Xtremo

My prayers have been answered in the Barcelona Cathedral and finally the Spanish have a great action thriller that takes the best of John Wick and Korean gangster films! It may be a straightforward revenge of two brothers that gets half the people in Barcelona screaming, but I don't mind that at all because the film serves up exactly what an action fan wants, and that's a bunch of dead bodies (triple digits!) and one action scene after another (there's like 12 action scenes!). There's a great main character, a guy you can smell the fear and death on, he's tough, his punches hurt even me, and he's definitely a great guy to root for. Also a great villain a sort of mix of a Spanish Yakuza with great henchmen (a Japanese!). The action is nicely varied, alternating between interesting locations and a different weapon each time. I liked the fight in the toilet, the one in the parking lot with knives, the finale with the katana, the fight in with the Japanese guy, the fight in the narrow corridor, and in the house, and the highlight is probably the workshop, with screwdrivers instead of knives, pliers and an angle grinder! There were a few Wick-like headshots and plenty of R-rated action. It goes from one action scene to the next, there is no room for anything else and thanks to the Spanish package, it doesn't look as stupid and naive as an American action movies. The visuals, the blistering pace, the fine music, the great main character and bad guys, and the well shot action make Xtreme a proper action flick that won't disappoint fans. Anyone expecting drama, emotional blackmail, philosophizing, romance, melodrama and other shit is in the wrong place. Netflix scored and the best Spanish action movie ever. 8.5/10. (04.06.2021)

What a huge surprise! I would never have guessed from the trailers, but the Spanish made an incredibly adrenaline-pumping action film through and through! Sure, the revenge-driven plot has been done a million times, the story doesn’t offer any surprises, and the script is more like a well-holed sieve... BUT... I can’t overlook the sheer fun the film delivers. The main character is an absolute badass; I don’t know him at all, but charisma is definitely not foreign to him. The action is top-notch, really precise, both in choreography and in its mix of different ideas (where else do you see a headrest used as a deadly weapon? :D). The setting in Barcelona also adds to the appeal. And it’s the utterly unbeatable main antagonist that lifts it to a fourth star, with a fantastic performance supported by unforgettable lines. While John Wick and The Equalizer might be more complex, I personally find this film half a star better than Nobody from this year. For me, it’s 7.5/10. (16.07.2021)