You
could say this former hitman runs a particularly effective faith-based
initiative. He will seek out the unjustly victimized that are pure of heart, to
rain down payback on those who wronged them. In many cases, the faithful do not
even know he has taken on their causes. He simply hears their prayers and
answers them in Ernesto Díaz Espinoza’s Redeemer
(trailer
here),
which opens this Friday in New York.
He
was once a happily married killer by the name of Nicky Pardo, but he is now
known simply as “The Redeemer.” He starts each morning with a refreshing round
of Russian roulette. Every time he survives, he interprets it as sign the man
upstairs still wants him to continue administering retribution in his name.
Some really heavy business went down in his past, involving his nemesis, “The
Scorpion.” Unbeknownst to the Redeemer, the Scorpion trails along after him,
killing the innocent people the Redeemer set out to avenge, in elaborately
Biblical fashion. That might sound terribly cruel, but he is not called the
Scorpion because he likes to play patty-cake.
The
Redeemer will have his work cut out for him when he blows into a seaside
village dominated by a drug cartel. When he saves a sad sack fisherman from his
drug trafficking tormentors, the syndicate essentially declares war on the vigilante.
It will not work out so well for them, but it gives the Scorpion time to catch
up with his prey.
When
someone as hardnosed as the Redeemer offers you a chance to repent, you should
probably take it. Conversely, taking him on is not such a hot idea, even you
are part of a pack of six or seven thugs. Let’s face it, Redeemer is not the most sophisticated action film to strut into
theaters, but holy cats, can Zaror fight. He has weird grappling style MMA
moves like you have never seen before, all of which look awesome on screen.
Frankly, Zaror never talks much, but he does not need to say a lot when his piercing
eyes glower out from under his hoodie.
In
many ways, Redeemer is like a
throwback to the grittily effective but not exactly over-ambitious films that
launched the careers of butt-kicking superstars like JCVD and even Bruce Lee.
The narrative is a rather simplistic affair, intentional designed to keep out
of the way of the action showcases (yet, somehow Espinoza manages to have three
credit co-screenwriters. Seriously, how many scribes did it take to write “they
squint at each other and then start fighting?”) It doesn’t matter. The martial
arts is the thing in Redeemer,
spectacularly choreographed by Zaror. In fact, there is a show-stopping
one-on-one with a no-name henchman midway through the film that could easily
stand as the climax of most action releases.
