Fantastic Fest 2009: ‘Mandrill’ Review

Who knew Chile had one of the best action stars of all time? Ernesto Diaz Espinoza’s ‘Mandrill’ stars Marko Zaror as the title character, a 1970s exploitation inspired hit man who is just bad ass. Mandrill’s story is a simple revenge story that is loaded with style.

The less you know going into this movie, the better your experience is going to be. It’s a ton of fun to watch and it’s action raised the bar against all Western action films. Marko’s stunt work is so amazing, and the fact he does it all himself is what’s going to plant him as one of the best action stars ever.  Yes I’m saying that right now.   Marko Zaror has what it takes to be one of the biggest action stars in the entire world.

Much of Mandrill is told through flash backs into the main character’s childhood where you see him raised by his uncle Chone. Their relationship adds a lot of humor to the film and is one of the definite high lights. The flashbacks felt out of place at first but I quickly warmed up to them as they started to really define the pace of the film, which is very snappy.

Mandrill is one of the better action films I’ve ever seen. It’s throw-back style and self aware humor is going to  supplant  it as one of the must own foreign action films for any collector.