Sick Product of a Sick System

Pretty Good

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

In the Revenge action movie sub-genre, "Montana" is a great protégé movie with compelling characters, a ton of growling (LOVE that! LOL), and great fight scenes. I highly recommend it and hope you enjoy the morality. It's always good to see the bad guys get their comeuppance. There's a ton of cursing and some of the characters are major jerks. So satisfying when they get taken down. There is some time spent developing the back story on the characters so you care what happens to them.The title is a nod to Scarface in case you the miss the reference. At first I thought it was set somewhere in Eastern Europe but it turns out to be London's East End. Bits of it reminded me of John Wick.

Set in London, this revenge flick is extremely violent, grim, and gritty and is filled with gore, torture scenes, and stacks of dead bodies. However, despite stretching credibility to the limit, it does offer some solid acting and the storyline, at times, has some redeeming qualities.Lars Mikkelsen, the older brother of Mads, stars here as Dimitrije, a man seeking revenge against those who murdered his wife and young son, during the Bosnian War, some 20 years before. Before the war, he was a trained assassin, and has now left a trail of dead bodies across Europe, as he closes in on the main culprit of his family's slaughter.The main culprit would be Lazarus (Darrell D'Silva), who is now a ruthless drug lord in the London area. One of Lazarus's couriers is a young lad named Montana, who is not aware yet that this same mob that he's working for killed his father and has all intentions of eventually killing him as well. McKell David makes quite the solid motion picture debut here as Montana.One night, when he's robbed on his cash, along his route, the mob attempts to "off" him, but is thwarted by the intervention of Dimitrije. These two souls will now have a common purpose in seeking revenge against Lazarus and his henchmen, and Dimitrije will begin to train Montana in all aspects of weaponry and fighting skills.Amidst all of this, Lazarus is trying to uncover who in his inner circle is trying to take over his business, plus also contend with two extremely corrupt London detectives. Of course, it will all culminate in a bloody and violent showdown.Overall, this movie, directed by Mo Ali, and written by Jeremy Sheldon and Peter Lowe, may appeal to the die-hard fans of this genre. However, for the rest of us, if you can get past all the brutal and graphic violence, there is, as noted, some good acting and a fairly decent storyline in spots.

Montana was one of those movies I had no idea how well it would play out when I started watching it. Lets just say I was pleasantly surprised. This movie format will play similar to the movie "Leon (1994)" and that is a positive comparison to make as both movies played out really well in he form of redemption revenge flick. The story set in the mean streets of UK featuring a good mix of dirty cops, crooked gangsters and Russian mobsters I like the way Montana character is developed and he is a believable confused kid. The other actors also did well in there parts. The Good: Good build up of the story, good character development and action sequences. The soundtrack was done well to emphasis emotion at the right moments. The Bad: It stretches your imagination as to how adept Montana character becomes at fighting but hey its a movie. The Ugly: The raw, gritty crime world lingering in London (thats ugly in a good way). Overall quite raw and powerful performances by all this movie deserves more praise.

Directed by the relatively unknown Mo Ali, here comes a violent, but earnest story, about a former ex-Yugoslavian soldier, Dimitrije (played brilliantly by the Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen in a rare starring-role), who has been hunting down the notorious gangster Lazarus (Darrell D'Silva), who committed heinous war-crimes against Dimitrije and his family back in 1995. The chase has led them to present-day London, where hoodlums and gangsters rummage through the streets, looking for victims. The police force is naturally full of dirty cops who spoil countless investigations, which leaves the fuzz pretty much useless, and the citizens of London helpless.Dimitrije therefore takes it upon himself to clean up the city, and secretly lurks on the roof-tops with his sniper-rifle, taking out scumbags every once in a while, much to the dismay of Lazarus and his cronies. One of Lazarus' henchmen is the young Montana (McKell David), who falls out of grace, and is soon picked up by Dimitrije, who in turn trains him to be a lethal assassin, to help him get to Lazarus.What at first glance seems like a routine revenge-story, quickly turns out to be more of a father-and-son tale, when Dimitrije and Montana gets a much closer relationship, as they're both seeking a surrogate family, as they're otherwise all alone in the world.For fans of Nicolas Winding-Refn (and particularly his "Pusher"-trilogy), this will be a very pleasing experience, as it not only stars Mads Mikkelsen's brother, but also has an extended cameo for Zlatko Buric, who plays his usual shady gangster-type character. And it's violent of course.Overall, it's a pretty cool master/apprentice revenge story, with lots of people getting shot or brutally beaten (sometimes to death) throughout the film, so it's definitely not for squeamish children or those faint of heart. But if you love a good actioner with likable leads and wicked baddies, then this is the film for you!