Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Mandrill Blu-ray Movie Review

More 1970s faux-sploitation.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater February 22, 2012

Between Grindhouse and Machete, Hobo with a Shotgun and Hell Ride--and many, many more--we've been inundated lately with nostalgic-for-the-'70s exploitation throw-back films. Many of them even attempt to look like they were made during the Ford and Carter administrations, with digitally inserted scratches and jitters and light leaks. The fakery extends to purposefully stilted acting, intentionally ridiculous dialogue, and willfully hokey special effects. Some of these have been fun--I won't deny that--but to a one they all feel disingenuous, inauthentic, winking at the audience from their psychedelic, 1970s typeface-sporting title sequences to their campy freeze-frame endings.

What was once a sincere underground mode of filmmaking--cheap, dirty, badass--has been commercialized and mass-marketed and turned into a universally recognized trend. You know the shark has been jumped when big-budget-but-trying-to-look-cheap fauxsploitation films like Grindhouse spawn actual low-budget imitators like Nude Nuns with Big Guns and Mandrill. The latter comes to us from Chilean director Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, whose previous films--Kiltro and Mirageman--were some of the first martial arts movies to ever come out of his home country. For Mandrill, he combines fists-and-feet-of-fury action with a revenge story about a hit-man who--as the film's tagline proclaims--is "Cooler than Shaft, Hotter than Bond, Faster than Lee." Add some Charles Bronson in there and you have a good summary of the movie's cinematic influences.

Mandrill, in the hot seat...

The film stars Chilean martial artist Marko Zaror as the super-suave Antonio Espinoza--code name: The Mandrill--a hit man, man's man, ladies' man, and all-around badass. His mission is to track down a one-eyed, drug-running, casino-owning big-shot known as The Cyclops, and he most definitely choses to accept it. See, back when Antonio was a kid, The Cyclops viciously murdered his parents, and Mandrill is out for meditated, cold-served revenge. Through no small amount of ass kicking--including torching a dude's face using a lighter and a mouthful of 50-proof alcohol--Mandrill learns that The Cyclops is holed up in Peru at his heavily-guarded casino, Atlantic Towers. Putting on his best Sean Connery tux and a pair of cool-guy shades, Mandrill rolls into the casino like a boss and begins looking for a way to bring down the head honcho. Cue The Cyclops' drop-dead-sexy daughter, Dominik Del Solar (Celine Reymond), whom Mandrill immediately sets to wooing with smooth one-liners. ("That's a lot of hearts," he says when winning a poker hand against her, "it must be a sign.") There are inevitable complications, of course, as the two actually start falling for one another. When are you going to introduce me to your father...SO I CAN SHOOT OUT HIS GOOD EYE isn't exactly the ideal direction for a new relationship to take, and the tables turn when Dominik embarks on her own quest for revenge.

So...yeah, the plot isn't Mandrill's strong suite. This is a half-baked retribution beat-em-up that loses focus often with borderline- unnecessary flashbacks to Antonio's past and a drawn-out middle act that takes way too long trying to develop the attachment between our steely-eyed hero and his busty love interest. In the flashbacks, we see how Antonio was raised by his uncle Chone (Alejandro Castillo), a lovable womanizer who teaches him "The Technique" for seducing the ladies, a five-step process that involves a lot of eye-contact, arm-stroking, and casual compliments. Other childhood influences on his development into the consumate badass are the "John Holt" movies, gritty fictional films-within-the- film that ape the style of Charles Bronson-esque 1970s revenge epics. (One of the only truly funny gags here is a faux-trailer for one of the John Holt movies, where the villain, a Scarface lookalike, is named "Alpak Shino.") The young Antonio is obsessed with becoming like John Holt, weight training and target shooting so that he can eventually avenge his parent's death. Story-wise, this is standard-issue stuff, so the real question is how well it's executed. The answer? Passably. The Mandrill has fun riffing on the sorts of brawlers and spy movies that the director probably devoured as a kid, but there's not much here to make Mandrill stand out from the scores of other fake-sploitation films that have flooded the market lately.

