Shrapnel: Guerra al cartello

No pun intended - especially because it is the father in this case who is really looking for her ... and there is a different case to be made than the book/movie I am referring to in my summary headline. If you like B-action movies this may float your boat - but there are better movies of course, even in this category.

Still it has a bad boy - I mean a Lost Boy (well not the group per se, but from the movie) and other actors you may recognize. I'd say a pretty decent cast - one that does work overall too. Story is easy to follow (that is me being nice I reckon), still suspension of disbelief is more than necessary to have fun with this.

Former Marine Sean Beckwith (Jason Patric) is searching for his missing daughter in Mexico. Max Vohden (Cam Gigandet) is his war buddy.

I come into this knowing that it's a B-movie. When the daughter says "You promised you'd keep us safe. You didn't.", I realized that this is going to be badly written, too. This is an old school Rambo action flick where the good guys take out dozens of bad guys. Sean is never going to get killed and the daughter is certain to be rescued. That's the part which seems to be annoying most critics. I'm not as annoyed with that. It doesn't help that car doors and flimsy walls become bulletproof in this world. It's all badly written. Sean should have taken the cartel brother hostage and make a prisoner exchange. Instead, two guys are going into Mexico to take on the cartel home base. Of course, nothing can go wrong.

For a low budget film, this was pretty good. It reminds me of Rambo Last Blood, but with a better outcome and ending. It's not perfect by any means, but it's entertaining and the fight scenes are really well done. Yes, the story has been done before, but so has almost every story out there these days. The camera work was blurry at times as well, but not enough to interfere with the movie. I liked it for a B movie and would love to see more like this.

However, my biggest gripe with the movie was that some of the actors and actresses could have been better picked. The wife just didn't act very good and the brother of the cartel leader didn't exactly look like a tough man or scary. The scene with the wife in bed was painful to watch and the brother acting tough when attacking the house was too, but everything else was pretty good.

Probably best suited for the fans of this B-movie action genre, for those who just prefer violent good guy vs bad guys shootouts and that is exactly what you are gonna get.

The good: from 35 minutes onwards, it's basically contineous shootouts between Jason Patric and a Mexican drug kartel who has kidnapped his daughter.

The shootouts are okay-ish, but nothing terrific, especially since Jason Patric survives every hailstorm of bullets and kills everybody with a single shot himself. A bit laughable, but then again this is a B-movie. Treat it as such and it'll be a nice pasttime.

For those (like me) who are a bit impatient, skip the first 35 minutes, nothing much happens at the start...

So impressed by this. Simple story but well told. Great pace . Good enough acting and well staged action sequences. Small criticism is the sound during gunfights seemed at odds with action on the screen but more than watchable. Maybe it was the platform I watched it on(sky cinema) I'd recommend this as a brisk. Brain out , 89 minute action movie that for sure has you rooting for the hero not the Mexican cartel. Satisfactory ending. Don't expect a big budget hollywood blockbuster and accept it's a better "B" movie than we have a right to expect and you will be absolutely fine. Probably made for the catering bill on a marvel bill. Impressive.