Xtremo | Film-Rezensionen.de

“Xtremo” // Start in Germany: June 4, 2021 (Netflix)

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Lucero has had long enough (Oscar Jaenada) stood in the shadow of his father, the successful leader of a criminal organization. When it also becomes clear that after his resignation, the hit man Maximo (Teo Garcia) is supposed to take over the business, Lucero’s stepbrother, he finally sees red. First he kills his father. Next, Maximo should believe in it. Instead, only his son dies. Two years have passed since Maximo and his sister Maria (Andrea Duro) stayed in secrecy and worked on their revenge. When the family of Leo (Oscar Casas) is murdered, which Maximo took care of, the time is ripe to fight back: little by little he eliminates the henchmen of Lucero, who has now risen to become gang boss himself, with the aim of making him pay for his deeds in the end …

I want revenge for that!

Man in himself is a very vengeful being. One could at least get this impression by looking at what happens in films. Especially in the B-movie sector, action thrillers are teeming with, in which someone was inflicted an injustice, which he now wants to straighten out. And that usually means that everyone is taken around the corner who was somehow involved in the matter or was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And for this revenge campaign to be as effective as possible, this main character may already be practiced in killing in one way or another. After all, you don’t want to lose any time. Often they are former elite soldiers or, alternatively, former agents. The main thing is that there is a license to kill.

In the Spanish Netflix-Genrebeitrag Xtremo it is now a contract killer who for once wants to murder out of personal motivation instead of for the money. That of course makes things a little more difficult than usual with the sympathy points. While the above examples are allowed to kill from the state, this is usually not the case with Maximo. But the movie isn’t about morals anyway. It is true that concepts such as honor are discussed again and again. But in a purely criminal environment, this is only possible with quotation marks. If anything, there is only the lesser of two evils. A man who kills for the money is not as bad as one who kills for fun and validity – or so it is implied.

Massive action without a lot around it

This thought is used by screenwriter Ivan Ledesma but just as little deepened as the representation of the underworld. Although told Xtremo of the fact that there are several organizations within this group that divide the cake among themselves – sometimes with a knife at the throat. Ultimately, this only serves to illustrate Lucero’s determination and unscrupulousness. Because he not only wants to take over the place from dad, but also scare away everyone else from the banquet table. The idea of ​​such a criminal organization could raise expectations in some, it is here with a species John Wick to do one of the most famous revenge thrillers of the last few years. However, this does not take place at this level.

Whereby too Xtremo has its qualities. The action scenes do not have the ingenuity of their famous colleague. On the other hand, they are often pretty massive and are not limited to people standing around in the area and shooting around, as you often see in US action films. Here you can really lend a hand, sometimes with a sword, with sometimes very bloody consequences. That is quite impressive, is from the director Daniel Benmayor (Tracers) dynamically staged. The performers also do their job properly. Óscar Jaenada is sometimes a bit close to the caricature of such a criminal, but is so convincingly disgusting that, against your better will, you cheer on the hit man.

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