French Connection / French Connection 2
(1971)
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'Popeye' Doyle (an Academy Award-winning Gene Hackman) and Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) are tough New York cops attempting to crack a drug smuggling ring. They have a small candy store under surveillance, but Doyle is not happy when he receives the order to work with a pair of French federal agents on the case, one of whom he has a long-standing feud with. Gene Hackman and director William Friedkin both earned Academy Awards for the film, which also took Best Picture. The legendary car chase and the bleak, ambiguous ending remain amongst the greatest sequences in American movies of the 1970s. Also includes "French Connection 2". |
John Frankenheimer's sequel to The French Connection may be less believable than its predecessor, but it's still a cracking thriller. Here, New York cop “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman brilliantly reprising his Oscar-winning role from the original) blunders into the French operation to uncover heroin-tsar Fernando Rey's drugs ring. There's a disturbing sequence that details Hackman's withdrawal after being forcibly addicted, but after that it's revenge and violence all the way.
Halliwell's Film Guide
Sleazy, virtually plotless and unattractive sequel which rises to a few good action moments but is bogged down by bad language, unconvincing characterization and an interminable and irrelevant 'cold turkey' sequence.