Xtremo

Combine one-part of John Wick with one-part of Steven Seagal's Hard To Kill one-part Taken and one-part John Woo's Hard Boiled and you get Xtreme, a fairly decent outing from director Daniel Benmayor.

I was pleasantly surprised at how masculine this movie is. We really don't get many movies like this anymore where the lead is a hard-boiled, no-nonsense killer with some legitimate martial arts skills on display and some satisfying gun-fu to match.

A lot of the low-ratings are from people who obviously aren't fans of Hollywood's ultra-violent macho-films from the 1980s and 1990s. I guess they went in expecting feminist lectures on "toxic masculinity"? In any case, it's obvious that the only reason Netflix has this movie on their service is because it's foreign made; Spanish, to be exact.

There's no subversion afoot in this film, it's pretty straightforward even though the cover art might give you the impression that it's some sort of ensemble buddy-up flick where a group of vigilantes take on the bad guy. That's far from the case here. The film is anchored mostly by Teo Garcia's ruthlessly engaging portrayal as Maximo, a top-of-the-line hitman and assassin out for revenge.

The film does a fantastic job of setting up the main villain, Lucero, played with devilish charm by Óscar Jaenada.

Don't expect vanilla-tier "current year" villainy from Jaenada's character, though. He's absolutely evil down to the bone. Again, this is a throwback to the villains of yesteryears, in particular he channels a lot of Billy Drago's Ramon Cota from Delta Force 2, but in his own sadistic little way. And there's no shortage of bodies, including villains not afraid to harm and kill women, men and children. They're really bad guys.

It makes it all the more satisfying seeing them get their comeuppance in this film, done with a mixture of classic Hong Kong-inspired fight choreography and John Wick/Taken-themed shootouts. It's not a big budgeted film and sometimes the editing is a little over-done and some scenes drag on too long, but they are what they are.

The fight scenes are entertaining, even though they aren't particularly memorable, and the shootouts are cathartic. With the spotlight of the film on a heroic, masculine lead beating the bad guys into a pulp and shooting his way to retribution, what more could you possibly ask for from a budget-production action flick out of Barcelona, Spain?

Well worth the watch for fans of the classic 80s/90s action film genre.