Movie reviews for the day

Rico says he's been on a Jean Reno streak of late (you'll remember him as the odd-looking hitman (above) in Leon: The Professional), but the current crop is definitely odd:

The Crimson Rivers
Jean Reno and the usual bunch of French guys, along with a lot of Catholic oddballs, a freaky pair of twins, and an avalanche...

Commissioner Pierre Niemans, a Parisian murder detective played by Jean Reno (photo, left), is called to Gueron, a self-sufficient, prestigious university in a mountain valley, to investigate the murder of professor and librarian Rémy Caillois, whose corpse was found hung fifty meters high on a steep mountainside, naked, horribly covered in bruises and bleeding wounds, the result of some five hours of bestial torture, including quasi-surgical amputation of his hands, cauterized to prevent bleeding to death, and removal of his eyes. Guernon is a closed society of virtually incestuous scientists, de facto succeeding to their parents' posts; the eye-doctor, formerly on the staff, says hereditary genetic diseases are the price of such elitism, but in recent years has spread to the simple farming families. Inspector Max Kerkerian (photo, right) examines two crimes in the town: a school break-in with theft of old photos and archive papers, as well as a graveyard desecration of the tomb of Judith Herault, the daughter of local nun Sister Andrée, who has lived in a dark cell for fifteen years, mumbling that the demons who made an attempt on both of their lives have returned to prevent the child from endangering their secret. As both police investigations continue, the loner sleuths meet; secrets and other corpses are found, till it all ties together.

Crimson River: Angels of the Apocalypse
Jean Reno again, along with Christopher Lee (he of too many horror movies to count), playing Heinrich von Garten, an ex-Nazi who just won't die, and a bunch of the usual Catholic wackos...

Pierre Niemans faces the threat of the Apocalypse while investigating a series of ritual murders.

Rico says while he may love the French, and especially Jean Reno, he has no love for Nazis or Catholics...