El practicante

At a normally comfortable 94 minutes, this one felt much longer. I can't put my finger on any one reason, because the pacing was ok, which usually is the issue.

There's a lot going on, almost too much that I feel is unnecessary, and there just isn't enough suspense until the last quarter of the film. The tittle, The Paramedic, really doesn't suit the story, and even being one in this film was really just filler. I'd rather some emerg doctor cross the street, get hit by a car, and then get the ball rolling with the main acts.

The casting and performances were quite good, and the directing was decent, but this thriller needed more thrills. It's a good one-time watch if you've nothing else to watch.

I wasn't sure what I should expect with this but it ended up being ok. There are a a few tedious moments but for the most part I stayed engaged. The acting was good but I think it could have benefited from a bit more depth into the characters back stories. There were some things going on that could've used a bit more explanation.

Decent watch though.

The Paramedic is reminiscent of better movies such as Rear Window and Misery, but without sufficient character development, it just feels like an exploitation film, heavy on violence and narcissism. A great deal of the tension generated here is sustained by the fact that the director establishes early on that Angel (an ironic name) is without morals, a guy in the healing professions who routinely steals from the injured and dead. We know that no internal ethics will interfere with his revenge scheme. He won't hesitate to murder anyone who gets in his way. He won't feel remorse or mercy, or change his mind about the evil he is doing, so nothing he does, no matter how vile, surprises us. Implausibility is high as people keep warning Angel they're going to call the police instead of just going ahead and calling them. Most implausible is that Angel, like a Mafia boss, has his own crime cleanup squad on call for getting rid of pesky bodies. All of this leaves little room for nuance and doesn't allow the mounting tension to ever let up, making this simply unpleasant and difficult to watch rather than engrossing, as a thriller ought to be.

I don't regret watching, many things did make sense, but some details are quite funny - especially the end of ending, which feels like of another movie. But at the same time, it's not an open ending that leaves with a question "wtf just happened". Watch it, judge by yourself.

The concept is nothing new. But Mario's acting was everything in the movie. From the start we get an impression that the protagonist (Angel Hernandez) is recluse and doesn't like interacting much with people, he is an extremely controlling boyfriend and he suffers from a kind of kleptomania (maybe??) wherein he steals items from the injured people's homes or cars while arriving for help as a paramedic. When he suffers from paralysis his suspicion towards his gf grows stronger to the point he spies on her. In time, his gf finds what he was doing and she leaves him. The rest is kinda disturbing. As I mentioned, the plot is not new but you gotta watch this for Mario's performance. He just lives upto the character right from the start to the end with no remorse or feeling on his face regarding the type of things he did. The 7 stars go to him and of course to the ending. The movie has a good pace and doesnt leave you bored but it doesnt have anything extra ordinary to offer.