We are far from the heyday of action movies, whether it was the Mr. Universe-esque physiques of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone in the 80’s, the slick CGI and special effects of T2 or The Matrix, or the shakycam sequences of the Bourne series and everyman revenge thrillers of Taken in the 2000s. But the best recent actions movies – Mad Max: Fury Road, The Raid: Redemption; John Wick; Mission Impossible – all heavily depend on the fundamental building blocks that have been wowing audiences since Charlie Chaplain and Buster Keaton: practical stunt work.
Guillaume Pierret’s recent Lost Bullet Trilogy (consisting of Lost Bullet (2020), Lost Bullet 2 (2022), and Last Bullet (2025)) also relies on practical stunts as its bread and butter, with a few camera tricks and movement and focused editing. While the babayaga focuses on gun-fu, the Lost Bullet really shines through with its exemplary car and vehicular chase scenes (although the hand-to-hand combat scenes are no joke either). Think Fast and the Furious meets Fury Road, with a dose of The Transporter.
Most of the action follows our protagonist Lino (an increasingly shaggy Alban Lenoir), as a criminal-turned-cop who happens to be a genius mechanic with a penchant for turning discrete French compact cars into Transformers-esque smashing machines, and who also quite luckily and inexplicably appears to be a world-class close combat expert. Yet his most outstanding characteristic is his staunch loyalty to his loved ones (his mentor, younger brother, crew mates, and romantic interests). As events transpire, he becomes a one-man wrecking-ball of vengeance.
The first film was made with a low budget and even lower expectations, although each has increased with each film. Thankfully, while the runtime also grows with each installment, it is limited in each instance (from 93 minutes for the first one to a still quite reasonable 111 minutes for the last one). You don’t come for the plot or the characters, which may flit in and out of your brain as you are trying to keep pace with the frenetic pacing of the films. The higher production budget also shows with each successive movie, but it’s primarily reflected in the longer and more elaborate set pieces (which go from thrilling but realistic souped up cars to literally electrifying modded go-fast cars and rocket-launching tow trucks).
Each subsequent movie is better than the last, and in fact when we get to Last Bullet, we finally get villains who are given the skillsets and opportunities to share the screen with Lino in a worthwhile manner (for anyone who liked the Shang-Chi bus fight, I see you and raise you the Last Bullet tram fight) and almost miraculously, also includes more substantive plot lines and character arcs that raise the stakes for everyone. Even if the silliness dial gets increased to 11 (there is a scene where an obscene amount of fireworks are shot at a chasing helicopter), the proceedings always feel grounded enough for you to remain invested and eager for the next action sequence. There is also substantial retconning that might fall apart if you think about it too hard, but still raises the stakes in a fun way without significantly undermine anything.
If you’re even a casual fan of action movies, buckle your seat belts before you press the nos (play) button on this French and the Furious series – it’s a wild ride, and one that you may want to replay over and over once it’s done.
Now streaming on Netflix.
