Yes, Montreal’s excellent Fantasia Film Festival kicked off last night providing fans of all things to do with horror, fantasy, action, sci-fi and everything in between a place to celebrate the latest and greatest with nearly three weeks worth of programming. It’s a massive slate of films, with many receiving their International, North American or Canadian premieres and we will be there for the next twenty days or so taking in as much as we can. The fest is just getting started, and there is lots of great stuff on the way so stay tuned for more reviews.
We kicked off our festival by taking in the low budget Chilean action film, “Mandrill,” the third feature film teaming of writer/director Ernesto Diaz Espinoza and minor action/martial arts star Marko Zaror. We haven’t seen their previous collaborations, but considering the production values this time around, we would imagine they’ve been playing to a very select audience. Watching “Mandrill” we sort of immediately got why Zaror has a bit of a following. Looking like a taller, leaner Chilean version of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, he’s got charisma and presence to spare. And yes, he can kick some serious ass. It’s just too bad that “Mandrill” never plays completely to his strengths resulting in a film that aims to be a campy parody/homage to exploitation films of the ’70s but misses the mark as often as it hits it.
The film starts off with a prologue that finds the titular hero, an assassin for hire, carrying out his latest mission. This opening five to ten minute bit would be great short on its own, and pretty much marks the high point for the film in terms of nailing its tone of overwrought tough guy dialogue and comical over-the-top action scenes. But just as soon as Mandrill wraps up that job, he signs on for another one and that’s where the film begins to bite off a bit more than it can chew.
Mandrill’s next assignment finds him pursuing Cyclops, a one-eyed baddie who killed his parents, and left him an orphan. But forgoing the awesome non-existent plotting of the film’s opening, the story gets bogged down in flashbacks, over explanations of Mandrill’s emotional motives and a far too long second act that finds him seducing Cyclops daughter so can learn where he’s hiding out. When a scene rolls around near the end of the second act with Mandrill earnestly crying due to do his conflicted emotions during a key kill, it’s the kind of depth and dimension that just doesn’t fit in this kind of film. It’s a tonal shift that makes no sense in the film’s overall context of high concept goofing.
Another ball that Espinoza adds into his juggling act are the films within the film of fake ’70s action star John Colt. Mandrill got his inspiration from watching Colt’s films growing up and these fake films are as entertaining (and sometimes more) than the feature itself. They actually match the tone of the film’s opening, providing big laughs with its overcooked, no-budget, action posing. It’s just a load of fun and the kind of excitement missing from stretches of the regular movie.
Taking on ’70s exploitation/grindhouse films is always a tricky prospect mostly because those films earned their charm rather incidentally rather than from any overly concerted effort. Did they play certain attributes of their films? Surely, but mostly, the charm of low-grade, genre entertainment of yore was something intangible that’s difficult to replicate. Espinoza and Zaror don’t hit the mark because they actually push themselves, when instead, pulling things back, keeping it simple and well, stupid, would’ve worked in their favor. Also, there is just not enough scenes of Zaror fighting. Why take a guy who is so great at hand-to-hand combat and put a gun in this hand? The best scenes, and the ones where he truly embodies the role of a take-no-prisoners hero, are the ones when he’s flying through the air delivering lethal blows.
But that’s not to say that “Mandrill” doesn’t have its share of fun. Espinoza and Zaror do deliver a good number of big laughs and crackling action to keep things moving. But unfortunately, the film also stalls enough times to make its 90 minutes feel longer than it really should. [C]