XTREME Review: One Way Ticket to Vengeance

Spanish film industry is well known internationally for many good reasons, but unfortunately one of them has never been its action and martial arts cinema, that until now it was completely non-existent. This is not due a lack of talent, because there are a big bunch of talented stuntmen and filmmakers hunger of being to able showcase to the world what they are capable of, but certainly is due a painful lack of opportunities, since spanish producers never gave a chance to the genre, believing that this type of cinema wasn´t profitable in their market. However, Teo Garcia (the star and big responsible of the project. A well-known martial artist with years of experience under his belt) proved how wrong they were in their belief, finally turning his project a reallity after two decades of trying to bring his vision to the screen, and kicking down all the doors that prevented him to believe in such a crazy dream. In real life as in the cinema, sometimes there are also happy endings, and the miracle has finally come true based on perseverance and hard work, and above all by believing in a dream til the end, no matter how crazy and far-fetched that it seemed.

“Xtreme” is finally a reallity, and a far better reallity that nobody could ever expected. A high quality product directed by Daniel Benmayor that brings the audience into a one-way ticket to vengeance in a glorious savage bone-breaking journey that bathes in blood the streets of Barcelona, to tell the story of Maximo (Teo Garcia) a hitman betrayed by his boss, Lucero (Oscar jenada) who only lives to seek revenge on the death of his family… A really simple but highly effective plot that is just an excuse to display on the screen a thrilling spectacle of cinematic violence with martial arts and ballistic action that pays tribute to a type of cinema that nowadays seems to be fading away, but that is longing for many fans around the globe.

There´s no secret that the main attraction of this feature is the action, and the film don´t try to fool anyone delivering a full-action packed from the very beginning, with fight choreographies conducted by Teo García himself with his own stunt team group, that are brutal and gritty, looking for realism over spectacularity, but showing each blow with stark forcefulness, making you feel every impact and every breaking bone as if were your own…

But a big hero is always measured by the greatness of his enemies, and one of the strongest points of this tale of vengeance is presenting Oscar Jaenada having so much fun, stealing all the spotlight (Even though his screen time is briefer of what I would have liked) portraying a character that seems out of a comic-book, in the skin of a spanish-yakuza, quirky, evil and cruel to the bone, that alongside another great actor as sergio Peris-Mencheta, will bitter the hero´s existence as they previously did together in the last Rambo´s adventure back in 2019…

On the other hand, the film also shows some issues, the rythm can drop sometimes due the 2-hour long duration for a story that fits perfectly in barely 90-minutes, and the subplot with the young kid though it was interesting, it demanded a better casting choice than Oscar Casas, who is not at the same level of badassery that the rest of the crew… But fortunately, the good job in the action scenes overshadows all this problems…

Definetely, “Xtreme” is a truly enjoyable entertainment, manufacturated to please fans of old school action cinema, that surely will pave the way for a new path in Spanish film industry.

Don´t hesitate in giving this vengeance a chance

In a Netflix near you!!!

Mike Garcia