Nid de guêpes Blu-ray offers solid video and superb audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
It's July 14 in Strasbourg and while the Republic is occupied celebrating its national festival,
special agent Helene Laborie is escorting Albanian mafia boss, Abedin Nexhep, to court.
However, an armoured van and a commando security force do little to dissuade the godfather's
henchmen from attempting to break him free. After successfully escaping the ambush, Laborie
and her prisoner take refuge in a warehouse where they must face off with a band of hold-up
men attempting to rob the industrial park.
Loud, fast and flashy, Gallic director Florent Emilio Siri's "Nid de guêpes" (2002) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Fox Pathe Europa. The disc contains a number of extensive and very informative supplemental features, but, most unfortunately, they are not subtitled in English. The main feature is. Region-Free.
Guarded
Nid de guepes is a loud and flashy French action film that made it to the U.S. via LionsGate Films a couple of years ago. It is about a group of thieves who get trapped in a massive warehouse while stealing a truckload of laptops. How? A high-profile Albanian mafia boss is captured by Interpol and transferred by the French Special Forces to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. During the transfer, a highly sophisticated group of killers attack the convoy and try to free the Albanian. They fail –and the bulletproof truck carrying the important passenger ends up in the warehouse with the thieves. All hell breaks loose when the killers arrive and attack the utterly confused thieves as well as the few wounded soldiers responsible for the Albanian.
Florent Emilio Siri has directed a total of four films with his last one, L'ennemi intime - telling a poignant story about a group of French soldiers trying to survive during the Algerian War of Independence - arguably being his best. Nid de guepes (literally meaning "a nest of wasps") was his second film and it was released in French cinemas in early 2002.
The action in Nid de guepes is overwhelming. From the moment the audience is formally introduced to the main characters, the film shifts into high gear and never stops. There is very little time to speculate with "what ifs" – Sri's camera is always a few steps ahead of the audience. Unfortunately, the never ending "surprises" would probably quickly tire those who like their films with both style and substance.
The main protagonists in Nid de guepes are likeable but not overly convincing. The thieves - Nasser (Samy Naceri, Taxi), Santino (Benoit Magimel, Les rivières pourpres II - Les anges de l'apocalypse), Selim (Sami Bouajila, Les témoins), Martial (Martial Odone, Yamakasi), and Nadia (Anisia Uzeyman) – and their character transformations, for example, are rather questionable. The soldiers – Helene (Nadia Farès, Les rivières pourpres), Winfried (Richard Sammel, OSS 117: Le Caire nid d'espions), and Giovanni (Valerio Mastandrea, Il siero della vanità) – perhaps with the exception of their feisty leader, lack depth and personality. The quiet guard from the warehouse, Louis (Pascal Greggory, Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train), is the only one who looks legitimate.
Siri's film has some of the same DNA John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 has. What it does not have are the organic qualities that made Carpenter's film a genre milestone. Still, Nid de guepes is a well photographed and well directed film that will surely delight fans of the action genre.
I would like to strongly encourage those of you who would end up purchasing this Blu-ray disc to spend some time with its supplemental features. There is a very interesting featurette amongst them that focuses on the weapons that are used in the film (look for it under 2 heures de bonus en plus - Les armes). It is in French and not subtitled in English, but I think that many of you would still find it fascinating. In it, you would see some impressive designs and replicas of the weapons used by the French soldiers. Apparently, most of them were handmade specifically for the film. Now, here's the real shocker – according to Variety Magazine, these weapons were so impressively crafted that real arms manufacturers approached the man who designed them, Patrick Le Dissez (seen in the featurette mentioned above), and he ended up applying for a patent.
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with VC-1 and granted a 1080p transfer, Florent Emilio Siri's Nid de guepes arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French distributors Fox Pathe Europa.
Generally speaking, contrast, clarity and detail are good but quite inconsistent. For example, some of the close-ups look excellent while others look a bit soft. Mild noise filtering appears to have been applied to selected scenes as well. I personally do not think that the overwhelming majority of you would be annoyed by it – given that most of the film is incredibly dark – but it is there, on the transfer.
There are no stability issues to report. When blown through a digital projector, the image remains strong. The color-scheme is excellent – reds, yellows, blues, browns, greens, grays, blacks and whites are well saturated. I noticed mild-edge enhancement occasionally popping up here and there, but I don't believe that you would be distracted by its presence. On the other hand, macroblocking is most certainly not an issue of concern. The actual transfer looks healthy – there are no disturbing debris, scratches, or dirt that I spotted. All in all, even though there are a few minor issues with the transfer, I don't have a problem recommending it to you. (Note: This is a Region-Free disc. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location. Additionally, I would like to clarify something for Region-A readers – once you place the disc in your Region-A player, and the disc has been loaded, you would see a "black screen". Press the "Top Menu" button on your remote so that you are taken to the disc's main menu. If you don't, your player would not automatically redirect you to the main menu).
There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Fox Pathe Europa have provided optional English subtitles (but not French) for the main feature. When turned on, they appear outside of the image frame.
The French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is quite strong. The bass is deep and very effective, the rear channels very active, and the high frequencies not overdone. Most of the shootouts are loud and punchy. This is not to say that the dynamics have been unreasonably boosted, but there are at least three different scenes where the gunfire is indeed uncharacteristically loud. Additionally, the dialog is crystal clear, stable and easy to follow. There are no balance issues that I detected with Alexandre Desplat's soundtrack either. For the record, I did not detect any disturbing pops, cracks, or hissings to report in this review. To sum it all up, the French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track will definitely please those of you who like watching loud and intense action films.
Note: All of the supplemental features on this disc are in PAL. Therefore, if you reside in North America, or another region where PAL is not supported, you must have a Region-Free player capable of converting PAL to NTSC, or a TV set capable of receiving native PAL data, in order to view them.
Film annonce - the film's theatrical trailer. Not subtitled in English. (PAL, 2 min).
Teaser - Not subtitled in English. (PAL, 1 min).
Making of - an enormously informative featurette with an abundance of behind the scenes footage, interviews with cast and crew members, and clips from the film. Not subtitled in English. (PAL, 53 min).
Scenes inedites - a collection of extended, unedited scenes from the film with comments by the director. Not subtitled in English. (PAL, 6 min).
Entretiens avec les acteurs - a collection of raw scenes with comments by Benoit Magimel, Samy Naceri, Nadia Fares, Pascal Gregory and Sami Bouajila. Not subtitled in English. (PAL).
Story-board interactif en multi-angle - interactive storyboards commented on by the director of the film. (PAL).
2 heures de bonus en plus - a large collection of interviews with cast and crew members addressing the main characters, their weapons, clothing, etc. Not subtitled in English. (PAL).
Nid de guêpes has a lot of fans in North America, and I know a lot of them will be delighted to hear that the Blu-ray disc herein reviewed is English-friendly and Region-Free. If you decide to import it, I would like to recommend that you take a look at Florent Emilio Siri's most recent film, L'ennemi intime (see our review), which is also available on Blu-ray in France (also English-friendly and Region-Free). I liked it a lot more than Nid de guêpes. Recommended.
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