Le Professionnel

This foreign release is a real treat. It stars Jean-Paul Belmondo, star of 85 films, as a French foreign agent who was sent to Africa to assassinate a king. When the politics changed and they no longer wanted the king dead, the French decided to sell out Belmondo. He escapes after two years in prison, and turns up in Paris to get even, and to complete his mission. Seems the king, who he now has first hand experience with, really needs to die in his opinion, and is visiting Paris.

NUDITY REPORT

Elizabeth Margoni, as Belmondo's wife, shows buns and breasts while being "interrogated" by a sadistic lesbian policewoman.

Belmondo is the "best of the best," and takes on the entire French police department. IMDB comments often mention a great score. The DVD transfer is very nice, and gives you your choice of subtitles and language. The dubbing is good enough not to be distracting. Belmondo makes the film, but all of the performances were good. Genre is foreign action, and I give it B-.

DVD info from Amazon.

bare-bones

Scoop's notes:

I have been waiting for a chance to insert this somewhere. From 1958 to 1966, Jean-Paul Belmondo starred in 41 full-length theatrically-released films. 41 films in 9 years. Is that some kind of record outside the porn industry? Guy must be a wizard at memorizing lines. I haven't seen the film that Tuna is reviewing here, but I think they use the same plot in about 83 of Belmondo's 85 films.

If you expand the definition to include all films and not just theatrical releases, Eric Roberts must be the output champion. He has 71 IMDB credits from 1994 until now! Belmondo only has 85 for his entire career, which encompasses about 45 years.

In Roberts' first 16 years in films, he only had 29 credits, fewer than two per year.
Then he churned out 33 in the next 5 years, averaging about a half dozen per year.
Now he's really speeding up, averaging a dozen per year and doing more every year than the year before! The guy has 15 IMDb credits in 2001, twelve in 2000, eleven in 1999. What is his ceiling?

By the way, the record holder for IMDB credits, to my knowledge, is Mel Blanc with 817. He has 252 credits in the 1950's, 272 in the 1940's. Even death hasn't slowed him down too much. He's added eight more since he died in 1989.

The Critics Vote

no reviews online

The People Vote ...

With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 7.7

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a B-.