Danny Trejo can still pull off a decent performance when in the correct role.
Watching Bullet, directed by Nick Lyon, starring Danny Trejo, was not unlike watching Trejo in the Machete movies, as his character was similar in most respects, except here as he talks a lot more. There were also several amusing scenes where Mexicans are deliberately mentioned, one of which was when he’s forced to shoot a French woman who shouts something in native tongue, right before Bullet (Trejo) shoots her dead, then says to her corpse, “We’re in America … speak Mexican, bitch!”
Danny Trejo is a workhorse when it comes to making movies with an incredible 26 in production for 2014 alone, so, to put that number into perspective both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro have two apiece for 2014.
- Bullet
- Directed by
Nick Lyon - Cast
Danny Trejo, Torsten Voges, Jonathan Banks - Release Date
7 March 2014 - Nav’s Grade: C+
As well as the popular Trejo, Bullet co-starred Jonathan Banks (playing Carlito Kane), another busy actor, who became famous after 28 episodes of Breaking Bad, where he played Mike Ehrmantraut. He’ll be recreating that character in the Breaking Bad spin-off, Better Call Saul, which can hopefully come close to BB. Banks’ character, Kane, was another example of the four-man writing team looking to exploit their actors previous successes by making them very similar to the characters that were the actors biggest earners.
The premise for Bullet is this; Manual Kane (son of Carlito) is about to be executed by lethal injection but minutes away from it being carried out, the governor receives a call where we see a group of masked men holding his daughter hostage, telling him to request a 72-hour stay of execution, which he does. Bullet is an undercover cop who we see bare-knuckle fighting and easily winning. He’s also an ex-drug-addict as is his daughter who has just had her first “birthday” for staying clean for one-year, but after her son is kidnapped by Carlito’s gang, she ends up using again.
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Bullet must meet with Carlito if he wants to see his grandson alive but even knowing he’s walking into a trap he goes anyway. Bullet was responsible for Kane Jr’s arrest, after he killed three cops, and now Carlito wants him to sign a document admitting he killed his fellow officers then framed Carlito’s son. Bullet escapes the gang and vows to get the governor’s daughter and his grandson back alive. He visits his friend who has a huge arsenal of handguns and automatic rifles, and after selecting a few of each, he’s ready to kick ass.
For a movie that cost a mere $3-million, Nick Lyon has done a respectable job and kept shots interesting with good cinematography by Carmen Cabana, and touches of style not normally seen in films with such a low-budget. In fact, the only bad things I could see with Bullet, were the fight choreography and some of the dialogue, particularly near the end.
There were also a couple of shots where the film was sped up and was glaringly obvious, but you can give these things a pass when the rest was rather enjoyable. The ending was over-the-top crazy, but you get used to this sort of thing when you watch a lot of Trejo starred films, and would be disappointed if bullets ran out, or, if Trejo didn’t have corny one-liners to toss at the bad guys.
Bullet was an easy film to like and a good way to pass 90-minutes, especially for fans of Trejo’s other movies. It’s also an easy flick to recommend because it fulfilled my ‘action’ expectations, as it should no doubt fulfill yours.
Review by Nav Qateel
