With riveting action, slick montages, and a rollicking soundtrack, “The Connection” is the rare kind of police procedural that takes hold of you and doesn’t let go. A European take on Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle and “The French Connection,” this hard-boiled crime saga takes a page from the playbook of the brilliant thrillers of the 70s. Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin (“The Artist”) exudes cool playing the real-life Marseille cop who spent years engaged in an obsessive game of cat-and-mouse with the untouchable drug kingpin who turned his city into a drug-riddled nightmare. Eventually he’s forced to make the most difficult decision of his life: continue waging his war, or ensure his family’s safety...before it’s too late. Trading grittiness for an irresistible retro chic, director Cédric Jimenez—fashioning himself as the French answer to Scorsese—delivers an insanely watchable, exquisitely crafted, and brazenly unpredictable epic.