SPOTLIGHTS
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| Colombiana Mini-Review |
| Posted by Chad Webb on 09.07.2011 |
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Colombiana is an unintentionally hilarious and somewhat awful action film. It has also possesses a hefty chunk of awesome in the vein of campy 80’s fare. Think Scarface meets Sylvester Stallone, and change the burly dude with a sexy slender female in Zoe Saldana, and you’ll understand what to expect. The story is weighted in revenge and defies all logic from start to finish. The main character, Cataleya, sees her parents get killed by a ruthless drug kingpin, and swears vengeance. The rest is…relatively predictable. She is an expert marksman the likes of which you’ve never seen. She can escape cells by picking the lock without even concentrating, scale walls with her bare hands, and become invisible from any enemy no matter how what the circumstances. Saldana (Avatar) is quite attractive so there is plenty of her to admire as she dances, takes showers, and has sex (all of which add nothing to the plot...woohoo!). She plays the role straight and serious, while director Olivier Megaton controls the substance by embracing its silliness.
Luc Besson co-wrote the script, and together, they know a thing or two about cheesy action flicks. Megaton previously helmed Transporter 3, the most tolerable entry of that series. The rest of the cast is over the top in a “so bad it’s funny” sort of fashion. Jordi Molla (Blow), permanently typecast as a Hispanic drug goon now, is always entertaining as Marco, while Lennie James (The Next Three Days) is wonderfully exaggerated as Agent Ross and Cliff Curtis (Training Day) falls right in line as the aggravated father-figure Emilio. Cataleya is the type of hero/heroine that can do anything, so the audience is just hanging on for the ride. There is nothing wholly memorable about Colombiana except for its absurdity. The dialogue is packed with side-splitting lines, not necessarily quotable, but easy to make fun of. After a summer of cookie-cutter comic book adaptations, Colombiana is a deeply flawed, but kooky breath of fresh air.
Final Rating = 7.0/10.0 |
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