Summary
After five years of partnership with his fellow crooked policeman, René, François
decides to go straight, in the hope of getting a promotion to the rank of commissioner.
Unfortunately, François’ first attempt at changing his habits backfires, and he
and René are suspended when a charge is brought against them. They are replaced
by Brisson and Portal, a pair of no-nonsense cops who, at first sight, appear to be the
very model of honesty. It soon turns out that these two are ten times more ruthless
than René and François. Desperate, the people they attempt to extort
money from appeal to René and François to put an end to their replacements’
reign of villainy. François says he will take on the challenge, but René
soon suspects that his former partner may actually be allying himself with his unscrupulous
successors...
Review
Dynamic duo Philippe Noiret and Thierry Lhermitte are reunited in this respectable sequel
to the 1984 hit Les Ripoux.
Both films satirise perceived corruption in the French police service, with Noiret and
Lhermitte playing a pair of lovable rogues, under the skilful direction of Claude Zidi.
This is a nice variation on the policier theme, where the good guys are cops gone
bad (the word "ripoux" is slang for "rotten" in French), but not so bad as the real villains
of the piece.
Noiret and Lhermitte are both respectable actors in their own right but together they
excel, making a very effective team as René and François; René’s
half-hearted cynicism complement beautifully François’ flawed idealism. Both
characters are well-drawn, fashioned on the morally ambiguous hero of classical film noir,
although, here, the boundaries between good and bad are well and truly merged. It
is this ambiguity which provides the film with a fair amount of suspense and keeps its
audience well and truly hooked.
The supporting cast is also quite impressive, with pleasing contributions from Guy Marchand,
Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Michel Aumont and Jean-Claude Brialy. As in the first
Ripoux outing, the script is the film’s best asset, with a well-paced narrative
and some very funny one-liners making this an enjoyable and diverting piece of cinema.
© James Travers 2003
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