36 (15)

Jun 9 2006 By Graham Young, Birmingham Mail

SET in Paris, this is such a first-rate cop thriller it's one of the best films of its kind since Tom Cruise starred in Collateral two years ago.

The story is too contrived for it to match its close Hollywood relative, Heat, but 36 is cut from the same cloth with two giants of French cinema going head to head - or should that be nose to nose?

Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Auteil are Denis Klein and Leo Vrinks, former best friends turned rival cops who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

The impending retirement of the police commissioner (Andre Dussollier) signals a race for the top job - just when a gang of criminals have killed nine people during a series of raids.

Both Depardieu and Auteil are on great form, with character egos to match their enormous noses.

But who will bring who down - Leo, who tends to stick to the law, or Denis, a maverick prepared to fix the evidence to suit the crime?

An electrifying, gritty movie, directed by an ex-cop, Olivier Marchal. At Cineworld, Broad Street.