Squad 36 Review
Director: Olivier Marchal
Date Created: 2025-02-28 22:49
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Squad 36 Review:This French crime thriller directed by Olivier Marchal and starring Victor Belmondo as Commandant Antoine Cerda and Tewfik Jallab as Sami Belkai, his old colleague. The series has a great cast, including Yvan Attal, Juliette Dol, Soufiane Guerrab, Jean-Michel Correia, and Lydia Andrei. The movie is an adaptation of Michel Tourscher’s novel Flics Requiem and has a runtime of 2 hours and 4 minutes.
Squad 36 Review
Netflix’s Squad 36 creates a high-stakes setup—a police squad chasing after a brutal killer, a cop being transferred following a scandal, and a revenge plot that becomes more complex as it peels away at a larger conspiracy. On paper, this was supposed to be a thrilling, quick-paced whodunit. In practice? It slogs. Hard. And not in a tense manner. It’s the type of slow where you look at how much time remains, sigh, and question whether you should just Google the ending. There is good there, I won’t lie, but it’s hidden by a whole lot of nothing. So let’s dive in.
If Squad 36 movie had kept the same energy as its opening sequence, I’d be sitting here writing about how it’s one of the best crime thrillers of the year. The film kicks off with an intense, rain-soaked chase through Paris, where Antoine Cerda (Victor Belmondo) and his squad are after the notorious criminal Karim Mahmoudi. It’s a scene straight out of a high-budget action flick—fast, chaotic, and beautifully shot. The cinematography is smooth, the music is thumping, and for a few minutes, I was actually stoked.
Following this charged opening, the film slows to such an extent that it begins to feel like a different movie entirely. The issue? Nothing that comes after is even remotely as engaging. The stakes never quite feel high, the mystery is predictable, and rather than tension, we are treated to interminable exposition and scenes that feel like padding.
So, the entire premise hinges on Antoine making an attempt to discover who’s murdering his previous teammates. He thinks it is Karim Mahmoudi and goes on a mission to track down evidence. Should be interesting, right? Only. the twist is blindingly clear. There isn’t any tension created because the movie essentially gives the solution away too soon. Therefore, instead of being interested in Antoine’s adventure, I found myself merely expecting him to close the gap.
I enjoy crime novels that get you thinking, second-guessing, and on the edge of your seat until the big reveal. Bastion 36 doesn’t do that. It takes too much time with boring dialogue and not enough time making you care.
Now, on to Antoine. He is just sort of there. Victor Belmondo, the actor who plays him, never quite brings him to life. I was waiting for a scene where he’d express some emotional depth, but he’s flat and expressionless throughout. Even when he’s coping with betrayal, loss, or ethical crises, his face doesn’t change much. If you’re going to cast your hero as a brooding anti-hero, at least give him some depth.
And it’s not even Antoine—the rest of the cast is wasted as well. Tewfik Jallab’s Sami Belkai was a character with promise but is given hardly any screen time. Juliette Dol’s Hanna Levasseur is used so little she might as well not exist. Jean-Michel Correia, the bad guy, is intimidating… but is used too little. The movie doesn’t give these characters enough complexity for us to care about what happens to them. And that’s a massive issue. If I don’t care about the characters, then why should I care about the narrative?
The greatest problem with Squad 36 is that it doesn’t know where it wants to go. It attempts to be too many things—a police procedural, a revenge thriller, and a corruption drama—without settling into any of them. Because of this, it’s discontinuous and unsatisfying.
The pacing is chaotic. After the suspenseful beginning, it peters out to the point of being downright dull. Even when the plot thickens once more, it never comes near the level of the opening. I was holding my breath waiting for a cliffhanger turn of events or a heart-racing showdown, but it just doesn’t materialize. And the conclusion? A total disappointment. In place of a blow-out finale, the movie plods along to the finish with an ending that is predictable and lackluster.
Summing Up
Generally speaking, setup was promising, themes were captivating, and the action scenes promised much. The execution, though? Mind-bogglingly slow. What this film does offer is an forgettable main character, an evident enigma, and pacing so slow one would feel inclined to watch a brick slowly construct a house on repeat instead.
2025 Squad 36 film is now streaming on Netflix.
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