Papillion 2017

     This film is based on the international best-selling autobiographic books Papillon and Banco written by Henri Papillon Chariere.  These books were first released in France in 1969.  He was a safecracker living in Paris and he was framed for the murder of another man.  He was sent to the notorious penal colony on Devil’s Island and condemned to life.  He is determined to regain his freedom and he forms an interesting friendship with convicted counterfeiter Louis Dega. 

      I thought this movie was overlong and I watched it in two sessions.  There is a LOT of sameness also.  It's better to forget what you have watched and start anew another day where you don't remember the sameness?  I caught my mind wandering to how bad would someone smell after one year of not bathing?  Charlie Hunnam put a huge amount of effort (the extreme weight loss) into this film but was it worth it??  2 1/2* (this movie is just so-so)   

133 min, Crime directed by Michael Noer with Charlie Hunnam,  Rami Malek, Damijan Oklopdzic, Christopher Fairbank, Jason Ryan, Eve Hewson, Sladjana Biljam, Joe David Walters, David Stoller, Gilly Gilchrist, Mark Robert Pullen.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 52% critic 69% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 2*, Metacritic 52 out of 100 with 29 critics 6.3 out of 10 with 21 reviews, Rollingstone 3* out of 5*, Washington Post 1.5* out of 4*, Commonsense Media age 16+, 3* out of 5*, positive messages 4*, role models 3*, brutal violence 5*, sex 4*, language 4*, drinking, drugs and smoking 2*, not much drinking and smoking allowed in a penal colony!!

Special Note:  Filmed In Belgrade, Serbia; Niksic, Kotor, Ulcinj, Montenegro and Rabat, Malta.  Charlie Hunnam lost 40 pounds during filming.  Delays and torrential rain caused the filming of the prison scenes to take two months.  They were supposed to last only a few weeks.  Papillon means Butterfly and was Henri’s nickname due to the tattoo on his chest.  There is another release of this from 1973 with Steve McQueen as Papillon and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega.  This film has 8 out of 10 on Imdb, Amazon Video 4.7* out of 5* with 603 reviews,