Montana

In the Revenge action movie sub-genre, "Montana" is a great protégé movie with compelling characters, a ton of growling (LOVE that! LOL), and great fight scenes.

I highly recommend it and hope you enjoy the morality. It's always good to see the bad guys get their comeuppance. There's a ton of cursing and some of the characters are major jerks. So satisfying when they get taken down. There is some time spent developing the back story on the characters so you care what happens to them.

The title is a nod to Scarface in case you the miss the reference. At first I thought it was set somewhere in Eastern Europe but it turns out to be London's East End. Bits of it reminded me of John Wick.

Directed by the relatively unknown Mo Ali, here comes a violent, but earnest story, about a former ex-Yugoslavian soldier, Dimitrije (played brilliantly by the Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen in a rare starring-role), who has been hunting down the notorious gangster Lazarus (Darrell D'Silva), who committed heinous war-crimes against Dimitrije and his family back in 1995. The chase has led them to present-day London, where hoodlums and gangsters rummage through the streets, looking for victims. The police force is naturally full of dirty cops who spoil countless investigations, which leaves the fuzz pretty much useless, and the citizens of London helpless.

Dimitrije therefore takes it upon himself to clean up the city, and secretly lurks on the roof-tops with his sniper-rifle, taking out scumbags every once in a while, much to the dismay of Lazarus and his cronies. One of Lazarus' henchmen is the young Montana (McKell David), who falls out of grace, and is soon picked up by Dimitrije, who in turn trains him to be a lethal assassin, to help him get to Lazarus.

What at first glance seems like a routine revenge-story, quickly turns out to be more of a father-and-son tale, when Dimitrije and Montana gets a much closer relationship, as they're both seeking a surrogate family, as they're otherwise all alone in the world.

For fans of Nicolas Winding-Refn (and particularly his "Pusher"-trilogy), this will be a very pleasing experience, as it not only stars Mads Mikkelsen's brother, but also has an extended cameo for Zlatko Buric, who plays his usual shady gangster-type character. And it's violent of course.

Overall, it's a pretty cool master/apprentice revenge story, with lots of people getting shot or brutally beaten (sometimes to death) throughout the film, so it's definitely not for squeamish children or those faint of heart. But if you love a good actioner with likable leads and wicked baddies, then this is the film for you!

Review: After being disappointed with a lot of movies in the genre from the UK, my expectations wasn't that high, but I really enjoyed this film.  The storyline is very well put together and there's enough material to keep the movie interesting, which means I actually stayed awake through the whole film. Basically it's about a young orphan who lives in a night club and runs drugs for a European kingpin called Lazarus, whose done some bad things earlier on in his life, which eventually catch up with him. After the kid gets the drug lords stash stolen from him, he ends up in the firing line but he gets saved by an old war veteran who was a victim of the drug lords dodgy past. It then turns into a bit of a Karate Kid movie because the veteran trains the young kid to take down the drug lord after finding out that he killed his father. Then it switches to an action movie with dodgy cops and big shootouts, which were professionally pit together. It's good to finally see a film in this genre, were the kids are respecting there elders and actually listening to there advice. I liked the chemistry between Demitrije and Montana and the director showed some depth to the characters which made the film seem realistic. Anyway, its refreshing to finally see a film in this genre which has a decent script and some decent characters, especially as it's based around the gangster world in the UK. Enjoyable!

Round-Up: I was surprised to see Michelle Fairley in this movie, who played Catelyn Stark in the Game Of Thrones, but she only has a few scenes. Adam Deacon plays a loud mouth, trigger happy, wannabe gangster who wants to take over the whole business by taking out his boss but his partner, played by Ashley Walters, thinks that the time isn't right because of the random killings that are happening to the other drug dealers in the area by a mysterious assassin who wears a murders his victims with a motorcycle helmet. This part of the story was a bit sketchy and unexplained, which is the only fault that I found with the movie. Apart from that, all of the actors put in good performances, especially by McKell David who played Montana, but I found the training scenes a bit corny. In all, it's definitely worth a watch because of its intensity and action scenes but it might get overlooked because it went straight to DVD and it didn't get the big budget  advertising treatment.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their UK gangster movies about a young boy whose on the run from drug dealers after there stash gets stolen from him. 6/10

(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.

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