I will give it this: Marko Zaror has the makings of a bonafide B-movie action star. He's not going to be the next Jackie Chan, but I can see him as a kind of South American Tony Jaa--a cult fighter who never transitions to the big-time but makes a few decent films that are well-regarded by martial arts fans. Like most stunt men, his acting chops are suspect--in this case, it sort of works, given the intentionally cheesy subject matter--but he's got genuine skills in the flying-roundhouse-kick-to-the-face department. The film's fight sequences are brutal and energetic, with Zaror flipping almost unbelievably through the air without the aide of wires or CGI, landing crushing blows on his opponents, who rarely get a hit in. Occasionally, the director pops the footage into slow-mo, just to emphasize how acrobatically ridiculous some of Zaror's stunts really are. I wouldn't say that these are must-see fights on the level of the first Ong Bak film--which set a new standard for high-flying, elbow-dropping action--but if you're into martial arts movies, Mandrill's probably worth checking out. If you're not, however--of if you're simply tired of films that pretend to be from another time period--the movie won't be worth your time. The phony grindhouse film is a trend that's way past its tipping point, and no matter how superficially entertaining these movies may be, they're ultimately tired and unimaginative, endlessly recycling a style from the past but leaving out a crucial ingredient--the low-budget, we're gonna shoot this thing the only way we know how sincerity that made the real trashy films of the '70s so authentically cool.

Mandrill Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like most of these fake-sploitation films, Mandrill was shot on high definition digital video and then processed to hell and back in post to give it a gritty grindhouse look. No, I don't really get it either, but whatever. The movie's 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray presentation is kind of all over the place, as there are frequent scene-by-scene changes in color palette, noise levels, and clarity. Color swings most widely, veering between the fairly realistic and the intensely super-saturated. Sometimes the image has a deep yellow cast, and elsewhere it takes on a soft aquamarine hue. Contrast is variable too, but most frequently settles into a punchy style with clipped highlights. There's not much consistency, but the image does get progressively more grimy- looking as the film goes on. Intentionally, it seems. By the climactic fight, primaries are pushed to the extreme and the picture is awash in some combination of digitally inserted grain and source noise. There are many shots that reveal extremely fine detail--especially in closeups--but others that look a bit soft. What can I say? The disc seems to represent the source material well, but this is no contender for best-looking Blu-ray of 2012.

Mandrill Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film's Spanish-language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is more than adequate and certainly listenable, but not quite as punchy as similar action movies. Literally. The foley effects for the punches and kicks are seriously wimpy. In one sense, this is realistic--real fights don't sound like two guys smacking each other with two-by-fours--but it leaves the martial arts sequences sounding a little hollow. The mix is a bit beefier when it comes to gunplay--the shots are crisp and loud--and the rear channels are occasionally put to good use for music, ambience, and directional effects. Nothing overwhelming or particularly immersive, but at least some thought has been put into the sound design. Dialogue is almost always clear, easy to understand, and balanced at the top of the mix. The disc includes optional English and English SDH subtitles, along with a corny DTS-HD MA 5.1 English dub.

Mandrill Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (SD, 2:32): No interviews, just straight-up behind-the-scenes footage.
• Anatomy of a Fight Scene (SD, 7:24): An on-set look at the shooting of three of the film's fight scenes.
• U.S. Trailer (1080p, 1:54)
• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment (1080p, 8:32)

Mandrill Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mandrill is a fun but inconsequential fake-sploitation film that--it seems to me--would play best with an audience of likeminded, mildly inebriated martial arts fans. The story and wanna-be vintage aesthetic flourishes are old-hat by now, but there are at least a few decent action scenes here. And while I can't say this one's worth a purchase, it might make an okay rental for an evening in with friends. Just don't get your hopes up for something truly spectacular.