Mandrill
2009 Directed by Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Synopsis
Cooler than Shaft, Hotter than Bond, Faster than Lee
Mandrill (M. Zaror) is a high-level assassin whose parents many years ago were slaughtered in cold blood by a ruthless drug lord. Now he finds himself finally in a position to get his revenge. But since it falls in love precisely in the pretty daughter of the ruthless killer. Mandrill now faces the most serious decision of his life ...
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The World Is More Than Enough - 30 Countries In 30 Days Challenge (1 / 30) - Chile
Hello again!
After more or less a three week absence from film watching (I really hate it when life gets in the way of watching films), I thought this camp Chilean actioner would be a good way to ease me into my contribution to Berken's challenge.
In a way, it was, but I think it ended up being a bit too campy and not to mention derivative and overly reliant on homage and influence for my taste. It also didn't seem to know whether it was going to go all out for the comedy and spoofing or whether it was trying the…
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This is the tenth film in the Second Letterboxd Festival.
If The World's Most Interesting Man spent some of his earlier life as an assassin, I imagine it would be a lot like what you see in Mandrill.
I haven't seen a film like Mandrill in quite some time. It embraces excess and schlock uses those traits to simply be entertaining, in which it is very successful. From the over saturated color palette, the camera and editing tricks, to some hyper stylized fight scenes that I found genuinely great, the whole film stays true to itself and its approach by putting a layer of cheese over the entire film. But that doesn't stop it from a whole lot of fun,…
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Zaror's choreography is clean but a little loose, the fights feel a bit rehearsed. but they're shot and cut pretty conservatively, and it's nice to see a low-budget martial arts movie that isn't all cargo containers and abandoned factories. still there's an awful lot of sitting around moping and talking here.
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Film #45 of The December Project
Okay, Mandrill. You did it. You put your magic in me.
^This will only be funny if you've seen it.^There is no evidence whatsoever that this is a good movie, but somehow I really enjoyed it. It's full of cheesy one-liners, one-note performances, predictable "twists," and it has so many plot-holes it's a wonder how there's actually a plot to speak of. The story is about a mysterious bounty hunter named Antonio who wants to avenge his parents' deaths. For some reason, they work a love story into the middle, which doesn't make any sense but is pretty awesome.
There are some wildly entertaining fight scenes and some hilarious "romantic" moments. The flashbacks…
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Film 10 of the 2nd Letterboxd Film Festival
Cool is the best word to describe Mandrill. The title character is a handsome hit man with great clothes, great sideburns, and skills in martial arts. He also has a past that we get to know in flashbacks.
Sometimes the tone is dark as in the memories of watching his parents murdered when he was a child, and sometimes it's lighter, as with the scenes where his uncle teaches him how to woo women and learn skills from John Colt, a television super-spy. And woo them he does in the present day scenes.
His assignment takes him from Chile to "Atlantic City," a casino hotel in Lima, Peru, where supposedly his parents'…
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Very solid martial arts flick with lots of good action and no CG nonsense. Great musical and art direction as well.
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¿Chile-exploitation?
Por momentos. Pero la mayoría del tiempo es sencillamente un compendio de lo que asumo son las obsesiones favoritas de Díaz Espinoza. James Bond nostalgia.
El verdadero hallazgo aquí es Marko Zaror, aunque yo lo había visto mejor usado en Undisputed III. Igual se deja ver.
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The World Is More Than Enough - 30 Countries In 30 Days Challenge (1 / 30) - Chile
Hello again!
After more or less a three week absence from film watching (I really hate it when life gets in the way of watching films), I thought this camp Chilean actioner would be a good way to ease me into my contribution to Berken's challenge.
In a way, it was, but I think it ended up being a bit too campy and not to mention derivative and overly reliant on homage and influence for my taste. It also didn't seem to know whether it was going to go all out for the comedy and spoofing or whether it was trying the…
-
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Zaror's choreography is clean but a little loose, the fights feel a bit rehearsed. but they're shot and cut pretty conservatively, and it's nice to see a low-budget martial arts movie that isn't all cargo containers and abandoned factories. still there's an awful lot of sitting around moping and talking here.
-
This is the tenth film in the Second Letterboxd Festival.
If The World's Most Interesting Man spent some of his earlier life as an assassin, I imagine it would be a lot like what you see in Mandrill.
I haven't seen a film like Mandrill in quite some time. It embraces excess and schlock uses those traits to simply be entertaining, in which it is very successful. From the over saturated color palette, the camera and editing tricks, to some hyper stylized fight scenes that I found genuinely great, the whole film stays true to itself and its approach by putting a layer of cheese over the entire film. But that doesn't stop it from a whole lot of fun,…
-
Film #45 of The December Project
Okay, Mandrill. You did it. You put your magic in me.
^This will only be funny if you've seen it.^There is no evidence whatsoever that this is a good movie, but somehow I really enjoyed it. It's full of cheesy one-liners, one-note performances, predictable "twists," and it has so many plot-holes it's a wonder how there's actually a plot to speak of. The story is about a mysterious bounty hunter named Antonio who wants to avenge his parents' deaths. For some reason, they work a love story into the middle, which doesn't make any sense but is pretty awesome.
There are some wildly entertaining fight scenes and some hilarious "romantic" moments. The flashbacks…
-
Film 10 of the 2nd Letterboxd Film Festival
Cool is the best word to describe Mandrill. The title character is a handsome hit man with great clothes, great sideburns, and skills in martial arts. He also has a past that we get to know in flashbacks.
Sometimes the tone is dark as in the memories of watching his parents murdered when he was a child, and sometimes it's lighter, as with the scenes where his uncle teaches him how to woo women and learn skills from John Colt, a television super-spy. And woo them he does in the present day scenes.
His assignment takes him from Chile to "Atlantic City," a casino hotel in Lima, Peru, where supposedly his parents'…
-
This is a delight, an incredibly camp (and knowingly so) Chilean action film. It's reminiscent of El Mariachi, the OSS 117 films, and the Beastie Boys Sabotage video.
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Mandrill is a James Bond homage in the sense that if you removed James Bond from the equation, you would have nothing left over. A romance between Mandrill (Marko Zaror) and Dominik del Solar (Celine Reymond) brightens the middle of the movie, but the film throws it all away with a sharp turn farther into tribute. Even Zaror's physical skills are underwhelming, focusing more on the actor's speed than invention.