RoninPeople always talk about
Bullitt and
The French Connection, and while those films were certainly revolutionary with what they did, for me this has always been the benchmark for cinematic car chases. In fact, it doesn't just have one utterly excellent chase sequence, it has two (although the epic one around Paris towards the end is definitely the more famous of the pair).
It's also just a great, twisty thriller - nothing you know at the beginning of the film is true by the time you get to the end, and you only learn what's really going on in the final ten minutes. The plot isn't terribly groundbreaking, but I love the way it's presented - very little is clearly spelt out, and with all the double-crossing and mistrust going on, you often have to really pay attention and infer from the dialogue what people are really saying. The characters may be clichés to a large degree but they all stand out and stars Robert De Niro and Jean Reno, two of my favourite actors, are both particularly great in their roles.
It's a shame this film kinda sank without a trace when it was released, because it's a really excellent flick, one of my all-time favourites. It's rare to find a film that works so well as both a smart spy thriller and an exhilarating action movie.
Oh yeah, also...
Spoiler
Sean Bean lives!