A Man of Action

Its a film full of entertainment, its full of funny action, and its full of stuff and gadgets that belongs to the era of time. I notice that the police used a peugout just like the one i was born into and thats cool...

its environment of autentic caracters makes me smile over and again, its rude and witty ways to slide out of the polices strongholds are just amazing, the plotspeed is up to your thyroid gland, and the actors casted for this french/spanish/navarranian/basque/catalonian anarchistic freestyler of a biographical drama is just brilliant.

So if you want to lay back to the 1960's paris environment, be my guest, the grumpy old man recommends, and catch me if you can.

No pun intended - but I'll add one: you gotta cheque yourself, before you wreck your(home) self ... ah well. I can do this all day ... Captain Greece that is if you even care. But back to the point or rather the movie. Real life stories can be good - but they can also make some viewers roll their eyes ... not in a good way - also if you are thinking of anything other than annoyed, those are your thoughts and your thoughts alone.

Sorry for that, but I am certain some people have a dirty mind - shame on them. Talking of dirty ... what about dirty money? What about banks, who have too much of it? I mean it is mostly the money of workers ... but they play with it ... and they are insured ... so it is ok to .. no, do not even think about it! Especially because you'll get in prison ... which is a possibility for the main characters here ... since they are based on real people, you may already know their story.

Let's say you don't - I didn't ... and the movie was really well thought of ... and edited. Very well acted too ... and the suspense of it ... great too. Will not make my top 20 list - but it was an interesting and entertaining watch ... especially with the real life factor included ... credits reveal more ... well a bit more! It is not a documentary after all ...

Despite the interesting premise, the plot fell flat after the intriguing opening sequence. The story starts in 1962, with main character Lucio Urtubia and girlfriend reaching the Paris airport with a bag full of cash. Costumes and set look spot on and the audience is left wondering what will happen next, since the police is in hot pursuit.

There follows the first annoying flashback to 20 years previously, in Spain with teenage Lucio attempting and failing his first bank robbery to help his sick father. Move forward 10 years and Lucio is in Paris, joining his sister and working as a builder. On his construction site, Lucio meets some anarchists who introduce him to the doctrine and Lucio decides to "expropriate" bank money to help comrades in need, with the help of more skilled anarchist robber Quico.

At this stage the timeline starts to get muddles, with Lucio meeting Anne, the love of his life, robbing banks and eventually getting caught and incarcerated, then out again for another round that includes falsifying banknotes and finally printing fake travellers cheques.

The actor playing Lucio looks much older than a twenty-something in the section taking place in 1952 and still much older than girlfriend Anne, even 10 years later. Also, he's not a particularly good actor and seems to be sleepwalking through the movie. Most un-engaging, gets a couple of stars for costumes and sets.

This is my first time ever to come across a very interesting figure--Lucio Urtubia--and his exploits. His story is fascinating and the movie brings to the screen what is known about the man to a large extent. It's acknowledged however, that what it shown is not true one hundred percent. Still, by and large, it's out of the ordinary.

Someone has remarked that the movie lacks depth considering the rich material that is at the disposal of the makers. Yet, it's good enough considering it's running time.

The central point of Urtubia's story is how he succeeds in challenging the biggest American bank and in outwitting it in an extremely creative way. He didn't give up when an earlier plan fails to take off. What's also significant is his association albeit brief with a legendary anarchist--Quico Sabate. Their association brings out their contrasting anarchist approaches to dealing with the banking establishment. But both agree that what they're doing is not robbing banks but expropriating on behalf of poor people.

All told it's a satisfying viewing experience. Juan Jose Ballesta does a good job portraying Urtubia. Luis Callejo, Miki Esparbe and Liah O'Prey provide able support.

"A Man of Action" is an amazing crime drama.

This movie is an amazing character study. It shows an important revolution time period that happened in history and how it affected individual people. The class divide, coming of the corporates, America being a super power, all these topics were discussed very effectively. The writing is awesome, the detailing of the characters and the events was very interesting. Juan jose ballesta gives an amazing performance, he amazingly portrays the characters fire to bring change in the world, and also different stages in his life.

The movie demands your complete attention to enjoy it thoroughly, and it has its pace. So, if you love slow burning biographical crime dramas, give this a try.