La caja 507

Great tension. Great actors. great script. a delicious film. maybe it´s the spanish "HEAT". I think the Coronado´s role is the bad guy of the year. Very nice!

Thrilling as well as gripping Spanish film about a Bank clerk and an ex-police delinquent . It is one of the best noir cinema that have been made in Spain, is a fast paced thriller that keeps you in suspense and interested from start to finish ; being masterfully directed and performed by all actors, especially Coronado and Resines . Dealing with a burned-out bank director called Pardo (Antonio Resines) whose daughter (Dafne Fernandez) dies in an forest fire while camping with her boyfriend . 7 years later , his bank gets robbed and robbers break several safe deposit boxes . During the robbery Pardo is locked and by mistake looks at one of the boxes and comes across some sheets that prove his daughter's death not to be an accident but killing . Pardo swears to take vengeance on all those involved in the murder but he doesn't know that documents belong to a nasty powerful mob boss and his hoodlum , an ex-police (Jose Coronado) who mistreats his wife (Goya Toledo) , and they will stop at nothing to get them . The bank manager attempts to discover clues but in the process , he uncovers a twisted string of corruption in Sun Coast and Italian Mafia with unexpected consequences .

This is an exciting picture plenty of intrigue , killings , twists and turns . From start to finish action-packed , fast-paced , thrills , emotion and suspense is continuous . Interesting and moving screenplay by Miguel Gaztambide and the same filmmaker . It is one of the best noir film that have been realized in Spain , it is a thriller that keeps you interested and expecting . Antonio Resines , José Coronado , Goya Toledo star in the sort of story we've seen many times before - a corrupt ex-police and a stubborn family man - but it is always fun when is executed with style and Urbizu certainly seems to have that . The cast gets credible and nuanced performances that enrich the flick . This film grabs our attention , beginning with a really brutal and masterful performance by Jose Coronado . Jose Coronado is simply awesome , he steals the show as a veteran and violent ex-police with dark secrets . An interpretation similar to subsequent ¨No peace for the wicked¨ in which he won a Goya award also playing a violent police . And of course , the great Antonio Resines plays as Bank manager Modesto Pardos who stumbles across some very strange documents ; Resines is simply superb, to be able to make a character icon in the figure of an obstinate clerk . Furthermore , a good support cast such as Goya Toledo , Dafne Fernandez , Juan Fernandez , Hector Colome and Sancho Gracia , a veteran actor working from the sixties and recently deceased . The movie packs a colorful and brilliant cinematography by Carlos Gusi who ha photographed successes such as ¨Torrente, the dumb arm of the law¨, ¨Juan De Los Muertos¨ , ¨Take my eyes¨ and particularly ¨Cell 211¨ . And being filmed on location in Toledo , Algeciras , Linea de Concepcion , Cadiz , Torremolinos , Malaga and Tangiers , Morocco . Suspenseful and thrilling musical score by Mario De Benito , a fine composer expert on sinister and mysterious atmospheres as proved in ¨The witch affair ¨, ¨Rigor Mortis¨ , ¨Al Limite¨, ¨A Ciegas¨ , among others .

The film was well produced by Fernando Bovaira , one of the best Spanish producers , financing a lot of films in lavish budgets such as ¨The others¨ , ¨The sea inside¨ , ¨Agora¨ , ¨Mortadelo and Filemon¨, ¨Butterfly tongue¨ , among others . The motion picture titled Box 507 or Caja 507 was professionally directed by Enrique Urbizu and won various Goya awards . He is a specialist on Thriller as proved in ¨Todo Por la Pasta¨, ¨Cachito¨ , ¨La Vida Mancha¨ this ¨Caja 507¨ and on comedy such as ¨Cuernos Mujer¨, ¨Como Ser Infeliz¨ and ¨Tu Novia esta Loca¨ but especially Urbizu is the director of No Peace For The Wicked (No Habra Paz Para Los Malvados), an upcoming 'tough cop with big gun' movie coming out of Spain , this is his best film surpassing even "La Caja 507" .

An interesting thriller of Spanish atmosphere, where they are mixed the dark financial manipulations of certain economic groups with the thirst of justice - vengeance? of a normal man that is involved in it by chance. Good work of Antonio Resines who leaves their comic appearance to make a serious and austere role. Two purely casual facts and its apparent relationship among them becomes a line of investigation that takes us toward a prospective but not less interesting end. Something superficial as for the character that José Coronado plays - the "key of the action" something primitive in his decisions with good performance touches in brief appearances - Sancho Gracia - give a good inflection point to the film keeping the lines of interest until the end. I think Spanish cinema has begun to reach an improvement in its thrilling genre productions . This movie is a sample.

More or less in the 'cine noir' category, Urbizu sets us up with a refreshing thriller, almost as if he wanted to cock a snoot at the specialists in this genre on the other side of the big puddle. Interesting, even original, story, with good interpretations by both Resines and Coronado, neither of whom have ever been favourite actors for me. However here their playing is convincing and maintains tension throughout. Very definitely a 'masculine' film, as the ladies are very much relegated to minor roles. A very beautiful, exquisite Dafne Fernández (Goya en Burdeos) disappears rather promptly, and the equally adorable Goya Toledo was given a disappointingly secondary part to play. Be that as it may, the story holds interest, brings out all that charming world of corruption and mafias on Spain's 'Casta del Sol' as well as other deviations in today's world - deliberate forest fires, wife-beating............

Certainly worth a watch if you find this one on TV or on DVD; but do not expect an easy-to-swallow job, as the viewer's concentration has to play an active part - and there are not many films in this genre that manage that!

If you enjoy this film you might well like '99.9' (1997) (qv).

La Caja 507 is a slow-burning crime-drama whose story leans its back against the NO-HERO structure. A predecessor to Paul Haggis's CRASH(2004). There are absolutely no central characters nor heroes to follow. Of course, this is not unique to Spanish cinema at all. But, in general there is no attachment to Spain in La Caja 507. Sympathy grows only when innocents get hurt, which is when general Spanish family audience would catch the drift. When Dafne dies at the forest fire in the beginning, director and screenwriter Enrique Urbizu lets his audience know what Dafne's father investigates throughout the entire movie: Dafne gets killed for her father's bank robbery to become whitewashed by fingerprints.

Strong hook and spontaneous acting builds an unbearably awe-inspiring tension. I keep asking to myself, what kind of a "modern" parenthood that is to endanger their children's future due to corrupted business relations with gangs or mafia.

No heroes equal to no celebrities. Urbizu wants us to be part of the unstoppable descending of the criminal tension from business layer down to emotional layer. A clear decision awaits Dafne's father to be made, which turns the rest of the story downhill in suspense. If you have enough patience and detail-oriented thinking view, the boring sub-plots may give you more clear understanding of the resolution. This resolution phase encompasses Dafne's father "letting everything go".

La Caja 507 is a memorabilia collective film. DVD and blu-ray both in English and Spanish had directorial interviews. I have always had it, in my brick-and-mortar cinema archives and library of selection movies. Classifiable under western european Family movies genre.