Xtremo (2021)

Xtremo (2021)
aka: Xtreme

 

Starring: Teo García, Óscar Jaenada, Óscar Casas, Andrea Duro, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Alberto Jo Lee, Luis Zahera, Juan Diego, Andrés Herrera, Nao Albet
Director: Daniel Benmayor
Action Director: Teo García, Genaro Rodriguez, Jose Álvarez-Boze

 

It’s always interesting to watch countries all over the world make their own martial arts movies—or at least action movies in which martial arts is a big part of the action. The Hong Kong-China-Taiwan triumvirate has been in the game for decades and decades and produced thousands of movies between each other (even if Taiwan has largely stopped since the turn of the millennium). The United States has been a big producer since the early 1970s. Japan has its samurai-jidai geki-chanbara movies, with its more karate-focused movies popping up in fits and spurts, such as the mid-1970s during the Sonny Chiba karate boom or during the 2000s and early 2010s.

And then you have other countries, in which their output could probably counted a single hand. Brazil has a few: Bruce Lee vs. GayPower (which is more of a parody); Gaiola da Morte; Besouro; and few MMA biopics. Martial artist Marko Zaror represented Chile in films like Mandrill and Kiltro. For a while, it felt like France was leading the West with movies like Banlieue 13 and Hollywood co-productions like Kiss of the Dragon, The Transporter movies, and Danny the Dog. Finland gave us the wuxia fantasy Jade Warrior. Superkicker Ron Smoorenberg, a native of the Netherlands, made Fighting Fish. Cambodia recently took a tip from its SE Asian neighbors—Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia—and made Jailbreak. I can only hope that we will see the day in which every country in the world is represented on this site: “And this week, I review Yap Island’s remake of the Taiwanese classic: Bandits, Prostitutes and Large Stone Coins.”

Xtremo is Spain’s foray into the martial arts/action genre, with a final product that strongly resembles John Wick in terms of style and action. It doesn’t reach that film’s heights, but I think action junkies should get something out watching this. The movie opens with the two sons—one biological, one of affection—of a Spanish crime boss doing a drug deal with the Colombians. The biological son, Lucero (Óscar Jaenada, of The Shallows and The Losers), double-crosses the Colombians, as he deems the terms of their contract to be borderline extortion. A big gunfight breaks out and both Lucero and Maximo (Teo Garciá) slaughter the entire gang in a hail of bullets. Apparently, this is supposed to be Maximo’s last gig before going straight and living out his life with his young son.

Unfortunately, Lucero has other plans. He knows that his father, Ricardo (Juan Diego), favors Máximo over him, as Lucero is too violent for his tastes. So, Lucero stages a hostile takeover and kills his dad. He sends his man Finito (Sergio Peres-Mencheta, of Rambo: Last Blood and Resident Evil: Afterlife) to kill Máximo and his son. He only succeeds halfway. Ricardo also has an adopted daughter, María (Juan of the Dead’s Andrea Duro), who escaped Lucero’s treachery and went into hiding.

Two years later, both María and Maximo are in hiding, biding their time until it is time to get their revenge on their brother. Maximo lives in an abandoned(?) auto garage, practicing the martial arts and staying in shape. His life is changed forever when he meets Leo (Óscar Casas, of The Orphanage), a street-level drug pusher. Leo sells narcotics to pay his family’s bills in the wake of his abusive father’s death. His immediate boss, Jaro (Nao Albet), stands below Finito on the hierarchy. When Jaro and his men start abusing Leo for skimming the profits, Maximo steps in and fends for the boy. This will bring Maximo’s attention to Finito, who initially tries to take care of him without informing Lucero. But as Maximo was daddy’s favorite mob enforcer, the bodies are going to pile up very fast. A collision course between Maximo, María and Lucero is all but guaranteed.

