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El Chicano-5/10
Story of a police officer who discovers his brother, once thought to have taken his own life, was actually murdered while attempting to take up the mantle of El Chicano, a masked vigilante who took down bad guys in the ghetto of East L.A..
Was initially intrigued by the movie because it's a primarily Latino cast, and a Hispanic superhero seemed cool. The villain had an interesting premise. A Mexican national gang kingpin who wants to infiltrate L.A. and take back the entire state as property of Mexico.
That's where the intrigue dies, unfortunately. The premise of the movie is all its got. The execution was poor. Other than a great fight scene that intros the title character, and another good scene in the final showdown, the movie lacks any depth or heft.
It tries for a police procedural to set up the key pieces, but that's rushed thru to get the main character Diego into the mask. His discoveries of his brother and the ties to the Mexican mafia are convenient at best. There's no slow burn, no build up, no emotional connection to get behind the character.
And the lead? What a bore. He was not charismatic at all. Stiff, uninspired line reading didn't help a bad script that was trying it's damndest to mix English and Spanish in, but instead of making it smooth and seamless, like Narcos, it es clunky, forced, and frankly, off putting.
The real bummer is George Lopez plays it serious as a police chief, and is prob the best performance in the film. But we get so little time with him that it feels wasted. This movie needed to be longer and the ideas and theories needed to be more fleshed out. Instead we just get a violent mess that skips over what makes it interesting to showcase gruesome deaths and a showdown/finale so underwhelming I didn't think it could be the end.
Bummer.
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