Xtreme

Combine one-part of John Wick with one-part of Steven Seagal's Hard To Kill one-part Taken and one-part John Woo's Hard Boiled and you get Xtreme, a fairly decent outing from director Daniel Benmayor.

I was pleasantly surprised at how masculine this movie is. We really don't get many movies like this anymore where the lead is a hard-boiled, no-nonsense killer with some legitimate martial arts skills on display and some satisfying gun-fu to match.

A lot of the low-ratings are from people who obviously aren't fans of Hollywood's ultra-violent macho-films from the 1980s and 1990s. I guess they went in expecting feminist lectures on "toxic masculinity"? In any case, it's obvious that the only reason Netflix has this movie on their service is because it's foreign made; Spanish, to be exact.

There's no subversion afoot in this film, it's pretty straightforward even though the cover art might give you the impression that it's some sort of ensemble buddy-up flick where a group of vigilantes take on the bad guy. That's far from the case here. The film is anchored mostly by Teo Garcia's ruthlessly engaging portrayal as Maximo, a top-of-the-line hitman and assassin out for revenge.

The film does a fantastic job of setting up the main villain, Lucero, played with devilish charm by Óscar Jaenada.

Don't expect vanilla-tier "current year" villainy from Jaenada's character, though. He's absolutely evil down to the bone. Again, this is a throwback to the villains of yesteryears, in particular he channels a lot of Billy Drago's Ramon Cota from Delta Force 2, but in his own sadistic little way. And there's no shortage of bodies, including villains not afraid to harm and kill women, men and children. They're really bad guys.

It makes it all the more satisfying seeing them get their comeuppance in this film, done with a mixture of classic Hong Kong-inspired fight choreography and John Wick/Taken-themed shootouts. It's not a big budgeted film and sometimes the editing is a little over-done and some scenes drag on too long, but they are what they are.

The fight scenes are entertaining, even though they aren't particularly memorable, and the shootouts are cathartic. With the spotlight of the film on a heroic, masculine lead beating the bad guys into a pulp and shooting his way to retribution, what more could you possibly ask for from a budget-production action flick out of Barcelona, Spain?

Well worth the watch for fans of the classic 80s/90s action film genre.

It's (mostly) nicely done, but it's very generic, with just a basic background to give characters some reasons and then it's better not to think about those reasons too much. Fighting scenes are done mostly well, but even those are too predictable and exaggerated at times. It's an OK action flick, but it doesn't stand out in any part (except maybe some nice Barcelona views).

Plot is a little bit weak. But the action sequences seems to bury all the loose ends. As all ways English dubbing was weak. False emotions whatsoever. Netflix needs to work on English dubbing of its European content.

Nothing original but so what. When you watch the Olympics, you know the gymnast, skater, diver is going to ... and the judges still give them a high score based on how well they do it.

1. Evil villain that you want to see killed - 10+, this guy is despicable, fantastic villainy.

2. Fight sequences - 9, some gun fights (yawn), lots of martial arts (yay), and stabbing, lots and lots of stabbing.

3. Story line - 6, enough to hold 1 and 2 together.

Acting not graded, mostly irrelevant, the heroes are always the same, don't kill in cold blood (this one has plot convenient lapses), look like you are about to lose then triumph. Villains are the only ones who seem to have fun in these types of movies and this one was over the top.

I really wanted to like this action flick more, and it's obvious that Teo Garcia was a real trained martial artist. But the terrible filmography didn't allow him to showcase his skills. Every punch and kick, and reaction, were cut to a new camera angle, making it feel hectic but you don't get a flow of the action sequences. The underground garage scene could've been a great opportunity to pay homage to the long one-take action scenes from Old Boy and others, but they chose to stand still and wait for each opponent to run to him instead. So much unrealized potential with this film.