An audacious, ultra-hip urban Western, Jan Kounen’s Dobermann pits a stylish gang of bank robbers against a sadistic cop in a violent fantasy played out in contempory Paris. The source material is Joel Houssin’s ‘Dobermann’ series, a collection of callow, slangy crime novels that were popular among French hipsters in the early ’80s. For the film, Houssin scripted a new adventure for his fictional gang of likeable psychopaths.
Yann (Vincent Cassel of La Haine and L’Appartement) is the Dobermann, whose cronies include deaf girlfriend Nat the Gypsy (the gorgeous Monica Bellucci, who starred with Cassel in L’Appartement), a dog-loving lout called Pitbull (Chick Ortega), and The Padre (Dominique Bettenfeld), a Bible-spouting ex-priest. The cops try to stop the gang but fail miserably. Enter crazed detective Christini (Tcheky Karyo of Nikita), who is not above handing a baby a live grenade to get its father to talk. Christini sets a trap for the Dobermann which climaxes in an explosive gun battle between the gang and a small army of cops in an enormous nightclub.
Described by one critic as having as much redeeming social value as a landmine, Dobermann revels in cartoonish violence, digital special effects, dark humour and a throbbing techno soundtrack. As Kounen had been quick to point out, it’s closer to the comic strip than neo-realist cinema and as such it can indulge in all kinds of excess and really overdo it. So I went for it, went all the way. And when I go all the way, I mean all the way! You have been warned.