Appel inconnu

A banker goes to work one day and takes the kids to be dropped off at school but before that can happen, he receives a phone call from someone who tells him he has placed a bomb under the seats of the car and tells him he must arrange a transfer of money to him.

It's the kind of idea that has been seen before whereby someone on the end of a phone is controlling someone else for their gain but from the offset we are sent on a thrilling journey making you wonder why this is happening and making you wonder what you would do in such a situation. The director manages to keep things fairly grounded and so the realism assists in building up the tension. There are a couple of twists thrown in which keeps the pace going.

Good acting from everyone involved in a cast that I am unfamiliar with due to the Spanish production. In the decade of remakes and reboots, this is certainly a film I can see being remade at some point. Provided you do not mind reading subtitles this is certainly worth the viewing time.

I watched Korean movie 'Hard hit' a few days ago that time I had no clue, that it's actually remake. I enjoyed that movie wasn't bad and today I surprisingly came across the original one, it's good too. Story remains same, Korean version didn't changed anything. But, original remains original and it's acting is far better than korean version, kind of realistic.

It's a really amazing thrilling movie. The whole movie is in a car yet it was enjoyable and kept the suspense til end.

If you take LOCKE - starring Tom Hardy spending all the feature length speaking in a cell phone whilst he drives his car - and Joel Schumacher's PHONE BOOTH, starring Colin Farell trapped in a phone booth because of a death threat over his head - not a bomb but a sniper - you will easily get this film topic. OK, that a pretty good suspense, but admit that since a couple of years now, you have many of those topics emerging every where; I mean phone calls involving death threats, or a person asked to kill some folks by unknown killers using a cell phone. A very predictable scheme. When it is not persons buried, locked in a coffin, room, car chest, basement...I guess you will see many more in a near future. Only a not predictable ending can spice those suspense stories. It is also a little "tribute" to the economic crisis; the banker accused to have pushed a woman to suicide because of her lost savings...

Bank executive Carlos (Luis Tosar) finds himself dealing with the volatility of the financial market in the wake of the Spanish financial crisis while also dealing with mounting tensions between him and his wife Marta (Goya Toledo). On a routine drive to work and school with his children Sara (Paula del Rio) and Marcos (Marco Sanz) when a stranger (Javier Gutierrez) calls telling him there's a pressure sensitive bomb in his car and no one is to leave as Carlos is forced to go through various avenues to secure a specific amount of money for this man who carries a grudge against him.

Retribution (aka El desconocido "The Stranger") is a 2015 Spanish-French action thriller directed by Dani de la Torre and written by Alberto Marini. Critical reception was mixed with a skew towards positive with many complimenting the acting and tension while also pointing out the preposterousness of the plot. The movie has had further exposure internationally with two local language remakes for Germany and South Korea (2018's Don't. Get. Out! And 2021's Hard Hit respectively) with a forthcoming English language remake starring Liam Neeson soon to be released. Retribution is a simple movie that could've fallen into the pitfalls of conveyer belt thrillers, but there is a strong enough core to give leeway to the outlandish plot.

Given how the film was written at the tail end of the Spanish Financial Crisis, the movie sets itself up as a morality play with Carlos very much a cog in the machine that left countless citizens at the mercy of economic upheaval while they remained unscathed. Despite the audience being able to understand "the stranger's" motivations, the movie never sympathizes with him and he is still very much a ruthless antagonist who although humanized by a tragic set of circumstances has driven to some extreme ends that can't be justified. De la Torre's direction keeps the tension high and Luis Tosar does a good job as Carlos who conveys a desperate man trapped in extraordinary circumstances quite effectively with scenes of him at his breaking point showing full commitment to the performance. While on occasion Carlos' children could be a little much, they still felt like they fit within a reasonable level of believability and it helps they're played by good actors. The plot also does stretch itself a bit at the one hour mark with some decisions made by the police or Marta that are there simply because it needs to be there, but thriller logic is afforded a certain degree of "leaping" and I never felt like it broke the movie.

Retribution is an engaging high tension thriller with committed performances and solid direction. While the plot does occasionally stretch believability, it's tight enough in the pacing and tension that it'll keep you engaged.

I only watched this film because I wanted to practise my Spanish and didn't expect to enjoy the flick. In fact, it had sat on my hard drive for nearly a year before I got around to finally watching it. Imagine my surprise and delight when the movie kept me on the edge of my seat for the duration. It is formulaic, to be sure, like most action films, but still has enough twists to keep up the suspense. Plus, the acting is great across the board. So, for those like me who always want more of the same, it hits the spot.