You don’t go to McDonald’s for a Michelin Star immersive food experience; you go because you know exactly what you’re going to get. And that’s what’s going on here. Diablo doesn’t do anything new or that you haven’t seen before, and it’s the exact movie it looks like. But if you’re in the mood, it hits the spot and is precisely what you want in that moment. You didn’t push play to watch tearful, Oscar-worthy monologues, you pushed play to watch bad dudes throw down and goons get spin-kicked through windows. Here’s your Big Mac, enjoy.
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Adkins plays Kris Chaney. Recently released from prison, he makes his way to Colombia, where he kidnaps Elisa (Alanna De La Rossa), the teenage daughter of a powerful crime boss, Vincente (Lucho Velasco, who has the best IMDb photo). This puts Kris in the crosshairs of El Corvo (Zaror), a freaky weirdo of an assassin. There’s more to situation and character motivations, but that’s the primary narrative thrust. Subsequent revelations are all easily predictable, but they serve their purpose as connective tissue between high-octane action sequences. To the film’s credit, they don’t try too hard to make a big deal out of the secrets.
For the Scott Adkins fanatics out there, he’s in prime form here. Espinosa knows well enough not to let the pace slow down and we’re never far from Kris delivering slick, brutal, acrobatic fisticuffs. It’s even better when he goes head-to-head with another top-tier operator, like Zaror, who handled the action design himself. And this isn’t a situation where the movie builds to one big face off—though the abandoned-gravel-factory climax is certainly epic as all hell—no, they come to blows multiple times throughout.
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Acting wise, Adkins delivers his typical gruff, scowl-heavy performance, which does what it’s supposed to do. Watching his grumpy con bicker back and forth with an angry teenage girl on a reluctant road trip is damn fun, however. For his part, Zaror makes a meal out of his role. El Corvo has a male-pattern baldness haircut, crooked glasses, and a metal fist that, when he removes it, reveals blades and various other sinister attachments. He gives such good creep here, playing everything as a flat-speaking psychopath who bites a dude’s face off. Whatever he’s doing, he’s on one and having the time of his damn life. When we first meet him, he’s feeding a terrified waitress a piece of cake off his knife hand, which sets expectations that are met and exceeded. Also, when El Corvo punches someone with his iron fist, there’s an awesome deep echoing clang, so kudos to the sound design team.
References and homages abound. Espinoza and company tip their cap to everything from John Woo and Bruce Lee to Scarface and beyond. The score immediately calls to mind John Carpenter’s work, though it sounds more like his solo records than what he typically writes for his own films. Visually, it feels big and grand in scope, despite what was likely a relatively modest budget.
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Again, Diablo doesn’t bring much new to the table and there’s little room for nuance or subtlety. But that’s not why you’re here, you’re here for a badass action movie with fantastic fights and fun stuff waiting in the wings. Scott Adkins and Marko Zaror throwing hands, and various other body parts, is more than enough to carry a film, and fortunately for us all, there’s quite a bit of that. One final thought: I would like to retire the “the safety’s on” line when someone is being held at gunpoint, it’s become the action movie equivalent of “your shoelace is untied.” [Grade: B]
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