French Netflix film “Lost Bullet” is so typical and predictable in many aspects that you can easily guess everything even before watching it. First, we have a criminal hero who is pretty good in his profession, and you surely know that he will get himself into a big trouble sooner or later. Second, the movie is mostly about how he desperately tries to clear his name after getting framed for a murder he did not commit, and you definitely know that you will get several big action scenes. Third, he is a man with a particular set of skills, and you will certainly sense that his skills will eventually come handy

The movie opens with how Lino (Alban Lenoir) gets caught by the police. Along with a younger guy who has been like a little brother to him, he attempts to rob a shop with his modified vehicle in the middle of one night, but it turns out that his modified vehicle is a bit too fast and furious for getting their job done. While his partner luckily escapes at the last minute, Lino is less fortunate, and he soon ends up being incarcerated in a prison.

However, there later comes an unexpected opportunity for him. A detective named Charas (Ramzy Bedia) visits Lino on one day, and he has an offer Lino cannot easily refuse. Knowing well how skilled Lino is as a mechanic/driver, Charas wants to recruit Lino as an unofficial staff member of his drug raid team, and Lino eventually accepts Charas’ offer mainly because he wants to get out of the prison as soon as possible.

And he does not disappoint Charas at all during next several months. Thanks to those patrol cars modified by Lino, Charas and his men have swiftly caught almost every drug delivery vehicle in their area, no matter how fast those drug delivery vehicle can go. Quite impressed by how much Lino has helped him and his fellow cops, Charas decides to give Lino some little help besides giving Lino an earlier parole than expected, and Lino certainly appreciates this act of generosity from Charas.

However, of course, things soon go quite wrong for Lino. Charas takes Lino to a certain shady garage where Lino’s partner is currently working, but it is soon revealed that Lino’s partner has been involved with some dangerous people he should not mess with. Not so surprisingly, one of these dangerous figures turns out to be one of the cops for whom Lino has worked, and this corrupt cop is already willing to cover up his dirty deeds by any means necessary.

Thanks to this corrupt cop, Lino soon finds himself on the run from the police, who immediately search for him right after he gets framed for a murder. The only person on whom he may depend is a female cop named Julia (Stéfi Celma), but she does not believe his words much even though they have been close to each other for a while.

Coming to see that he has to depend only on himself, Lino becomes more determined to clear his name, and that leads to a couple of big action sequences unfolded along the story. There is an intense physical action sequence where he must fight against a bunch of cops for his escape, and the movie does not disappoint us when Lino comes to demonstrate more of his professional skill later in the story.

However, the movie is frequently bland and superficial in terms of storytelling, and that is the main reason why we merely follow its plot without much care. For example, its hero is just a run-of-the-mill criminal hero whose stoic toughness is not so far from those countless action movie heroes played by Jason Statham, and the movie also fails to flesh out several substantial supporting characters in the story more. For example, it does not delve that much into his cop girlfriend’s conflict over the ongoing situation, and it is unfortunate that Alban Lenoir, who can be a French answer to Statham if he ever gets a really good action flick to support him better, and Stéfi Celma do not have much chemistry between them during their few key scenes in the film.

Anyway, the movie surely shifts its gear to a full-throttle mode during the last act, which is incidentally involved with a certain vehicle containing a crucial evidence to incriminate that corrupt cop (You can instantly guess what it is from the very title of the film, by the way). Although it may look rather modest compared to many Hollywood action blockbuster films out there, director Guillaume Pierret, who wrote the screenplay along with Lenoir and their co-writer Kamel Guemra, handles the climatic sequence with enough skill and competence, and the overall result compensates for the flawed aspects of the film to some degree.

On the whole, “Lost Bullet” is often underwhelming as just functioning as a little warm-up process for the next two sequels to follow. I simply checked it out for watching its two sequels later, and, despite keeping my expectation as low as possible, the movie did not engage me enough without leaving much impression in the end. No, I have no objection against those rather simple action movies you can casually watch on Sunday afternoon, but the movie is too rote and mediocre to make me care about whatever is happening on the screen. It is not boring at all, but its memory is already being vaporized inside my mind, and I am quite ready to move onto its two sequels while hoping that they will be more entertaining in comparison.