Review: Camino (2016)

[Mark R. Leeper]

CAMINO
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: What at first appears to be a film making a
serious political statement gives up the effort and
becomes a standard jungle action movie. It is not
really bad for a chase in the jungle movie. It just
fails to do much unexpected. Rating: high 0 (-4 to +4)
or 5/10

CAMINO begins as if it is going to be making a serious political
statement about international politics and Europe and America's
possible complicity in South American troubles. One can follow the
story with the best of expectations, but at the halfway point of
the film it turns into an action film with less interest in making
a statement than in being a one-dimensional and gory action film.

One clue might have been that the main character is played by
stuntwoman and actress Zoe Bell. She is not known for statement
films other than those making the statement that men do not have a
monopoly on action roles. Incidentally, apparently Bell is popular
with Quentin Tarantino as she has been in an incredible eleven of
his films. You know for sure that this film is not even trying to
be serious when you have women on the run from a war criminal who
commits atrocities and somehow they find the time to argue over
whom he loves. In spite of the film's more ridiculous moments,
Bell adds some stability to the narrative.

Bell plays Avery Taggart, a prize-winning international photo-
journalist. She is given the assignment of covering a missionary
leader fighting in Colombia for liberation. Sadly once she gets to
Colombia the plot gets rather transparent. Of course the trailer
makes the upcoming plot just as obvious. The script seems
underwritten and is a rush job, reportedly written in just two
days. While the film seems to want to deliver a message, when it
finally comes out it is that one very-fast-healing woman
photojournalist can out-think and out-fight a band of atrocity-
committing men from the liberation forces. Nacho Vigalondo plays
the guerilla leader Guillermo. He somewhat over-powers his role,
but that may really be a necessary part of Bell's motivation.
Taggert goes from one fight to another spilling a lot of red-orange
blood and then quickly recovering on the run. None of this is
Bell's fault and she certainly stands out as the best thing in the
film.

Josh C. Waller directs from a script by Daniel Noah. The chase in
the screenplay seems to have been cobbled together from used parts
available from better (and worse) films. The film is neither as
serious nor as entertaining as it was trying to be. The road in
CAMINO is one well-traveled. I rate it a high 0 on the -4 to +4 scale
or 5/10. CAMINO is on VOD and iTunes as of March 8, 2016.

Film Credits:
<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4991652/combined>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/camino_2016/>


Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 2016 Mark R. Leeper