Popular reviews

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  Review by Ben (a very much NOT okay Celtics fan) Hibburd ★★★★

  The French Connection II is another example of fantastic gritty 70’s filmmaking. John Frankenheimer took what could’ve easily been a quick cash grab of one of the best police dramas ever made, and instead created a solid sequel that manages to stand shoulder to shoulder with the original. The film sees the return of New York detective “Popeye” Jimmy Doyle (Gene Hackman) as he tracks down Alain Charnier, the drug smuggler who managed to slip away at the end of the previous film to Marseille.

  Whilst the film certainly has a more melodramatic edge than its predecessor it still manages to stay relatively grounded in the style the first film set-up. John Frankenheimer retains all of the same visual rough…

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★★

  "I'll knock your dick stiff."

  What's great about this is that the relentless persistence of a man consumed by barely sublimated, crippling, sputtering rage is still justice.

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  Review by Yady Anthony Miraldy ★★★½ 4

  Action | Crime | Drama

  Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle: I'll tell you what I found out. I found out that you eat shit, you fucking frog, you! You goddamn scumbag, you!

  Not up to the standards of the original, but still quite good. Gene Hackman is once again oustanding as Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle. And, I think the film missed the presence of Popeye's buddy from the first film, Roy Scheider as Cloudy.
  • Story: 7/10
  — Action: 7/10
  — Crime: 8/10
  — Drama: 7/10
  • Sound: 7/10
  • Acting: 8/10
  • Pacing: 7/10
  • Editing: 7/10
  • Visuals: 7/10
  • Writing: 7/10
  • Dialogue: 7/10
  • Directing: 7/10
  • Ending Scene: 8/10
  • Entertainment: 7/10
  • Rewatch Value: 7/10
  • Overall…

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  Review by Florin Scanlon ★★★★ 3

  There's nothing quite like a good, gritty 70s crime movie. Part police procedural part character study, John Frankenheimer's sequel to the much acclaimed multiple Academy Award winner about Santa Clauses interested in weird foot massages in Poughkeepsie, French Connection II follows detective Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) going after drug lord Alain Charnier, who returned to Marseille, France after the events of the first film.

  The French Connection gave us one of the most intriguing and unpredictable characters in Popeye Doyle, an egomaniac who knew the ins and outs of underground New York and who happened to be a cop, a rather unorthodox one at that as well. Being a New York cop is really what keeps him together, so when…

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  Review by Fabian ★★★ 2

  John Frankenheimer's sequel to William Friedkin's widely heralded masterpiece The French Connection suffered from the usual drawbacks from sequels of any kind: usually designed to benefit financially from the public interest generated by the original, and often weaker for their attempt to recreate what their predecessors did without capturing the very aspects that encompassed their greatness.

  Frankenheimer's film, while checking both of those marks in comparison with the first, manages to bring the story into a different direction and give an edge to Gene Hackman's character, a role that allowed the actor to really sink this teeth into meaty material this time. Drawing from a similar visual palette as the original, Frankenheimer recreates the style and aesthetic of Friedkin's film…

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  Review by BeardofTsu ★★★★ 2

  Hawaiin shirt Popeye Doyle is the best Popeye Doyle! Having put off watching this for years I was pleasantly surprised how good it actually was. It is very much it's own thing and ends up being a pretty underrated sequel to one of my favorite movies of the 1970's.

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  Review by Mike D'Angelo ★★★★ 3

  74/100

  Not too surprising that I prefer this to the original, as I'm much more a Frankenheimer guy than a Friedkin guy. Still, it's an excitingly unorthodox sequel by just about anyone's reckoning.

  (Rest of the review, along with everything else I write, available via ultra-cheap subscription. Seriously, it’s as little as $1 a month and for now that pays my rent.)

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  Review by Steve G 🇵🇸 🇾🇪 ★★★ 4

  For the purposes of this review, I will be calling this The French Connection II. Because it's always really bothered me that it's missing the 'The'. It just looks cooler with the 'The' I think. So there you have it.

  The French Connection II isn't as good as I remembered it being. I've always held the opinion that it's one of the better sequels that have been made to outright classic originals. Unfortunately, this viewing revealed it to be rather unfocused and for long stretches of its running time to dispense with the main plot completely. It feels like John Frankenheimer wanted to make about three different films here.

  The only really interesting one of them though is the continuation…

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  Review by AndrewC ★★★½

  If you compare it to the stone cold classic that is The French Connection, then French Connection II is definitely an inferior sequel but that does not mean it is a poor film either, since this is still a follow-up that stands on its own and works as a gritty, hard-boiled cop drama. Admirably, it does not attempt to repeat what its predecessor does and moves the action to France, giving them the opportunity to put Gene Hackman's combative, xenophobic Popeye Doyle into a completely new environment. The result is a film that really stresses the culture clash aspect of his way of doing things compared with the French and the criminals he is chasing, something that director John Frankenheimer…

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  Review by Mads Ej ★★

  I didn’t like the first movie that much, but I liked this sequel even less and I don’t understand what people see in them.
  I thought they took the story in an interesting direction by changing the setting to France, but the pacing was still too slow and the movie felt a bit stupid. The culture clash between America and France gave some comedic moments, but it was annoying how we constantly saw our main character talk English to the French people who didn’t understand him and he just continued trying.
  The story moved along very slowly with only a few okay action scenes, but it really lacked something to keep my interest and it felt like it added a…

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  Review by Bob McQueen ★★★★

  Doesn't quite match the first and while that whole addiction/detox section of the movie is incredibly acted by Hackman, it does slow the pace down. It made a lot of sense to bring the sequel to the slums of Marseille, really loved how the seedier side of France came alive here. That Don Ellis score slaps just as much as the first. I love the abrupt endings to both movies but I almost kinda feel like maybe a 3rd movie couldve happened, I think the world could benefit from a French Connection trilogy. Either way, Banger double feature.

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  Review by Mr. DuLac ★★★★ 1

  I want you to ask this fuck somethin'. Ask him if he ever picked his feet in Poughkeepsie.
  -Popeye Doyle

  I never gave this film a chance because I heard it was crap. Well I loved it. Loved seeing Popey Doyle out of his element in a really great performance by Gene Hackman. While the character was great in the original, there was barely any character development in it. Here Hackman gets the chance to play around with the character a little deeper.

  While it's not as good as the original, it goes out of it's way to not copy it. It ends up being a very different film and probably one of the reasons I liked it so much.…