Paris Connections (2 Stars)

This film was intended to usher in a new age of film making. In 2010 the British supermarket chain Tesco decided to enter the film business. They would make three films a year, high budget productions, but release them directly to DVD and offer them for sale exclusively in their shops. There are so many reasons why such a venture would fail. There's no publicity or marketing, apart from the posters in the Tesco DVD department. If, by chance, someone wanted to watch one of the films, would he visit a Tesco branch to buy it, unless it's already his regular supermarket? Last but not least, in 2010 Blu-ray discs were already becoming popular, so why were the films only going to be released on DVD? Was the target market old people stuck in yesterday's technology?

This new business venture flopped. The sales were so low that Tesco never made a second film. When watching the film it's obvious that a lot of money was thrown into the production, but the overall quality is so poor that nobody would have bothered with it even if it had been distributed normally. It stars Charles Dance, an excellent actor, but the rest of the cast are unknowns or actors who usually appear in television series. The posters advertise the film as based on a Jackie Collins novel, but this claim is barely true. It features characters who appear in her L.A. Connections novels, but the plot isn't barely related to any of them.

Madison Castelli is an investigative journalist for Manhattan Magazine. She's sent to Paris to write an article about Aleksander Borinski, a Russian oil tycoon who's founded a fashion company and is currently dating Coco De Ville, a successful American actress. Madison is accompanied by the photographer Jake Sica. It's a routine assignment, until one of Borinski's fashion models is murdered on the day Madison arrives. The main suspect is the model's jealous ex-boyfriend, but there's no evidence connecting him with the crime. A few days later a second model is killed. After that Coco is killed. The French police have no leads, so Madison investigates by herself.

This sounds like a good old-fashioned murder mystery, but there's more to it. Madison and Jake had a brief affair two years previously, and the old passion is rekindling. That's not just a subplot, it makes up half of the film. To me it looks like padding due to the screenwriter not having enough material to fill a 90-minute film. Even worse, whenever there's a romantic scene there's insipid music in the background that makes me want to cover my ears.

As for the mystery itself, I guessed halfway through who the killer was. It was obvious. "Paris Connections" can't be based on a Jackie Collins novel, she would have written a much better story.

Coco De Ville is played by the beautiful actress Hudson Leick, best known for playing Callisto in the TV series "Xena Warrior Princess". This was her biggest film role. It's a shame. She deserved better.

The film contains many scenes of Paris, not just establishing shots. Well known landmarks are repeatedly shown in the background. The director obviously wants to show how beautiful Paris is, but he overdoes it. After three different characters said that Paris is the most beautiful city in the world I wanted to yell, "Shut up about it! We already know!"

It was a bad idea for Tesco to start making films, but Tesco sealed its own fate by starting with such a poor film.

P. S. You can now buy the film at Amazon, not just at Tesco, but I wouldn't bother.