BEFORE: Of course, I realized too late that if I just dropped or postponed "The Upside", I could have gone from a film about Elvis Presley to one about Elton John, two huge music performers famous for wearing sequined jumpsuits. That's something of a lost opportunity, I suppose. But I had my eye on getting my count to work out the way I wanted it, setting myself up for next Monday. I'm gonna get there, just need to stop in Idris Elba town for a couple of days first.
Richard Madden carries over from "Rocketman". I see that he's famous for being in "Game of Thrones", but that's one TV series that I sort of let slip by me, I never got in to it because I didn't have the time. Well, I've got nothing but time now, so if the home sheltering goes on much longer, I may have to find some new old TV shows to watch, once I make my way through "Tiger King" (half done) and "Arrested Development" (still in season 1). Of course, there's also "Lost", I may finally have to consider getting around to that classic.
THE PLOT: A young pickpocket and an unruly CIA agent team up on an anti-terrorist mission in France.
AFTER: You can see how this might be a very difficult film for me to link to, with a mostly French cast, just a few American or UK actors, and even those don't have huge resumés. But sometimes when I have limited options it makes the path that much clearer, because I then either had to put this one between two other Idris Elba films, or link in via Richard Madden. That's it, those were the options. And somehow tomorrow's film with Idris Elba seemed even harder to link to, so that had to be the one sandwiched between two other films with him in them.
This is another film from the before-times, when the biggest problem that France faced was the threat of terrorism, like bombings in public places. Also, rampant pickpocketing while naked women walked down stairs to distract people. That was a crazy summer, back in 2016, so many random naked women, but hey, that's France. And darn the Covid-19 virus for taking all of that away, you almost never hear about naked women walking down stairs in public since the pandemic happpened. Maybe that's a Bastille Day tradition or something.
This film is titled "Bastille Day" outside the U.S., because that's when it takes place. That title wouldn't work in the U.S., where most people don't know that holiday or what it's about or even what a Bastille is. For the record, it's a holiday on July 14 that's kind of like France's Independence Day, people stormed a prison called the Bastille in order to get ammunition for the French Revolution in 1789. Symbolically it represented the monarchy being removed from power, and this ends the historical lesson for today. Just doing my part to keep kids educated while their schools are closed.
On Bastille Eve, a very successful pickpocket (who uses that naked women to distract people in a crowd) sees a very upset woman in a bad wig carrying a bag, and while she's talking to someone on the phone, he steals the bag, and her phone. Inside the bag are just a few random items like a teddy bear, but when he throws the bag away, the trashcan explodes. Security cameras catch him walking away just before the explosion, and soon a manhunt is on for the (accidental) bomber. This brings him into contact with an American CIA agent (who has a British accent for no explained reason, except that he's played by Idris Elba) who's already in trouble for his unorthodox methods, but is also great at tracking people down. The pickpocket is another ex-American, only he has a Scottish accent for no explained reason.
The pickpocket and the CIA agent have to join forces to track down the original woman who had the explosive teddy bear, but all they know is her name, her phone, what she looks like and where she was last seen, so of course, it's not going to be easy. Thankfully, between them they have exactly the right skills for the task, the CIA agent is great with weapons and martial arts and being an overall bad-ass, and the pickpocket has the ability to steal things and cause chaos. But only by finding the woman and retracing her original contact can they see the big picture, who's behind the bombing and who would ultimately benefit from terrorism and chaos in the streets. The answers are almost enough to make you forget to ask why the CIA was running an operation in France in the first place.
Like many of the films who have recently had their releases put on hold due to the pandemic, this film couldn't catch a break either. It was supposed to be released in February 2016 in the U.K., but was put on hold after real terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015. Then it did get released in the U.K. in April 2016, and in France on July 13, 2016, to coincide with Bastille Day. But then there was another terrorist attack in Nice, so it was pulled from French theaters on July 17. As a result it only made under $15 million worldwide, against a budget of $20 million, only grossing $50K in the U.S. That's a shame, it's not a bad film, it just suffered from some really bad timing. Try to catch this one on HBO or on streaming platforms (free if you have Hulu) if you can, now that enough time has passed and there aren't so many terrorist attacks.
With a 90-minute running time, it won't take up much of your day - and as a bonus, you'll get to hear star Idris Elba singing during the film's closing theme.
Also starring Idris Elba (last seen in "Pacific Rim: Uprising"), Charlotte Le Bon (last seen in "The Walk"), Kelly Reilly (last seen in "Pride & Prejudice"), José Garcia (last seen in "Now You See Me"), Thierry Godard, Anatol Yusef, Eriq Ebouaney, Arieh Worthalter, Mohamed Makhtoumi, Théo Costa-Marini, Jerome Gaspard, Ismael Sy Savane, Stéphane Caillard, Gregoire Bonnet, Jerome Quiles, Aksel Umtun.
RATING: 6 out of 10 riot shields
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