AKA (Netflix, 2023)

AKA (or: Alias) is a French action thriller, in which the hero (Alban Lenoir) tries to save a child-in-peril. 

Lenoir plays Adam Franco, an undercover agent whose job it is to infiltrate a crime syndicate, led by Victore Pastore (Eric Cantona), who has ties with a Sudanese warlord.

Once inside, much to his own surprise he finds himself bonding with Pastore’s young son Jonathan, which in turn makes Adam - who is morally bankrupt himself due in part to a traumatic childhood - question his own outlook on life, and on what is right and wrong.

AKA is the kind of movie that just wants to give you some bang for your Netflix-buck. Or rather: to give you some crash, bang & wallop for your buck. 

The movie is directed by Morgan S. Dalibert, who was the cinematographer on the two Lost Bullet action movies, the second one I reviewed last year.

Dalibert wrote the script together with Lenoir, who also starred in the Lost Bullet films, so it’s easy to see how they came to collaborate on this new movie.

Franco is fine as an action hero, and Cantona is pretty good too as the crime boss. 

The former soccer star’s acting credits go back to the modern classic Elizabeth (1998) by Shekhar Kapur and also include a role as a version of himself in Looking For Eric (2009) by Ken Loach. For a movie like AKA he is definitely an added value element.

While watching AKA I was also reminded of another movie I reviewed last year: the Italian revenge thriller My Name is Violence, which also delivered what it promised in a no frills way.

Not only is this story a little more complicated, the craftsmanship (shooting, editing, etc.) is also top notch and that is a welcome bonus.

So if you’re in the mood for a movie that offers you a fair amount of action sequences and bloody mayhem, AKA will definitely get the job done.