Montana

Montana: Gritty English gangster film set in London's East End. Drug pushers, bent cops,Serbian gangsters, a teen courier who loses £100k of the drug gangs money, a Serbian assassin. The assassin has a score to settle with the Serbian drug overlord and eventually takes on the teen as an apprentice. Some good shots of boys the training and of police corruption in sink estate. Hands chopped off, stabbings, shootings. Great shootout sequence in a darkened warehouse. This thriller keeps the tension going right to the grand guignol finale. No classic but well worth watching. Directed by Mo Ali from a screenplay by Jeremy Sheldon and Peter Lowe. On Netflix. 7/10.

This was on Tubi and looked worth a try- The movie starts out violently but with the main bad guy in shadow, then moves to a more current time and the same over-the-top violence occurring, but the bad guy is obvious.

There's a teen in the movie and it is expected that other teens will watch, but the levels and intensities of violence at the start is ruthless and unnecessary imo to establish that the bad guy is bad. He proved that when he wanted someone killed in his crew that was untrained and an easy mark. That's it- then the movie could have proceeded from there and worked great. The violence to Lars' character would have been better done in flashes of memory. Then teens could watch the rest of the film with various homage to Leon, John Wick, Karate Kid- and other favorites, i'm sure.

There are a couple big plot holes, esp the kid being trained so well, bad guys missing shots at nearly point-blank range, attempts at religion and emotional range- but the story is engrossing enough to help you get past all that.

Lars is stellar and made it look easy. For me, he came out of nowhere and reminds me of a young Lance Henriksen. I expect we'll see more of him in the future.

(2014) Montana ACTION THRILLER

"Montana" is the name of the 14 year old played by McKell David, a drug runner for the crime lord, Lazarus (Darrell D'Silva) who wanted him dead. Montana eventually gets taken under the wing of an already trained killer Dimitrije (Lars Mikkelsen) seeking retribution to Lazarus and his cronies responsible for his wife and child's execution.

It's one of those forgettable movies, all the action moments does not add anything new to the genre, for it only works if one had not seen many action movies, and I've seen lots. There is potential but not enough for me to recommend it.

The story/plot is great, the script writing...not so great. Given what Lars Mickkelson had to work with in terms of his lines, he did a masterful job. I thought this was going to be a typical UK movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. The only thing typical of UK movies in this film were the gratuitous F-bombs, which I am not a fan of. I think it's just lazy script writing in my opinion. The action and choreography was well done. This movie is worth the watch, seeing an unlikely pair come together and establish a strong bond with each other, and somehow make it quite believable, which can be attributed to great acting.

What a throwback - into the 80s and 90s. Action movies like this were made back then, with a similar amount of violence and a similar "story" (bare minimum). It is the action scenes that will leave an impression on you. If you care for them that is. The story is not really something you will remember long after watching the movie.

Also Mads Mikkelsen brother - you may not know him, but once you see his name it's like: of course. I first really saw him in House of Cards and even though he is far removed from a Russian or a Serbian, it seems like eastern european is written all over his face. And he really convinces in those roles. A second skin and all that. So sit back, watch the mayhem unfold and enjoy the show if you can