CONTRAATTAQUE

Mexico, 2025, 84 minutes, Colour.

Luis Alberti, Leonardo Alonso, Luis Curiel.

Directed by Chava Cartas.

An action show designed for those who enjoy them, brief running time, continuous action, some serious moments, violent moments. And, the setting is familiar enough from many films from the US and Mexico, where this film is from. The cartels, the brutal leaders and their militias, havoc on ordinary citizens, the response of the police, and military special forces.

At the centre of the film is a group of elite special forces, their becoming involved in action against the cartels after a mother and daughter discover a mass grave out in the countryside and they are abducted. The special force has five members – and, memories of films like The Magnificent Seven, these are magnificent five, each with their own character clearly developed, and working together, especially when they are ambushed on the road, and have to make their escape through the countryside, pursued by the cartel chief and his militia, finishing up with the siege of a cartel building, the five inside, the militia outside.

This is what this film set out to do – and does it quite efficiently and effectively.

1. The title, expectations? Action show, brief running time?
2. The Mexican setting, the cartels and their influence, power, violence? The cartel leaders? The police, the special action forces? Corrupt politicians?
3. The opening on the road, the Mexican countryside, the crash, the fight? Later reprised? Setting the tone, the captain and his team, their skills? Military, with the government? The contrast with the cartels, their forces, militias?
4. The introduction to Carla and Lucia, at home, ordinary, going to work, pregnant, sick by the roadside, the discovery of the mass grave, the reporting it, observed by the militia, abducted and imprisoned?
5. The cartel leader, seen at home, his twin daughters, cooking? His communication with the militia, his brother, bravado, conflicts with the military? His going into action himself?
6. The group, the captain and his leadership, skills? The other members of the team, their personalities, skills? Tanque, older, loyalties, expertise? Pollo, young, a hunter, sniper and his abilities? The doctor and his involvement? Toro, hesitations, joining in? Seeing them in action, the reprisal of the crash, their heading out towards the border, pursued, fighting back? Injuries? Going to the house, eliminating the guards, finding the women? The drama of the siege, the tactics, shooting, ammunition, grenades, power guns, the secret passage, the explosions? Survival? Tanque dying?
7. The women, rescued, fears, growing involvement, weapons, the attacks? Surviving?
8. The portrait of the cartel militia, the women in leadership, the filming of the bribe to the government Secretary, their taking the captain’s phone, tracking every movement? Tactical advantage?
9. The final confrontation, the cartel leader, the hand-to-hand fights with the Captain, his defeat?
10. Familiar material, efficiently done, continue to action for the fans, and some delineation of the chief characters?