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Crime Spree
An out-of-town heist becomes a nightmare for a crew of French burglars when they mistakenly rob the head of the Chicago mafia. Unaccustomed to the ways of the American underworld, it is not long before they have the mafia, the FBI and a couple of street gangs on their backs as they attempt to make their way back to Paris.
2003 · Directed by Brad Mirman · 98 min · Comedy · Crime · Action · Screenplay in the scene database · 4 frames
Tagline
It was supposed to be an easy job.
Plot
Daniel Foray (Gérard Depardieu) is the leader of an unusual group of burglars in Paris. When he's instructed by fence Laurent (Richard Bohringer) to go to Chicago to steal an expensive necklace in a suburban safe, the seemingly basic job becomes a fight for survival when the homeowner turns out to be mafia kingpin Frank Zammeti (Keitel), who is also under stakeout from authorities. The team are led to believe by American liaison Sophie (Joanne Kelly) that they wrote down the wrong address, but when she disappears with the money and other items taken from the mafioso, they later learn that his residence was the correct target after all and it was a setup by corrupt FBI Agent Pogue (Shawn Lawrence).
Shortly after the revelation, Pogue bludgeons Sophie to death, frames burglar Sam (Saïd Taghmaoui) and leaks the other men's names to the news media as accomplices. Pogue promises to alter evidence on condition that they hand over an audio tape stolen from Zammeti's safe, which not only declares war on fellow mob boss Angelo Giancarlo (Abe Vigoda) but strengthens the criminal case against the former, who has avoided criminal indictment. The sextet also confirm that Pogue was in cahoots with Laurent, whose interest in the heist indirectly relates to the recovery of a stolen Van Gogh painting and release of his brother from prison.
As newly minted fugitives from justice and marks of the American mafia, the thieves make amends with a black street gang they previously clashed with and facilitate a "handover" of the tape between Sam and Agent Pogue in Grant Park; Pogue is secretly filmed confessing to Sophie's murder and picks up a switched tape after a fake mugging from the gang members. Pogue is promptly killed by Zammeti and his underboss when the recording in his possession turns out to be the song Danke Schoen by Wayne Newton . To free themselves from the threat of Zammeti, burglar Raymond gifts a muscle car (stolen from a Latino street gang) to Zammeti's dim-witted younger brother, culminating in a deadly shootout between both groups of criminals. Finally, Daniel plays Giancarlo Zammeti's incriminating tape, revealing the betrayal, and requests a small sum of money and safe return to France in exchange for the heads up.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Brad Mirman
- Cinematography: Derek Rogers, Matthew Williams
- Edited by: Eddie Hamilton
- Music: Rupert Gregson-Williams
- Production design: Gordon Barnes
- Produced by: Richard Rionda Del Castro, Jamie Brown, Gary Howsam, Perry Santos
Cast
- Gérard Depardieu as Daniel Foray
- Harvey Keitel as Frankie Zammeti
- Johnny Hallyday as Marcel Burot
- Renaud as Zéro
- Saïd Taghmaoui as Sami
- Stéphane Freiss as Julien Labesse
- Shawn Lawrence as Agent Pogue
- Albert Dray as Raymond Gayet
- Joanne Kelly as Sophie Nicols
- Richard Bohringer as Bastaldi
Production
- Country: Canada, France, United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: French, English
- Studios: GFT Entertainment, Studio Eight Productions, Vision View Entertainment, Bac Films
- Themes: chicago, illinois, gangster, fbi, hoodlum, american mafia
On this film
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