No Rest For The Wicked

Foreign Action Film
This is a lone wolf action flick. It is a different style than standard Amerian police drama. American heroes especially police don't usually force their way into bars or night clubs extorting free drinks and threatening. The subtitles slowed the action fo me but I reviewed several sections to catch where the action was going. The compostion and shooting style was gritty and raw and helped to convey the desperation in the lead character. Although the protagonists seemed to be to easily followed and eradicated, the real conflct as always is man against himself.

The Right Thing for the Wrong Reason
I've seen my share of crime thrillers and this is about as original an idea as I've come across.

Here's the scoop. This film is set in Spain. Santos Trinidad is a greazy police detective with some serious baggage. One night he makes a bar stay open past hours by flashing his badge. He just wants to drink his rum and Cokes. You get the feeling he's been drinking all day. The three working the club try to play nice but it ticks him off and he shoots all three. What he doesn't realize is that there's a fourth person upstairs who beats a retreat. Now he needs to hunt this person down before his dirty deed is exposed. As a judge and senior detective get involved in investigating the triple murder some surprising things come to light.

This is a clever, densely plotted flick with a nifty twist. There's no way to say it without spoiling so I'll leave the twist out of things. But this involves some good police work on both the side of the detective as well as the judge...

(3.5 STARS) No Rest for the Wicked: Spanish Dark Crime Drama Centering on a Very Bad Cop
With the biblical title inspired by verses in the Book of Isaiah, "No Rest for the Wicked" ("No habrá paz para los malvados") follows the story of Santos Trinidad (Jose Coronado), a grizzled police detective of the Missing Persons Unit, who has shot three persons to death while drunk in the bar.

While chasing the witness who ran away, Santos stumbles upon a major criminal plot. Unbeknown to his fellow officers, Santos, once a highly decorated intelligence professional, embarks on his own investigation, but the official investigation into HIS murders, led by Inspector Chacon (Helena Miquel) and aided by his former fellow officer Leiva (Juanjo Artero), slowly catches up with Santos.

There is something subversive about this Spanish noir directed by Enrique Urbizu ("Box 507"). Santos is not just a bad cop; he is repugnant and obnoxious. The film refuses to explain what drives Santos, perpetually drunk and ill-tempered, to behave as he does. To call him an...

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