Reel Life review: 'Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, Part 2'

"There are no heroes in crime!" says Jacques Mesrine, France's Public Enemy No. 1, just before he meets his bullet-riddled demise in Jean-Francois Richet's "Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1."

It's the second half of Richet's epic retelling of the story of bankrobber/kidnapper/murderer Mesrine (pronounced may-ring), France's version of John Dillinger.

We already know that Mesrine gets cut down in a hail of police gunfire in 1979 - that's how the first movie "Killer Instinct" begins, robbing the story of what could have been a shocking "Bonnie and Clyde" ending for American audiences.

Mesrine, played by charismatic French actor Vincent Cassel as a strutting, gloriously unrepentant outlaw, robs banks, takes hostages, gets caught, escapes, gets caught, escapes again, then makes his fatal mistake: he strips, mercilessly beats and executes a French journalist he doesn't like.

Then he sends photos of the crime to the media, which up to that point glamorized Mesrine as a Robin Hood-like figure. Not now.

"Our days are numbered," his partner says prophetically.

"Public Enemy" is a more engaging crime drama than "Killer Instinct," an episodic opus too shallow and quick to let us in on how this criminal thinks and feels.

A particularly humorous kidnapping involves an 80-plus billionaire so adept at negotiating that he argues his ransom price down from 10 million to 6 million francs - and can pay it in four installments.

Yet, Richet is so fascinated by the criminal exploits of the boisterous Mesrine that neither of his two movies gives us much depth or texture between the shootouts.

"A man does not fear death who has really lived," Mesrine boasts.

It never occurs to Richet that just because a man is constantly on the run, estranged from his daughter and wife, has no true friends, and has to wear disguises to shop, doesn't mean he has really lived.

Does it?

"Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1" opens today at the Music Box in Chicago. Rated R for language, nudity, sexual situations and violence. 133 minutes. ★★½