Vin Diesel tries his best to emote in this ultimately routine crime / revenge saga. He plays Sean Vetter, a former gangbanger turned DEA agent. The persistence of Sean and his colleagues over the course of seven years finally pays off, as they successfully apprehend a drug kingpin, Memo Lucero (Geno Silva). The consequence of this episode is that soon Seans' beloved wife Stacy (Jacqueline Obradors) is killed in an assault on Seans' house. Once he's recuperated, Sean is hellbent on finding out just who gave the order to attempt murder, if it wasn't Lucero. All he knows is that a mysterious figure named El Diablo has taken Memos' place and is even more evil and ruthless than Memo.
Larenz Tate plays Seans' friend Demetrius Hicks, who must make a decision between being loyal to Sean and letting the law handle things. Ms. Obradors is an absolutely gorgeous and appealing presence here, and she and Diesel do make a believable couple. Silva delivers a creditable performance as the low key crime boss, with whom Sean actually makes a connection when Luceros' wife falls victim to El Diablo. There's other notable talent in the cast: Timothy Olyphant, Steve Eastin, Juan Fernandez, Jeff Kober, Marco Rodriguez, Mike Moroff, Ken Davitian. The filmmaking is reasonably slick, with the soundtrack full of hip hop and rock, and the action scenes are high energy stuff. But it's hard to get all that interested in this tale when everything just feels so familiar and predictable, not to mention senseless.
As this viewer already said, Diesel gives a reasonable effort as the tormented and enraged lead character, but he's simply outshone by his supporting cast.
Watchable enough for 110 minutes but pretty forgettable.
Six out of 10.
Larenz Tate plays Seans' friend Demetrius Hicks, who must make a decision between being loyal to Sean and letting the law handle things. Ms. Obradors is an absolutely gorgeous and appealing presence here, and she and Diesel do make a believable couple. Silva delivers a creditable performance as the low key crime boss, with whom Sean actually makes a connection when Luceros' wife falls victim to El Diablo. There's other notable talent in the cast: Timothy Olyphant, Steve Eastin, Juan Fernandez, Jeff Kober, Marco Rodriguez, Mike Moroff, Ken Davitian. The filmmaking is reasonably slick, with the soundtrack full of hip hop and rock, and the action scenes are high energy stuff. But it's hard to get all that interested in this tale when everything just feels so familiar and predictable, not to mention senseless.
As this viewer already said, Diesel gives a reasonable effort as the tormented and enraged lead character, but he's simply outshone by his supporting cast.
Watchable enough for 110 minutes but pretty forgettable.
Six out of 10.