Just Walking (Spain / Mexico, 2008) – 3/5
Violence, black suits, good music. This Mexican crime film has a good start. The film features two storylines that later merge. In Mexico a handsome and extremely cool hitman Gabriel (Diego Luna) is mafioso Felix’s right hand man. They are planning a big drug deal with an Asian gang. At the same time in Spain four women attempt to rob the Russian mafia. They fail and one of them is captured and sent to jail. Some time later one member of the group, now living in Spain, becomes Félix’s wife. It doesn’t take her long to get bored , and come up with a plan steal his husband’s money. Just Walking’s (titled after a song, not the film’s tempo) best twist is to set likable characters on both sides and this way avoid a simple good vs evil setting. Audio-visually the film is mostly good, but occasionally leaning too much on intentional cool (the director is an admirer of Quentin Tarantino, but thankully not a talentless copycat and does have his own style as well). The film’s biggest short coming is the ending, which misses many opportunities in terms of characters, and also lacks real punch. But all in all, it’s a stylish film.
Tony Manero (Chile / Brazil, 2008) – 1/5
A word of warning is needed here; this Chilean film about a low life killer obsessed with John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever is not quite exotic film finding some audiences may be expecting. Instead Tony Manero is a naturalistic drama about the most repulsive leading character in recent memory. He’s a killer and thug who beats defenceless elderly people to death and steals their money. Needless to say, he doesn’t treat his family much better. The main character is intended as an allegory for the country’s state in the late 70’s.There may be an audience for this kind of misery-cinema, but I’m not among them. Casual viewers will find little else to enjoy than the two Travolta dance scenes. The lead actor Alfredo Castro’s face looks like a mix of Al Pacino and Christopher Walken.
The Tournament (UK, 2009) – 4/5
The Tournament is one of the several recent Battle Royale soft variations... although ’soft’ is not exactly the best word to use when describing this ultra violent old school actioner. 30 of worlds deadliest assassins gather to play a survival game; the last man standing wins. A normal (fully populated) city in England serves as battle ground. The premise is delicious, and outcome is just as great.... and messy. Head explode and bullets rip off arms when 9 assassins find themselves at the same strip club at the same time in one of the film’s numerous action highlights. The budget appears to have been unsually big for such honest violence entertainment; there is no obvious cgi but real cars blown up to the sky, and of course genuine fake blood splattered all over the walls. The most memorable characters include Chinese kung fu killer (Kelly Hu), amazing french parkour expert armed with double pistols and sniper rifle (Sebastien Foucan), and Ving Rhanes the general bad mofo. And of course Robert Carlyle as a drunk priest who becomes a player by accident when someone throws a tracking device in his coffee! The Tournament is Rambo for 2009.
trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwvSFb95di4