The French action thriller is a global streaming hit on Netflix

When done with a modicum of skill, action movies are pure cinema. They are kinetic, ecstatic and sometimes balletic. Whether we're watching hand-to-hand fights, bullet-whistling shootouts, or tire-squealing car chases, action movies can make us gasp and cheer as stunt people (or battle-trained actors) have fearless fun. And when the director is skilled enough to invent the plot, one chaotic shot at a time, the chaos that unfolds on screen, your reward is nothing but bliss.

While the action films of such maestros as John WooJackie Chan and Walter Hill make life worth living. A true movie buff can get their daily fix from a dirty formula movie loaded with crudely executed beats and twisted metal details. There is a nobility to this kind of filmmaking. In her seminal essay “Trash, Art and the Movies,” legendary film critic Pauline Kahl wrote, “The lowest action trash is better than wholesome family entertainment. When you clean them out, making movies respectable, you kill them. Source. their art, their greatness is that , that they are not respectable.”

There is nothing honorable about James Fargo “Forced Revenge” starring Chuck Norris, but it's Americanized kung-fu comfort food that I've had countless times in my life, and these days action subgenres don't need to be Americanized to be relatable to US audiences because action is a universal language. It's exposition, fight, plot, fight, more plot, fight, and so on. And these foreign films are so formulaic that you know exactly what's going on even if you watch them without subtitles.

In this way, the French knock-off of “Taken” may be in the top 10 of Netflix streaming in early 2025.

According to FlixPatrolDirected by Rodolfs Laugas, “Ad Vitam” has been the most popular movie on Netflix since its debut three days ago. The French film stars Guillaume Canet (a prolific actor-director, perhaps best known to US audiences as Leonardo DiCaprio's rival for Virginia Ledoyen's crush in “The Beach”) as a disgraced policeman whose pregnant wife (Stephane Caillars) is kidnapped and held hostage. guys who need Kanet to use his particular skill set to their advantage. Check out the trailer for the movie on YouTube and you'll see Canet running across rooftops, shooting guns, riding a motorcycle and doing a bit of parkour as he tries to keep Kylar safe.

We are right in “Taken”-ville here, a place where a veteran actor like Cane could possibly carve out a viable one-man-army franchise for himself. The film has not yet received enough reviews from Metacritic-approved critics to be rated, but RogerEbert.com Monica Castillo the film received a star and a half rating for lagging behind in the character department. Again, we're not looking for the high art of “Ad Vitam,” but you need some emotional buy-in for this fast-paced third-act record; otherwise, you might as well watch a favorite UFC fight.

Being one of the most popular movies on Netflix right now, millions of people around the world are trying it out, and at 95 minutes, that's not a lot of time. If you enjoy watching highly trained villains rescue their kidnapped mates, this might be the action bin for you.