Xtreme

I'm a huge fan of "B" movies that actually delivers good actors and great entertainment. This was one of those. Mix a good Jean Claude Van Damme movie with Scott Adkins Avengement ,and there you go. Sit back enjoy the fighting and blood shed ,and a story from the textbook. I enjoyed it and had a blast.

This film wasn't too shabby considering it was put together by novice filmmakers, but the issues in the writing was an easy fix. It was too melodramatic to the point of borderline childish scenarios, with major continuity issues, plot-hole riddled screenplay, choppy scenes, and it was overly predictable. The fights were decent, for a B film, but there were some that were just ridiculous and unrealistic - nowhere near John Wick action sequences that someone compared this film with. Nevertheless, it was entertaining, especially considering the slim-pickings out there for action films.

Nothing original but so what. When you watch the Olympics, you know the gymnast, skater, diver is going to ... and the judges still give them a high score based on how well they do it.

1. Evil villain that you want to see killed - 10+, this guy is despicable, fantastic villainy.

2. Fight sequences - 9, some gun fights (yawn), lots of martial arts (yay), and stabbing, lots and lots of stabbing.

3. Story line - 6, enough to hold 1 and 2 together.

Acting not graded, mostly irrelevant, the heroes are always the same, don't kill in cold blood (this one has plot convenient lapses), look like you are about to lose then triumph. Villains are the only ones who seem to have fun in these types of movies and this one was over the top.

It's (mostly) nicely done, but it's very generic, with just a basic background to give characters some reasons and then it's better not to think about those reasons too much. Fighting scenes are done mostly well, but even those are too predictable and exaggerated at times. It's an OK action flick, but it doesn't stand out in any part (except maybe some nice Barcelona views).

I really wanted to like this action flick more, and it's obvious that Teo Garcia was a real trained martial artist. But the terrible filmography didn't allow him to showcase his skills. Every punch and kick, and reaction, were cut to a new camera angle, making it feel hectic but you don't get a flow of the action sequences. The underground garage scene could've been a great opportunity to pay homage to the long one-take action scenes from Old Boy and others, but they chose to stand still and wait for each opponent to run to him instead. So much unrealized potential with this film.