22 Bullets: An excuse to mention something else

22 Bullets, knows an L'Immortel in France, begins with Jean Reno getting gunned down in a car park. After all, you can't escape your past, especially if you're a retired gangster. He survives and vows revenge on everyone involved. Or at least, he does eventually. For a while the film seems to be interested in anything but the plot, with the hero hardly saying a word for the first half hour. Despite the tag 'revenge thriller', 22 Bullets has more artistic intentions. It spends more time with an alcoholic detective and complicated gangster politics than it does with the main man. It's a shame, because there's an interesting story in here. When Jean Reno walks into a restaurant with a grenade and a gun, it makes more sense. But you'll be waiting a while for that. It's far too concerned in everything that's happening around the action, so it doesn't move along with any drive, instead sagging under the weight of all the other people. At times it comes together and Mr Reno is able to deliver the justice he's been waiting for. The baddies even get round to kidnapping his children, so he finally gets a bit worked up about it. Unfortunately, the whole thing is just too confusing to follow properly. Who's this? Who's side is he on? Why does he want to frame this guy who's doing that thing over there with those other people? Just get on with it. You'll have to fill in the gaps yourself if you want to give context to the violence.

It prides itself on being 'from the producers of Taken'. Another film that's from the producers of Taken is, er, Taken 2, which seems to be in production. This sounds like a brilliant and slightly rubbish idea. Somebody is going to have to be taken. But who? He's probably keeping a better eye on his daughter, so that won't happen again. Maybe somebody else's daughter? But nobody cares about that. And terrorist's wouldn't work, even though Liam Neeson could hunt them all down in five minutes. Somebody he likes will need to be abducted and shipped to a different country. I'm sure they can sort it out. Whatever happens, it'll be entertainment.