Although we’re a couple weeks away from F1: The Movie screaming into theaters, if you want white-knuckle excitement, we’re gonna highly recommend Diablo as one of the best films of the year. It sure is tops in our book. From Chilean director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza comes another gritty action-packed feature full of flying fists and high kicks. Herein, he re-teams with martial arts master and genre phenomenon Marko Zaror (marking their sixth picture together). But when you throw in the absolute adrenaline machine that is Scott Adkins, you get nothing short of fireworks.
Whether seen as a genre film or not, Diablo is just an incredible picture. It’s trope heavy, but it’s also lean, mean, brutal and sure to please anyone who likes hearing bones crunch. Moreover, it honestly made me feel like a kid again watching the greatest Jean-Claude Van Damme movie that never was. The narrative structure is a wonderful hybrid of The Terminator, Logan, and Predator. Further, the story concocted by both Adkins and Zaror shows how well they contribute on screen and off it, and the film is pretty much a showcase exhibition of how amazing they are.
What is quite unexpected or how tangible and effective the acting is. Right out of the gates, we get an absolutely wonderful exchange between Lucho Velasco and Alanna De La Rossa. One is a doting, well-to-do father, the other is his sweet daughter. It’s probably the best father/daughter seen I’ve ever seen on film. However, he probably is not that sweet in the business deals that made him prosper in Colombia. He sure cares for his offspring (and that’s to be expected in this type of film) but when he shows his other side, he holds nothing back.
The story centers on Adkins kidnapping De La Rossa for an undisclosed reason and the plot centers on him getting her away from Velasco. The cat and mouse game is highly effective even before Zaror enters the grid. The latter sports a lead hand that conceals a dangerous surprise and this taciturn terror follows the two leaving no pulses in his wake.
As expected, Adkins and Zaror deliver with and without a spinning round house. But before we get to that, it needs to be said that De La Rossa steals much of the show that doesn’t involve rapid-fire knuckles and knees. She is just astounding. The dramatic range and fiery temper is utterly captivating whether in a feisty flurry or in a flood of tears.
She’s caught in the middle (the audience surrogate if you will) and what’s worse than being out of your element is being in the shadow of bullets and a six-foot psychopath. Now back to Zaror and Adkins. You could say they’re like peanut butter and jelly. But, better, they’re more like C-4 and the detonator: the effects are nothing short of explosive.
From a visual perspective, this gritty affair is super clean as Espinoza gives us some really crafty cinematography. There is well used drone footage in one downhill chase scene and a superb final fight in a cement factory. And the stakes to the action and the choreography are astounding (three cheers to Velasco and De La Rossa for selling that tension). There’s also some really great tracking camera work to capture certain movements of these two lightning fast pros whenever they’re on screen. The bullets and blunt force trauma are utterly beautiful.
G-S-T RULING:
This new film from Lionsgate really roars, and Espinoza is at the top of his game. Diablo is a throwback affair, something we have seen before, however this kind of story is never boring or overdone as long as the elements bring the requisite action and the characters are engaging. Spoiler: it does and they are! The music (from longtime collaborator Rocco) is propulsive, the story is affecting, and you wouldn’t wanna run into Zaror in a dark alley, that’s for sure. Get out and find this Espinoza joint, ahora!
