Narcos Mexico Season 1: A New Era Of Narcos

Narcos Mexico Season 1 is a crime drama series and spin-off to the Netflix series Narcos. The new series as the name would suggest shifts the focus of the program from the cocaine fields of Columbia to the weed fields of Mexico, though some familiar faces do make a return. The series chronicles the rise of the Guadalajara Cartel and Felix Gallardo’s (Diego Luna), kidnapping of American DEA Agent Kiki Camarena (Michael Pena).

To briefly describe this series, it is more of the same, if you liked Narcos and enjoyed seeing the DEA slowly busting drug dealers over a period of years than you will enjoy this. As usually there are some cheer worthy monuments (in this season it is the burning of the weed fields), some sad moments (Kiki’s death), and a hell of a lot of frustration as the corrupt system gets in the way of these agents doing their job.

As someone who loved all of that in previous seasons, I fully enjoyed Narcos Mexico Season 1, I found it to be both captivating and thrilling and it proves the creative team behind the show still has it.

Michael Pena plays against type here, he has done some dramatic work before (End Of Watch, Fury), but he is mainly known for his more comedic work. He played Kiki as a man on a mission, much like characters of past seasons his whole life revolved around bringing the drug lord to justice. My one issue is that the character could be annoying at times and do reckless and dangerous things without thinking about his family, who had moved down to Mexico with him.

I thought Luna’s Gallardo was a villain on the same level of Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura), this is exactly what the series needed and was the issue the final series of Narcos was disappointing: because the villains were lacking. My one issue on this side of things was that I would have preferred to see Gallardo’s rise and fall within one series as opposed to two, it just feels more dragged out. A lot of episodes have plot points that go nowhere and feel put into pad out the 50+ minute runtime.

Overall, Narcos Mexico Season 1 is good, the characters are working and that is what made the first two series of Narcos feel so special, I still have a few issues with it, such as I feel like it didn’t need to be spread over two seasons and that I found Kiki’s character annoying at times. Ps. Don’t even get me started on Raffa or more adeptly the worst character ever written.

Pros.

Back to basics in a good way.

Interesting new villain.

It feels fresh again.

Cons.

It is too dragged out.

Some of the characters are annoying.

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Raid: An Action Movie Masterpiece

‘The Raid’ is an Indonesian Action Film, written edited and directed by Gareth Evans. The plot follows a highly trained group of police officers who try and infiltrate a tower block owned and controlled by a ruthless drug lord. Amongst these officers we have Rama (Iko Uwais), who is our main character, Rama has gone to the tower block to try and convince his brother Andi (Donny Alamsyah), to come home.

‘The Raid’ is a beautiful film for a lot of reasons, but for me the main one would be the fight choreography. The fight choreography on display here is some of the best I have ever seen. The fights look brutal and real, you can feel the pain and exhaustion coursing through the performances. There is a hallway fight sequence that is better than anything I have ever seen before, said sequence sees Rama take on a large group of gangsters and with sheer force of will takes them all out; this isn’t like fake looking action movies like ‘the Transporter’ where the enemies attack one at a time, no here it is much more hardcore and realistic.

It makes sense now after seeing this why the ‘John Wick’ series hired the actors from ‘The Raid’ for the third film in that series, because they are incredibly impressive. The Wick series is the only other current Western action film that I would say is on par with this film in terms of its fight sequences.

The plot of ‘The Raid’ is also wonderfully complex as nothing is how it appears to be. Other than main character Rama, who is our moral compass throughout the film, the other characters flirt between the side of good and the side of bad, giving the film an excellent sense of moral ambiguity. This is shown through Rama’s brother Andi who saves Rama’s life, but decides to stay behind at the end and take over the tower block and be the next gang leader.

Overall, I think this is a must watch for everyone not just die-hard action fans, it is so beautifully done that is marvellous to behold. ‘The Raid’ has become prolific within action cinema and has gone on to influence a lot of films in the genre and I believe for a good reason: this film is fantastic and deserves to be seen!

Pros.

The Acting.

The Fight Choreography.

Maintaining The Balance Between Brutal But Not Overly So.

The Moral Ambiguity.

Making Character You Care About.

Cons.

