Lost Bullet (2020) Review

“Lost Bullet” Netflix Poster

Director: Guillaume Pierret
Cast: Alban Lenoir, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Ramzy Bedia, Stéfi Celma, Rod Paradot, Sébastien Lalanne, Arthur Aspaturian, Patrick Médioni, Alexandre Philip 
Running Time: 92 min.

By Paul Bamhall

France may not be the first country that springs to mind when it comes to action cinema, however it’s successfully dabbled in the genre on several occasions. From Luc Besson’s iconic La Femme Nikita, through to the stylish grittiness of Dobermann, the parkour themed District B13 and its sequel, and of course the gasoline fuelled Taxi franchise. The gasoline theme is continued in 2020 through Lost Bullet, the feature length debut of Guillaume Pierret, and can be found streaming on Netflix.

Lost Bullet focuses on an expert car mechanic played by Alban Lenoir (Sparring), who has a knack for turning even the humblest of cars into 4 wheeled battering rams thanks to plenty of reenforced steel under the hood. In the opening scene we meet Lenoir already in the driving seat, his crop cut and angular features bringing to mind a certain Frank Martin from The Transporter trilogy, and his brother (played by Rod Paradot, Standing Tall). Planning to rob a jewellery store by ramming into it with a heavily reenforced Renault Clio, the heist goes amusingly wrong when the Clio turns out to be so well equipped that it smashes through the jewellery store with ease, along with several others, and out the other side of the building. With Lenoir unable to free himself, he tells his brother to do a runner, and finds himself captured by the police and sent to prison.

As anyone who’s seen any of the Fast and the Furious flicks though, the cops could do with someone with Lenoir’s expertise, and he’s soon taken under the wing of the leader of the Brigade – a unit of cops who specialise in driving, and whose goal is to track down a drug gang. Played by Ramzy Bedia (Taxi 5), despite his hard-nosed approach he takes a liking to Lenoir, and goes so far as to secure him early release on the basis that he becomes a part of the Brigade. However it turns out the unit has some bad seeds in their ranks, so when an act of betrayal finds Lenoir framed with blood on his hands, he finds the odds stacked again him and is forced to go on the run. The thrust of Lost Bullet’s narrative revolves around the question of if Lenoir will be able to stay alive long enough to reveal the truth, or meet an untimely demise.

Directing a full-length feature for the first time after helming a handful of TV episodes, Pierret wisely chooses to keep proceedings within a tight 90 minutes, keeping minimum fat on the bone. The betrayal at the heart of everything involves the titular Lost Bullet, a plot device which has been used plenty of times before, most recently in Renny Harlin’s Bodies at Rest. Here the bullet which will implicate the real villain is lodged in a car, and it’s the search for the car both by Lenoir and the villains (who thought it had been burnt to a crisp) which provides most of the tension.

Clearly a modestly budgeted affair, Lost Bullet was filmed in just 38 days, and the final product is an equally modest offering as an action flick. It’s the kind of movie which you know from the opening scene is going to involve a car chase as the finale, so the question becomes how engaging does it manage to be in the hour plus before we get there. Lenoir himself is fairly one-note as our protagonist, and lacks a certain screen presence that tends to make some of his scenes seem rather pedestrian. The issue is confounded further by the fact that the humour of the initial scene when the Clio goes smashing through the entire floor of a building quickly fades away once Lenoir finds himself in prison. There’s a distinct feeling that if Lost Bullet took itself a little less seriously, regardless of the budget, it actually would be a lot more fun than it is.

What can’t be denied is that Pierret obviously wanted to craft a lean little action thriller for his debut, given away by the fact he’s brought onboard not 1 but 2 stunt coordinators. Jean-Claude Laginez and Emmanuel Lanzi together bring more than 60 years of stunt experience to the table, and both have impressive resumes. Laginez is a car stunt specialist and has coordinated the vehicular mayhem on the likes of everything from John Frankenheimer’s classic Ronin (on which he was also Robert De Niro’s double) to Jackie Chan’s The Accidental Spy. Lanzi on the other hand has been involved in practically any French flick which has an element of action, as well as appearing onscreen in the likes of Michelle Yeoh’s The Touch and Jackie Chan’s CZ12. Both bring their expertise and talents to Lost Bullet’s action scenes, and it’s no doubt a much better movie for their input.

There’s a standout fight in a police station which sees Lenoir fend off 10 cops in a lengthy sequence that’s suitably scrappy and desperate. It may not be on the same level as The Raid or your average slice of Scott Adkins, but I actually enjoyed the sluggish quality that it had, which served to imbue it with a level of realism while still displaying some clever choreography. My main issue with Lost Bullet is that the sluggishness carries over into other scenes were it definitely doesn’t come across as a plus. Considering what’s on the line, there’s a sense of urgency that’s missing from certain scenes where it feels like you should be on the edge of your seat. Lenoir has a tendency to break out into a hurried walk or light jog, when what you’re really hoping for is a Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible full on sprint like your life depended on it.

It’s when watching these scenes that it becomes clear Pierret has likely crafted his debut around the handful of action scenes the budget would stretch to, and the content in-between that should be an engaging plot sometimes comes across as filler or shows a lack of care. We learn that Lenoir was in a relationship with a member of the Brigade, played by Stéfi Celma (The Squad), however the pair have zero chemistry, and ultimately their relationship feels more like a plot device so the main villain can make Celma look less credible to her superiors. Speaking of the main villain, as an unscrupulous character willing to do whatever it takes to not be caught, Nicolas Duvauchelle (A Decent Man) clocks in an entertaining performance, and Lost Bullet becomes a more enjoyable ride whenever he’s onscreen.

What can’t be faulted is the action. There’s not enough of it, but what we do get is 100% real and shows no trace of CGI whatsoever. I’d originally planned to compare Lost Bullet to an American DTV flick, but then realised I’d be doing it an injustice, since most American DTV flicks these days are full of cheap looking CGI fire and explosions. The budget may only have been able to stretch to 2 car chases, but they’re both impressive, with the first one containing a head on crash that results in a glorious amount of shrapnel and twisted metal flying everywhere – a reminder of the stuff CGI car crashes just can’t recreate regardless of how real they seem. The second is the finale which lasts a solid 10 minutes, and features a couple of worthy flips and more glorious metal crunching. Don’t be expecting F9, but if you appreciate practical over pixels, there’s a lot to enjoy.

Pierret is clearly fond of the action genre, and I’d love to see what he’d be able to do with a larger budget and more time on his hands given the glimpses of what we get to see here. As it is, Lost Bullet is far from perfect, ladened with a generic soundtrack which you’ll quickly tire of hearing, and despite its punchy runtime there are parts where it sags. However when its doing what it really wants to be doing, it does it well, with completely authentic action scenes, and a clear level of craft gone into the car chases that’s all too often substituted these days for green screen work. That alone is to be admired, so for those who watch similarly budgeted action flicks and say they wish they’d spent all the money on the action scenes rather than everything else, Lost Bullet may well be that movie. Now, is it too late for Jason Statham to return for The Transporter 4? 

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10