If you want an usual, regular, conventional spy thriller, like other spy thrillers, AGENTS SECRETS is worth a try.

A couple of secret agents, Mrs. Bellucci and Cassel (wife and husband in real life), are sent in Morocco to stop a cargo who transported weapons to Angola. The plan looks fairly simple. Cassel looks like a stud, and has a very French look too.

On the other hand, there's little action and suspense; Mrs. Bellucci is filmed quite much, and we get rather a lot of profile—shots, angles to exploit her sensational beauty …. Her appeal's gist is that she looks almost involuntarily sexy—explosively, _orgasmicly sexy. (In the movie, a hoodlum says about a girl that you reach orgasm only by looking at her; this might be even truer about Mrs. Bellucci. ) Action—wise, and suspense—wise, i.e., thriller—wise, there's a lot of junk and dead ,tern footage. Here, Cassel is like a third—hand Delon impersonator. The action is lukewarm and _slowish.

I am of the opinion that Mrs. Bellucci, like Mrs. Sandrelli, is not an actress for action roles; her glamor is essentially homely, intimate, and, moreover, _interiorized, not a Bond girl.

A political talk—show (with Ciorbea !) was better.

AGENTS SECRETS is rather _dullish. As for Mrs. Bellucci and the physical roles—might it be that, despite all fitness, this is the timeless Italian construction?

I watched this film entirely in French without subtitles with some french speaking friends, as someone with reasonable French skills and still learning, i paid more attention to it than i would with an American film. I understood what was happening. From the start it had the potential to be a good film. Good locations, reasonable camera work, a good cast and some believable action sequences. A proportion of the film was located in Geneva, where i am staying at the moment, which i recognised, so effort was taken to be on location, unlike some films which are filmed in Prague and then set in Paris, Zurich or other European cities. I liked much of the story, the way that the characters interacted with each other and how the plot developed. Nevertheless, i found it disappointing and thought that more effort could have been made to develop the plot and perhaps develop the characters better. The actual action scenes were more brief than i had expected, which was another disappointment, but they were more believable that many in this specific genre. Having watched a number of French and other European films, i believe that they do have an edge over what Hollywood is producing. This film i think would not, i am sad to say. Not i think worth buying. If you rent it on DVD, then rent something else as well at the same time. That would be my advice.

A team of secret agents – Raymond (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), Loic (Ludovic Schoendoerffer), Lisa (Monica Bellucci) and their leader Brisseau (Vincent Cassel) – is assigned by the French Agency in a mission called Janua to sink the general cargo vessel "Anita Hans" in Casablanca. The ship is transporting weapons for the rebels in the civil war of Angola that are using diamonds to pay the dealer Igor Lipovsky (Serge Avedikian). Brisseau and Lisa are advised by an American agent to abort their mission, but their superiors order them to ignore. When the mission is successfully accomplished, Lisa is framed and arrested in the airport with 150 g of heroine. When Raymond is killed, Brisseau realizes that they have been betrayed and he tries to release Lisa from the prison.

"Agents Secrets" is a bitter and realistic original story of manipulation and betrayal, showing the dangerous, lonely and empty lives of secret agents, where the interest of a nation is above any principle of ethics, as Machiavelli observed and wrote in the Fifteenth Century. Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci have excellent lead performances, well supported by a great European cast, and the action scenes are really very impressive. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Agentes Secretos" ("Secret Agents")