Synopsis
On July 14, Bastille Day, a group of small-time hoods stage a daring warehouse robbery.Meanwhile, a brutal Albanian mafia kingpin is being transported to Strasbourg for trial. Theconvoy is ambushed by what looks like an entire battalion of heavily armed men, and thearmoured car winds up taking refuge in the warehouse. The soldiers and the thieves, massivelyoutgunned and outnumbered, band together to hold off the enormous siege.
The jacket copy calls this film “Th… Transporter meets SWAT and DieHard. That’s a mouthful. More accurately, The Nest (a translation truer to the spiritof the original title would be “Hornet’s Nest”) uses as its model John Carpenter’s classicAssault on Precinct 13 with its premise of criminals and cops under siege but a hugeguerilla force. The Nest is lean and spare, its understated and menacing tone getting itpast improbability of its setup. The final scene is unnecessarily drawn out and coy, and some ofthe action in the initial moments of the siege is confusing, but compared overall this is sterlingwork, especially when compared to the bloat that has afflicted far too many Hollywoodaction films of late.
Audio
Though the case only mentions and English 5.1 track, thus raising the hideous spectre ofdubbing, in fact the original French track is present too. (Though the dialogue is so spare andmulti-lingual that dubbing hardly seems necessary.) The environmental creation is perhaps a littlebit overly enthusiastic, with some surround effects that have no business coming from the rearspeakers. Nonetheless, the aural submersion is total and ominous.
Video
The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen picture has excellent blacks and sharp image. The coloursare forceful, but perhaps a bit on the dark side. The main drawback is the grain, which is veryvisible, particularly in daylight shots.
Special Features
The Lions Gate logo reveals trailers for The Nest, Dirty Dancing: HavanaNights and Girl with a Pearl Earring. Now that’s a really weird mix. The menu isbasic.
Closing Thoughts
For all the initial convolutions, the premise of the film is very simple and direct, and it workswell. A nifty little blast of automatic weapons fire.
Special Features List
- Trailers
