Tom Cruise is considered the biggest action star working right now, and for good reason. He is in his 60s, he is still running as fast as some of the most brilliant athletes out there and performing the wildest vehicular stunts imaginable. And it doesn’t seem like he is in the mood to vacate that throne yet. But that doesn’t mean actors from all over the globe aren’t trying to live up to the standards he has set, especially in terms of doing their own stunts. Raymond Lam Fung knocked it out of the park in Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In. Dev Patel was excellent in Monkey Man. Emilio Sakraya took everyone’s breath away in Sixty Minutes. Jun Jong-seo surprised everyone in Ballerina. The work done by Alban Lenoir in the two Lost Bullet films are inspirational. Joe Taslim, Iko Uwais, Cecep Arif Rahman, Julie Estelle, and Yayan Ruhian have pretty much revolutionized modern hand-to-hand combat sequences. The same can be said about Ma Dong-seok and his fists. I can’t help but give a shoutout to Scott Adkins, Bren Foster, and Taron Egerton too. And now, joining this amazing list of action stars is Ad Vitam’s Guillaume Canet.
Rodolphe Lauga’s Ad Vitam, written by Canet, Lauga, and David Corona, tells the story of Franck and his wife, Leo. The couple met each other while working for the GIGN (Groupe d’intervention de la Gendarmerie nationale), a branch of the French police that specializes in counterterrorism activities and hostage rescue situations. They fell in love, and after a few years living together, Leo got pregnant with Franck’s baby. When Leo was about to break the news to Franck, he and his team got a call from a luxury hotel called the Trianon where the staff had reported that they had heard gunshots. Franck reached the spot and, instead of waiting for backup, he decided to go into the hotel with his team and see what the situation was like. There they encountered a couple of armed men, which led to a shootout, and while the two gunmen were killed, Nico, from Franck’s team, died on the spot, and Ben suffered a brutal knee injury that got him decommissioned. Franck was fired, and he took on a job of restoring buildings to ensure that he had the financial backing to build a future for Leo and their baby. Things were going relatively fine until, one day, a group of masked goons abducted Leo and ordered Franck to do their bidding if he wanted to see Leo and their unborn child again.
The writing in Ad Vitam is odd. The movie is just over 90 minutes long and, for some reason, the writers decide to spend around an hour on the most cliche flashback. Given how the rest of the plot exists just to make way for some of the most audacious action sequences, I would’ve excused the backstory if it had more action, if the characters had more substance, or if the international conspiracy (which just so happens to be the central conflict of the film) was even a bit thought-provoking. Instead, all we get is an extended training montage, a gunfight, lots of yapping about the importance of having a family when one is in law enforcement, and an act of stealing the vaguest documents conceivable to the human mind. If I try to be generous, maybe I can see the writers’ efforts to comment on how law enforcement authorities all over the world treat their own once they’ve got no use for them. But, by now, almost every action movie focusing on an elite force, made up or real, uses this trope to give the plot the appearance of seriousness. So, this film isn’t gaining any points for doing the bare minimum.
The action in Ad Vitam kind of makes up for the bad writing. As soon as I saw Canet rappelling down the side of a building and then running after one of Vanaken’s (the main villain) henchmen, while wearing a lot of clunky safety gear, I knew that, at the very least, the action was going to be great. That mini-chase scene was followed by a hand-to-hand fight scene in a small apartment, where it was expected for Canet to throw hands, but I was surprised to see Stephane Caillard joining in, whilst wearing a massive baby bump. How often do you get to witness something as preposterous as that in any film? Sadly, right after that whole altercation, the movie’s pacing went into the gutter and you had to wait for a really long time to see Canet jumping across the rooftops of France like he was taking a walk in the park. I’m sure wires were involved, but they were practically invisible. And I don’t think it’d be wrong to say that the final chase sequence was one for the history books. It had cars, bikes, guns, and a powered paraglider! As far as I could tell, Canet has done all his stunts himself. If any face-replacement VFX was involved, even though I don’t think there was, it must be some next level technology.
So, I suppose I have firmly established the fact that Canet has given Tom Cruise a run for his money via the action sequences in Ad Vitam. But how does he fare in the dramatic scenes? Spoiler alert, he is really amazing. He genuinely gives it his all in order to elevate the subpar material that he is working with. When he cries, he does tug at your heartstrings. His chemistry with Stephane Caillard feels pretty organic. Caillard is fantastic herself, and that made me wish she got more scenes which allowed her to flex her acting chops. While I’m not familiar with the filmographies of most of the cast, I have seen Nassim Lyes before in Under Paris, Mayhem!, The Last Mercenary, and The Spy, and he is spectacular in the role of Ben. And, yes, he should’ve gotten more screen time. Johan Heldenbergh sort of plays the big bad of the movie, but his character is pretty one-note, hence, he doesn’t exactly manage to make much of an impact. As long as he is wielding some kind of a weapon or chasing after Canet, he is okay. However, as soon as you try to see if he has a personality or any skin in the game, Vanaken appears hollow. The supporting cast is decent. A huge round of applause should go out to all the stunt performers who are responsible for making the main cast look badass.
Ad Vitam is a decent action film with Guillaume Canet performing some jaw-dropping stunts that’ll make the likes of Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Jackie Chan, Jason Statham, and Michelle Yeoh sit up and notice, while motivating all the budding action stars to up their game. Yeah, plotwise, the movie has nothing new to offer, but given how I had never seen a chase sequence involving two SUVs and a powered paraglider before, I suppose you should give it a watch just to witness that ridiculously awesome moment. I am pretty sure that I’m being particularly positive about this French action flick, other than the fact that I am a fan of the action genre, because the first week of 2025 has been absolutely awful in terms of quality “content.” Hence, I guess I’m just glad that, finally, I have come across something that has entertained me and has given me a bit of hope for the rest of the year. I hope that it does the same for you. By the way, I think Ad Vitam is yet another sign that I need to watch more French action movies, because they’ve been producing some great stuff over the last few years. If you have any recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comment section below.
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