There Are No Saints

I wonder if there is a film recycling plant somewhere. They take in all the old films, plots, scenes, etc.. melt them down and then reuse. Perhaps this plant has quality control, all the good bits go into a few good films. All the stuff that is left and no one wants, seems to have ended up in this attempt.

Seen it all before and better. There was no acting, in fact it would have been more fun and believable to have wooden mannequins in the film. There was no story. The motivations of the characters was not explained. No idea what Tim Roth's character was about, other than an overblown cockney geezer. Choreography was daft, the lead could seemingly dodge bullets by smirking.

This is an unnecessary film.

I was actually shocked at all the low ratings for this film. Clearly, most of the headliner names gives it away that it's a B film, so I wasn't expecting much going into it. I almost didn't see it due to the bad ratings, but the trailer caught my attention, and I'm glad I saw it.

Mexican director Alfonso Pineda Ulloa did a great job with this film. The screenplay by seasoned writer Paul Schrader was actually suspenseful and action packed. The story wasn't anything revolutionary to the genre, and still had the typical cliches, but certainly had its tense and unsuspecting moments, enough to keep me engaged. The score was excellent, especially for a B film. The cinematography was on point, and the landscape shots were great.

There were some great names in the casting, and most performed excellent, but I feel José María Yazpik was miscast. His low-tone whisper voice got annoying and unconvincing really quick, and that cheapened the film. His performance was good, and his action scenes decent, but his character's demeanor just wasn't convincing. There was even this scene with Neal McDonough and Yazpik in the kitchen that was just off - McDonough being too aloof and goofy, and Yazpik on the other side of the scale being way too serious. Maybe better cast direction from a more seasoned director would have fixed those type of issues. Tim Roth, Ron Perlman and Tommy Flanagan played their parts excellent and convincing.

It's actually a much better production than I expected, and certainly undeserving of anything under 5. For a B film, I surprisingly enjoyed it and recommend it, and thus it's a well deserved 7.5 rounded up to an 8/10 from me.

The other actors were great but Perlman plays the same part...a very fake over acted tough guy. He was more believable with the red costume on in hellboy when you couldn't see his face. A long fall from the good old days.

If you're looking for some mindless action you might enjoy this movie. The action scenes are violent and entertaining to watch. But the plot is just a bit too exaggerated to make this movie stand out. The Jesuit, the main character, a villain going on a rampage is almost untouchable. We've all seen movies like this before, so nothing new here. The cast has some good names, but overal I thought they could have done much better. Just watch it for the action scenes, if you're not shy of a bit violence.

Tim Roth is excellent but too under-used, i recognised the lead from Netflixs Narcos, i like Neal Mcdonut (but don't remember seeing brian cox), shannon sossaman used to be hot but not in this.. overall story is ok but not original, some scenes added for shock value but it is just a 90min turn brain off and watch if nothing else is on..