None

5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Layer Cake: James Bond Use To Deal Drugs

‘Layer Cake’ is a British Crime film, focusing on the exploits of London based criminal XXXX, (Daniel Craig), as he tries to leave the drug business. This is the first film directed by Matthew Vaughn, of Kingman fame, and serves as one of Daniel Craig’s breakout roles.

The plot of the film is nothing new, drug dealer wants to retire, but then finds out he is too valuable to the boss; so said boss is decidedly not in favour of letting him go. The subplots of the film revolve around XXXX trying to stop a Serbian hitman from killing him and, his colleagues after a drug deal goes bad and, XXXX trying to find a girl who has gone missing. The culmination of all of these plots coming together make for an incredibly interesting watch, gripping through and, through. However, at times the plot does become a little messy, I think one of the subplots could have been dropped and, the film would still be incredibly engaging.

The style that has made Vaughn so famous is on full display in this his debut film, the editing and, cinematography of the film feel very Guy Ritchie esque, but lovingly like a homage to a contemporary rather than a blatant copy. Also to my joy, this film steers well away from a lot of the pacing and, plot issues that plague some of Ritchie’s work, especially in something like Revolver.

Another thing that makes this film so good is it’s leading man Craig is charming and charismatic throughout, he carries this film. There are moments in this film that are reminiscent of his later role as Bond, literally shot for shot the same; you can see where the Bond filmmakers looked to when they were casting. Outside of this year’s Knives Out this might be Craig’s finest performance to date, this is definitely a star-making turn for him.

‘Layer Cake’ is one of the best, and to an extent one of the last, big-budget, British gangster films, the genre that gave birth to such films as Lockstock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and The Business to name but a few. It is true to say that they don’t make films like this anymore, they’re very off their time, the late 90s early 2000s and, it is a shame that we don’t get these sort of films anymore. However, more recent films like Legend have carried on this tradition to a lesser degree, and are still excellent, speaking of Tom Hardy he is also in this film, albeit briefly.

Overall this is a superb film, a must-watch, and proof that Vaughn and, Craig are incredibly talented; I can’t recommend this film enough.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Irishman: I Hear You Paint Houses

The Irishman is a crime epic directed by Martin Scorsese the plot follows Frank Sheeran, (Robert De Niro), as he descends into the mobster underworld. The film spans Sheeran’s whole life; focusing a lot of the runtime on Sheeran’s relationship with the notorious Jimmy Hoffa, (Al Pacino).

The Irishman is an incredibly ambitious undertaking on Scorsese’s part, as he uses de-ageing technology to show the actors in their younger forms, rather than casting younger actors, which for the most part works well, especially if you’re prepared to suspend your disbelief; there were only two instances when I thought the CGI technology was noticeably bad.

It is nice to see all of these Gangster Film/ Scorsese veterans back on the big screen together, De Niro gives a career-best performance, which is nice to see as he hasn’t been in the best films recently. De Niro has given so much to the gangster genre, effectively becoming a cornerstone of it and, it is nice to see him get centre stage once again. Pacino likewise is phenomenal, his Hoffa can go toe to toe with Sheeran both in terms of presence and memorability. Really the Irishman is the story of the relationship between these two men. Another thing that makes the Irishman so special is that it marks the on-screen return of prolific crime film star Joe Pesci. Pesci plays Russel Bufalino a crime boss who takes a young Sheeran under his blood-soaked wing, it is lovely to see Pesci return, he gives a hearty performance, perhaps not as manic and crazed as some of his older performances, but still incredibly commanding all the same.

My one issue with the casting is that of Anna Paquin as Polly Sheeran, Frank’s daughter. Since very early on in the film Polly and Frank have a very tense relationship; as such she doesn’t talk to her father in the last act of the film, despite him wanting them to, my complaint is not that Paquin doesn’t have many lines, instead being why cast Paquin at all; this would have been a great opportunity to give to an unknown or, an upcoming talent; as Paquin herself doesn’t add much.

My final note is that the runtime, in case you didn’t know, is 3 and a half hours, which can be off-putting to some. The Irishman is paced very deliberately, sometimes scenes feel very long and drawn out, and yes this did make me lose focus and I did almost give up with it a few times, but such is the nature of an epic.

If you like the genre then there is more than enough to get you to invest in the Irishman, however, if you’re more of a casual viewer you may find some elements of it off-putting. Overall it is very nice to see some of these familiar faces back on the screen and giving standout performances.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke