Review of the film "Extremo" (Xtremo, 2021) from Sergei Volkolak

08.02.2022Sergey Volkolak

Spain is already trying its hand in the field of hand-to-hand fighters. The country, which primarily in terms of cinema is associated with chic and original thrillers and detective stories and rather mediocre (with some exceptions) horrors, presents its crime thriller with banal revenge at the forefront, where violence and action, or rather the quantity of them, given the greatest attention. Well... I'd say it's "high time" if you have something to show. Do not be shy. I wanted more countries to make their own original martial arts films. And that’s why I’m doubly happy for the Spaniards. I hope that others who have not yet marked this path with their nugget will follow their example. Unfortunately, the action film's ratings on the main film resources are, to put it mildly, very average. Personally, no amount of ratings will change my attitude towards any particular film, but this suggests that few people liked the film. And no one would want to make their debut in an action movie.

The film begins with some people arriving at the switch. The two, apparently the main ones, are having a pleasant conversation with each other. We don’t know who all these people are; we can only understand from the content of the conversation between these two subjects that they are not entirely respectable and law-abiding comrades. Therefore, when a shootout begins, due to the fact that the haranguers have not reached a consensus, it does not make much difference to the viewer who wins. Well, bandits and bandits will kill each other and well, why feel sorry for them. It would be another matter if this scene had been staged coolly. But no, just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill shootout. The editing is abrupt; it is difficult to understand who is firing at whom. Shooters behind cover sometimes forget to hide, or even come closer to the enemy, apparently so that he is sure not to miss. They probably didn’t like filming so much that they decided to cut it out as quickly as possible and go to dinner. Everything is paid for, why not? Hungger, as they say, is not an aunt, but an uncle. In the end, one of the sides wins.

Only then does a clearer picture emerge - who is who, what they are and why all this is needed. This is how we recognize the main character, whom everyone here calls Max, he is a member of a powerful criminal group in the honorary position of a killer for the old and sick head of a mafia clan. His half-brother Lucero is the son of a crime boss, ambitious, self-confident, unprincipled, a real moral monster who is alien to human feelings. Therefore, he doesn’t care who he shoots at, the enemy or his dad, whether the target is armed or stands defenselessly in front of him. The first ten minutes describe this character quite eloquently.

Max, meanwhile, has his own family in which he is happy. There is a wife and son, a future guitarist in some band. More precisely, he would be. Soon after the showdown with the Colombians, a crowd of thugs with clubs breaks into his house and attacks the owner without further ado. And already this cabin looks much better. Blood, cruelty and maximum damage to the enemy. The editing, unlike the recent shootout, has been straightened out; it no longer hurts the eyes, so nothing can stop you from enjoying the spectacle. True, the opponents of the main character are bots, and there’s no other way to call them, because they couldn’t inflict any serious damage to the main character, and they also look indecently the same: they’re all about the same build, height, and dressed in black clothes with hoods. Here it is announced, as he would be called in the game, the intermediate boss and naughty in the years. Twice. But Max is alive, which means he will be able to witness the murder of his son. This is where the killer makes a double fatal mistake: firstly, he did not finish off his target, and secondly, he provided her with a powerful motive for revenge. Max was presumed dead for two years straight.

The next part of the plot centers on a teenager, an ordinary high school student, who deals in illegal substances in his free time. One day, he almost grabbed a couple of Russian thugs for carrying out his activities in occupied territory. And chance saved him: our hero was just passing by. He then dealt with the offenders. Well, he couldn’t pass by when there was such chaos nearby, and he had the opportunity to stop it. Moreover, I myself lost my son not so long ago. So, word by word, in one word, take my word for it, they get acquainted, communication begins, and the guy begins to teach the guy hand-to-hand combat techniques at the request of the guy himself. The latter also calls his teacher by various famous names, then Jackie Chanthen Chuck Norristhen Bruce Leethen John Wayne.

And soon the enemies begin at first to simply suspect, and then become more and more convinced that the one whom they considered dead for two years, what a surprise, is more alive than all the living, like Vova Lenin. At first, of course, everyone dropped their pants from such joyful news, except for Lucero, who, as already said, of all the feelings available to a person, can only experience the feeling of hunger and thirst. Thirst for other people's blood, of course. Well, what to do in such a situation? Your victim, with his fusion of skills and experience in exterminating people, who has had his most precious things taken away, is unlikely to leave you alone and forgive you. Any unfinished work needs to be brought to fruition. That's the moral of this picture. Otherwise, what happened here may happen to those who started and did not finish.

