100 Movie Project - The Brave

in

The following post contains spoilers for The Brave.

A foreign action film from Albania. There was a lot I liked about this movie that probably only happened because it was a foreign film. Hollywood films often have a certain feel to them. They work in a certain way. I guess this kind of makes sense since movies are a business and they want to best chance of making money but it’s nice to see something different sometimes.

The film follows Rei (Louis Mandylor), who is some kind of special forces police officer that had been undercover, as he teams up with a police squad to try to bring down a crime lord who’s fairly well liked by the general populace since he feeds people and helps everyone to try to help cover for himself. It creates a nice grey area where the bad guy isn’t bad for bad’s sake but makes you think about why the “good guys” don’t help enough. The story also had a lot of nice connections between characters, starting at the beginning with the complicated relationship between Rei and the criminal he befriended while he was undercover. There were some more but I don’t really want to spoil them.

The movie also had some good action scenes. The fight at the beginning was well done with plenty of action and this continued through the rest of the fights, from the club raid through to the final raid. They also made sure to give some obstacles to the main characters. Things often went sideways for them, more often than I’m used to seeing. Of course it all worked out in the end but they had to fight for it. There were some weird bits though. The main characters always had less tactical gear than the rest of the police. This helps the audience keep them separated but seems like a great way to die.

I enjoyed the acting as well. The criminal friend was appropriately upset at the beginning when he found out that he had been betrayed by Rei. The characters in the police force showed a lot affection for each other, and after one of them died his friend put on a great show. It’s tough to act sad like that and I was very impressed. Another character also did an excellent furious when confronted by someone from her past.

I also found out while trying to remember character names that the original name of the film, Lazarat, is also the name of a town that was well known for growing marijuana until the government put them down with force. There was probably some of that story in this movie since the end raid took place in an entire town.

I should definitely watch more foreign movies. They often bring something to the table that you don’t see Hollywood movies and that can often be quite refreshing.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time. Don't forget to click the links below and follow to stay up to date on what I'm doing and where I am and to see all my pictures and videos.