Le Raid is a French action film first released in 2002, directed by Djamel Bensalah.  The film stars Hélène de Fougerolles, Roschdy Zem, Atmen Kelif, Lorànt Deutsch and Julien Courbey.  It has also been released under the title: The Race.  Our overall rating for this film is: very poor.


Sami, Tacchini, Yaya and Kader are four small-time crooks from the suburbs of Paris.  After a failed robbery, their boss, Carlito, sends them to Canada to spy on his fiancée.  There, they are mistaken for a band of professional killers and are hired to assassinate the heiress Léonore de Segonzac.  In spite of the fact that the other members of her family have been killed whilst practicing their extreme sports, Léonore is determined to enter an adventure race known as “Le Raid” in South America.  Her team consists of Sami and his three friends, who find they have plenty of opportunities to kill their victim.  Unfortunately, the hit men who were originally engaged to kill Léonore have arrived on the scene and intend to take out not just the young heiress but also her four hapless team members…

After making a promising directorial debut with Le Ciel, les oiseaux et... ta mère! (1999), Djamel Bensalah failed to win many plaudits for this chaotic adventure comedy.  Although the film offers a few decent laughs, its shambolic script, over-abundance of special effects and totally haphazard direction land it a place firmly in the bottom drawer of cinema entertainment.  The film’s only saving grace is the infrequent appearance of Gérard Jugnot, the only actor in this incoherent mess who is capable of injecting some real comedy into it.

© James Travers 2004

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