Xtremo is a hardcore action film. That is not to say that it doesn’t have its lulls and slower moments, but when the action kicks in, it is brutal. The movie opens with a bloody shootout at a drug lab run by the Colombians, which itself is kicked off by the revelation that a duffle bag full of money is actually housing the severed head of the drug boss’s own son. In short order, there is a vicious fight at Maximo’s flat which ends in a child getting shot to death—onscreen, albeit obscured by furniture (and that is not the only child character to get brutally murdered, either). There are several torture sequences, including two scenes of people getting their hands repeatedly smashed by a door. In other words, Xtremo does not mess around and is definitely not for the squeamish.

The action alternates between bone-breaking martial arts sequences and gunplay. The opening firefight is shot well, although it suffers from Hollywood clichés: guns that never need reloading (seriously, how many times can you fire a revolver without reloading before we the viewer notice?) and the Stormtrooper Effect. I mean, you have two guys firing handguns at dozens of men armed with AK-47s and yet the former never need to duck behind a column? Come on, people! A second shoot-out happens on the floor of a dance club that’s covered in smoke and definitely has a John Wick feel to it. There is also a third bullet ballet at the climax that ends with our hero taking down four people with a single spray from an AK-47. It reminds me of Samuel L. Jackson’s line from Jackie Brown: “When you absolutely, positive need to kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes.”

The martial arts sequences aren’t bad in and of themselves, but often suffer from inadequate lighting and the occasional moment of chaotic camerawork. That said, Teo García and his crew do make a good faith effort to vary the fights so that no two fights feel exactly the same. The opening scuffle at the apartment involves knives, a wooden club, and García stabbing multiple opponents with a wall hook. There is a prolonged fight in the restroom of a nightclub in which García fends off multiple attackers while holding one guy in a joint lock, often using the latter as a human shield/punching back. Even better is a fight at the car garage, which involves nail guns, a bolt cutter, and a pair of wrenches, escrima style. The latter element reminds me of Street Knight in what was the best fight of that particular film.

The flashiest fight pits García against Lucero’s Japanese bodyguard, played by Alberto Jo Lee. I’m guessing Jo Le studied tae kwon do, because he’s a great kicker. He has that Korean whiplash-like kick aura about him, like Hwang Jang Lee and Bobby Kim on their best days. His kicking style here is similar to Toshiro from Ong Bak and it makes a nice contrast to García’s more pragamatic style, no doubt taken from García’s own special forces training. I’m disappointed that García wins the fight through a moment of trickery, not because he’s the better (or more resourceful) fighter.

The climax, in addition to gunplay, features a knife fight, reminiscent of the one Jean-Claude Van Damme had in Universal Soldier: Regeneration. Once again, as García had extensive military training in addition to other styles, he sells his knife fighting quite well. The film ends with a katana fight between García and Jaenada, which is pretty solid. It obviously is no match for similar fights in So Close or Rurouni Kenshin, but it will do. Andrea Duro (and her stunt double) also step in for some two-on-one goodness, complete with some crazy jiu-jitsu takedowns.

I did like Teo García playing the main hero. He isn’t a particularly charismatic actor, but his stockier build, greying hair, and pushing-50 age makes for a nice departure from the Hollywood male underwear model body type that one often finds in these movies. García has also trained in muay thai, kung fu (we see him practicing on a wooden dummy several times in the movie), kempo, and kobudo, or traditional Okinawan weapons (hence the katana fight). Like Keanu Reeves in John Wick, García’s Maximo character takes more than his fair share of licks, stabbings and gunshot wounds. He is not invincible, simply (to quote John Wick) “a man of focus, commitment, and sheer will.”

García gets a good showcase for his undoubtable physical skills, which is impressive, considering the man’s age. I wish the filmmakers had made more of an effort to keep the fight scenes cleaner and more visible, and the gunfights free of the usual logic lapses. The story is pretty standard stuff, but that’s fine. I generally don’t complain about these things unless it gets so bad as to be actively distracting. But if you want brutal, hard-R action, then you can certainly do worse than Xtremo.