Ripoux contre ripoux (1990)

(On TV, January 2022) I was very dubious that Ripoux contre ripoux would be interesting, considering the unlikely success of the first film in the series, Les Ripoux, in making audiences sympathize with a pair of crooked cops shaking out their neighbourhood for cash and favours. How can you make a fun sequel to that? (Aside from the obvious problem of the previous film’s conclusion—which this one cheerfully ignores.)  Well, the solution, as the opening act of the sequel, is to have them fall from grace (after an act of honesty, ironically enough) and be replaced by even worse crooked cops that set out to squeeze the neighbourhood for all it’s worth. That leads the oppressed neighbourhood shop owners to head to the rural retreat of our horse-raising protagonists to beg them to come back and get rid of their replacements. No, it’s not quite as neat or original as the first film, but Ripoux contre Ripoux still manages to extend the dubious charm of the previous film—Thierry Lhermitte and especially Philippe Noiret are in fine form as the crooked cops asked to prevent an even greater evil from taking over, even when their allies prove fickle and their allegiances uncertain. The sense of neighbourhood is muddled somewhat by the protagonists’ temporary exile, but the film does roar back to a better tempo during its last half as the action returns to Paris. It’s more of the same, but pleasantly so—while I still have substantial moral qualms about making heroes out of crooked cops, there’s still some charm to the series and its lead actors.