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Guess that lots of people are simply happy to see Mel Gibson back again, in a movie like this. And I'm also glad but lets be fair please, this is by no means a great or highly original/clever movie, even though it still likes to see itself as such.

It's fairly obviously that after all of the controversy, Gibson has to start at the bottom of the ladder again. This is a fairly cheap looking and not that it's having a horrible look to it but it still is very obvious that not a lot of money got put into it. Nothing wrong with that of course, as long as the movie is good. And it is good but only just half maybe.

On the one hand it is definitely being a maintaining enough crime-action-thriller vehicle for Mel Gibson but it is never a movie that becomes truly a great or surprising one. The story in my opinion was being a bit too simplistic and also definitely far from likely. Besides, the movie could had used some better and more clever twists to it. The sort of stuff that can make these sort of action-crime movies great to watch.

Mel Gibson definitely still has it in him. I'm sure that lots of people would had been in doubt about it if Gibson would still be good and convincing enough as a likable tough guy, not just because of all of the controversy surrounding his person but also because of his age. After all, he is starting to get close to his 60's now but he definitely is still as good and convincing in this sort of role as he was 10, 20 and 30 years ago.

Perhaps the thing that makes this movie feel a bit simplistic, are its restricted settings. For most of its running time it is taking place inside a Mexican prison, that looks nothing like a prison at all and is more like a small village, in which everything goes. It's also all a bit too ridicules to watch to be honest and the movie doesn't always flow very naturally and the way this entire movie progresses doesn't exactly add to the realism of this movie. This is a bit of a distracting element about the movie and also prevented me from truly ever getting into it, or feel involved with any of its characters.

It's a movie that tries to be tough at times, which results in some graphic violence, that however doesn't always feels into tone with the rest of the movie and its main story and characters. This perhaps should had been more of a fun movie instead of a raw and violent one, which it is now.

Definitely a maintaining enough movie but nothing you really should be running out for to see. It just isn't quite original or special enough for that.

7/10

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About Frank Veenstra

Watches movies...writes about them...and that's it for now.
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1 reacties:

  1. Have to disagree with you there, i enjoyed this movie a lot, and it is not as simplistic as you make it sound to be !! it had more going for it, and i do believe it relied heavily on the characters more than anything else.
    i am not sure how prisons really are in Mexico, but i can't say its not realistic as its shown in the film, we need to look it up before judging on the authenticity of the film.
    good review though, please take some time to visit mine as well :
    moebardi.blogspot.com

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