is sort of lying, to be honest. This so-called collab between Sara and Richard is only a portion of the movie. Most of Overdose (2022) is two separate investigations that end up interconnecting when the murder investigation hits plausible motive: drugs.

Overdose (2022) is recommendable, a good police thriller with suspense and drama. Entertainment on a rainy Sunday.