Above photo: Mandrill IMDB photo
Greetings valued readers of Dan's Movie Report, as always, it is great to scan the globe for worldwide movies and DTV projects to bring to light. Special thanks go to the amazingly talented Marko Zaror for literally pointing out that Mandrill was his favorite of all his films. He asked me to check it out and was curious of my thoughts.
I must say the film is rather impressive, not just with the copious and inventive action sequences, but the really well developed characters and great camera work. Stating with the characters, Marko Zaror play kind of a dual role here as a Hitman Mandrill, and Antonio Espinoza his 'normal' life role character. A bit like a typical story of pain bad guys kill his parents when he waa young so he feels the need to sort out their killer or killers. The best thing about this Marko has to get kind of close to the daughter of a guy he wants to kill and I must say when sparks fly they do! The actress
Celine Reymond does a wonderful job of selling her salaciousness and it is palpable. Marko gets into character as well and even does a little pre-romance dance haha!
This brings me to my HUGE pet peeve in action films. Do not, even bother with romance in an action film unless three major areas are covered:
1) Have a back story about the lady, or guy being romanced on, I cannot stand when a character is just tossed into a love scene and all of the sudden they are a couple. Tell me about the character prior. Give me 2-5 minutes of pre meet up life!
2) Pretend like romance is real, move around, squirm, squeal, again if one person is a dead fish let the one who is better be on top or focused, let us not turn this into Lady Gagas' 'Bad Romance'!
3) After the so called liason, do not just cut away and forget about it, let me see what happens, not in the bedroom, but perhaps a bit of chat right before the next adventure.
On to the action, the best thing about the action in Mandrill aside from Marko's adept and clever moves are the way the director of photography captured the moment of the fights and the lighting and angles used. We see the action and, even feel the impact when a thug hits the ground. Actually seems the Netflix Marvel shows are filmed somewhat in that way, specifically the Daredevil Season 2 prison sequence with The Punisher! Boom!
There is action, romance, a side drama, all adding up to what feels like a film that plays longer than its 88 minute run time, yet never feels boring. Overall Mandrill is a must watch, I give the film a strong 8 out of 10, it is a great action film and Marko proves he can handle the ladies as well as his fists!
You can of course purchase the film on Amazon @
https://www.amazon.com/Mandrill-Marko-Zaror/dp/B006A9XTSA
Follow Marko Zaror on his official Social Media Sites:
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/markozaroroficial/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/markozaror?lang=en
Please check out all three of my recent interviews with Marko Zaror on the Action Elite! Search Dan Templegod on
www.theactionelite.com
