Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1

Director Jean-Francois Richet and co-writer Abdel Raouf Dafri’s engrossing two-part crime saga careens to a particularly unsatisfying conclusion with Mesrine: Public Enemy #1. Though the film largely hums along at an even more satisfying pace than its lively predecessor and packs a powerful emotional punch while dealing with issues of family, it’s all for naught thanks to Richet and Dafri’s inexplicable decision to cap off the entire story with a drawn-out and less stylized version of the very same scene that kick-started the whole thing.

In retrospect, the filmmakers essentially sabotaged their own efforts by choosing to open the first film with Mes...