But for some reason, and here it seems I didn’t quite understand, the villains decide not to kill Max completely, but to take the life of the family of that same guy who is not involved at all, and especially his family, who have never even seen I didn't see the main character. Of course, they felt sorry for them. They only made Max even more embittered and accelerated the time of retribution. Now the pieces will fly through the back streets, and it won’t be enough for anyone.

At first, I doubted whether I was really watching an action movie. Maybe they lied again? But wouldn’t it be that during the entire running time there will be only one action scene and that one at the very end? This happens sometimes. Glory to the Almighty "Extremo" - not that case. I didn't experience any shortage of action. It's mostly hand-to-hand, with a couple of shootouts. One - at the beginning, it has already been said about it, and one - closer to the end. But they are both so-so. The second is an uninteresting shooting gallery, where enemies come out of cover without shooting in order to get shot. And the hero kills everyone with one shot. No tension, no atmosphere.

But they brought melee weapons - my respects. Such scenes here are much better and more interesting, well shot, the doubles are not striking. Yes, sometimes the editing fails, sometimes, in some episodes, non-contact, which is rare in our modern times, slips through, and the musical accompaniment of such scenes is not very successful. But there are very few such moments, and an inexperienced viewer will not even notice. And sometimes enemies behave in such a way as to make them die faster. Perhaps the creators should have endowed them with a slightly higher intelligence, and not at the level of a simple pencil. It would be much more interesting and tense that way. You don't have to set the record for the most number of people killed in one film for it to be good.

One can especially highlight the mega-disassembly in the garage, but not its introductory part - it is primitive, but the one where various plumbing and other tools were used: a nail gun, screwdrivers, gas wrenches, etc. It all looks pretty epic. The impression was slightly spoiled by the fly in the ointment in the form of brainless enemies, who are constantly stupid, attack unorganized, some rush in with firearms, some, for some reason, with clubs and wait to be hit, then do not finish off when there is an opportunity. Perhaps the most insoluble mystery for me is why not arm all six of our killers with pistols or machine guns? After all, a criminal organization can easily afford to do this! The entire film is filled with bots, some with firearms, some with clubs, and some with knives. Moreover, even one specific group of attackers does not have the same weapon. Another good fight (although it looked more like a beating) was given out Theo Garcia, that is, the main character and Alberto Joe Lee - Lucero's right hand. There was a lot of kicking on Lee's part in this fight. It is clear that he is technically savvy and performed the techniques clearly and beautifully. The hero had a hard time, he simply beat him all the time. Maybe it would have been a more equal fight if the protagonist had not been lame on one leg. And Lee was in no hurry to deal with his opponent: he kicks, talks, kicks, takes out a handkerchief - blows his nose, kicks, takes off his shoe, scratches his heel... In addition to the opponent’s slowness, remarkable endurance and, as often happens, scenario luck came to Max’s aid . In movies, she is almost always on the side of the hero. It was shot well and there was only one shot that was screwed up by the editing.

And for dessert, according to the classics, there is a final fight with the final boss in the person of, of course, Lucero. First on katanas. Yes, our hero is also a pretty good swordsman! And right away, from the first seconds, the camerawoman impresses. It brings it closer, then it moves away, then it changes angles, shooting. Everything is done smoothly, without jerking, in a long shot and in one take. In general, the fight took place unconventionally. A lot of interesting things fit into this final fratricidal fight. There is no need for unnecessary words here, you just need to watch.

I really hope that Spain will not stop with this film, even though it did not gain the fame it deserves en masse, seeing that their brainchild did not take off, but will continue to develop its original combat cinema. And guys and martial artists like Theo Garcia, Oscar Jaenada и Alberto Joe Lee stuntmen and choreographers will not sink into oblivion (which, of course, is also not bad in itself), but action cinema needs new faces who know first-hand about martial arts EXACTLY on camera! The genre needs to be revived!

Sergey Volkolak

Especially for fight-films.info

Home » Reviews » Review of the film "Extremo" (Xtremo, 2021) from Sergei Volkolak
Tags: Extreme, Netflix, Alberto Joe Lee, Oscar Jaenada, Theo Garcia

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