"There are no heroes in crime." - Jacques Mesrine

Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1 is the second of two films that chart the life and legend of Jacques Mesrine (Vincent Cassel), the real-life French gangster of the 1960s and 70s who was known as French Public Enemy No. 1 and The Man of a Thousand Faces. Prison escapes, robberies, kidnappings, murders - he did it all. Public Enemy No. 1 takes us from his return to France in 1972 to his death at the hands of Commissioner Broussard's notorious anti-gang unit in 1979.

Right off the bat, part two of Mesrine is more compelling, and thus, more entertaining. Mesrine is making a name for himself and loving every minute of it. In what is easily the film's best sequence, he manages to escape from the Compiegne Tribunal by taking his own judge hostage. And the high-profile hi-jinks don't stop there. When he gets arrested (for the first time) by Commissioner Broussard, Mesrine welcomes him with champagne, delightedly posing for pictures. He then escapes yet again from the La Sante prison with accomplice Francois Besse.

Cassel, a good 45 pounds heavier, digs into the role with relish. His Mesrine is a vivacious man with an all-consuming disdain for normalcy. But he is also full of contradictions, fancying himself a revolutionary when in reality he was merely reactionary. The general public's love affair with Mesrine comes to a screeching halt with his abduction of the journalist Tillier, whom he savagely beats and leaves for dead.

Though a marked improvement, Public Enemy No. 1 is not without faults. The film refuses to delve into the logistics of the daring escapes, making real life events seem far-fetched. And although an older Mesrine is a much more interesting Mesrine, we still don't sense the conflict within him. He appears to be whole-heartedly operating by a specific code of ethics, the dictums of which are never made crystal clear. But I suppose that may be the point.

Sum...ology: A tragic, theatrical game of cat-and-mouse that's fun for the whole (17+) family.