A Cheap Knock Off of Death Wish that Tried to do Too Much

The base of this stew is most definitely the Death Wish series. Mario Almada plays an ex-policeman whose family is brutalized by thugs. He subsequently goes out touring the seedier parts of town at night Kersey-style to get vigilante justice. The rest of the film is mostly a patchwork of police/general film cliches - shootouts, bank robberies, car chases, the short-fused police chief, the traumatized son who snaps out of it at the end of the film, etc.

There's a lot going on here, but none of it is really well-developed. Most of the family is wiped out at the beginning so you never get to know them; the son spends most of his time in a comma; since the film is about vigilante justice on the one hand but also throws in as many action movie cliches as it can, any question about the impacts of vigilante justice on society, redemption, or the like are only superficially explored. We know Almada only because he always seems to play the same sort of character in all of his movies - a no-nonsense gunslinger who just wants a peaceful life but always ends up finding himself in trouble.

Nevertheless, the movie is competently acted, has interesting scenery showing slices of life from 1980s urban Mexico, and has a great ending. I wasn't bored while watching it, either.

Still, I wouldn't recommend it.

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