Glossy and undemanding
7/10
Author: TrevorAclea from London, England
30 September 2010

Largo Winch is one of those big glossy disposable action films that France regularly turns out to prove that they can do that sort of thing as well as Hollywood. Based on a hugely popular series of Belgian novels and later comic books and clearly intended as a jetsetting James Bond-like franchise, Anthony Zimmer director Jerome Salle's film kicks off with Miki Manojlovic's billionaire murdered on his yacht, throwing the fifth largest conglomerate into the world into panic until it emerges that he had a secret adopted son (Tomer Sisley) to whom he's left 65% of the shares.

Of course, what with a hostile takeover bid from a shady Russian gunrunner (who helpfully introduces himself with "I'm the story's bad guy"), a traitor in the company's ranks and the odd attempt on his life, this is more interested in chases in exotic locations from Hong Kong and South America to not-so-exotic Croatia than boardroom manipulations. As such it's a slick, enjoyable and forgettable package with no surprises – it doesn't take much to anticipate each plot development before it happens – but which provides undemanding entertainment if that's what you're looking for.

Like Group W, the film's something of a multi-national itself, shifting from French to English to Croatian to Spanish as the locations demand, with the cast a similar mixture of French (Gilbert Melki, Melanie Thierry, Anne Consigny), British (Kristen Scott-Thomas, Steve Waddington, Benedict Wong) and East Europeans (Karl Roden, Radivoje Bukvic), but it manages to avoid the usual indigestible Euro-Pudding feel by virtue of its relentlessly globetrotting plot. A sequel's already in the works, co-starring Sharon Stone in an effort to get the theatrical release in the English-speaking territories that this didn't manage.