"Atrapados En La Coca" it's a mexploitation film directed by René Cardona, probably the weakest director in the Cardona family but still a very good director who manages to take exploitation films and make you invest in their characters, this film it's an example of that.
Roberto Cañedo plays a father who is going through some economic problems, he has worked clean his whole life, but the government doesn't really care about him, so he decides that the only way he can have a stable economy is by resorting to the drug dealing business, he meets with a drug lord (who speaks in an Arabic accent) he the tells him that he will only do a few deliveries for him, but he never tells him what kind of deliveries he's making, so he ends up killing a woman and his lover, disturbed by what he has done, he confronts the drug lord, who ends up killing him the same way he killed that woman, and now the son of our deceased main character must take care of the situation.
This was a very pleasant surprise, since I was expecting some kind of trashy and exploitative cautionary tale about drugs, but what I got was a very engaging and interesting exploitation film. The film presents us with Roberto Cañedo's character early on in the film, we see that he has been having lots of problems lately, and that he is quite a likable man, who wants to provide his family with everything they need for them to live comfortable, he seems to be having trouble with that, so he seeks help from a friend, but this will only bring him despair, as he enters a dark world that he never thought he would experience.
We get introduced to his son, played by Sebastian Ligarde (I know him as Mario from Apuesta vs La Muerte), early in the film, we see him helping a young lady who is being robbed, after he beats the criminals with the help of his friend, he takes the lady somewhere safe, after that, we learn that she is the daughter of a rich man, played by the great Mario Almada, and the two youngsters fall in love with each other.
The film does a very good job at balancing the stories between the father and the son, they are both very well written and executed, there's a point in the film were a character dies and another character takes the leading role, this would come off as clunky or weird, because we spend so much time with our first lead that another one would require more exposition, but since the stories are very well balanced and the characters were developed early on, this radical change doesn't feel weird or awkward, it feels rather natural.
The action scenes are really good, some of them don't really amount to anything, but some of them are quite gory, talking about gore, there's a scene in the film that involves two people being hanged and then mutilated by a crazy thug with a chainsaw, a very unexpected gory scene that was a pleasant surprise for me, it's not very graphic, but it gets the job done.
Roberto Cañedo and Sebastian Ligarde deliver really good performances, the acting in the film it's quite good, including the acting from people with minor roles, who are often bad in this kind of film, Mario Almada doesn't have a major role in the film, but he does a good job with what he's given, the villain it's quite entertaining, he's a crazy drug lord who talks in a weird Arabic accent, and has a homosexual rapist for sidekick, a very creepy looking individual.
I would recommend the film for those who are looking for a sleazy and gory, but engaging mexploitation film, this one does not disappoint, I was surprised at how good it was, at least, for this kind of film.
Roberto Cañedo plays a father who is going through some economic problems, he has worked clean his whole life, but the government doesn't really care about him, so he decides that the only way he can have a stable economy is by resorting to the drug dealing business, he meets with a drug lord (who speaks in an Arabic accent) he the tells him that he will only do a few deliveries for him, but he never tells him what kind of deliveries he's making, so he ends up killing a woman and his lover, disturbed by what he has done, he confronts the drug lord, who ends up killing him the same way he killed that woman, and now the son of our deceased main character must take care of the situation.
This was a very pleasant surprise, since I was expecting some kind of trashy and exploitative cautionary tale about drugs, but what I got was a very engaging and interesting exploitation film. The film presents us with Roberto Cañedo's character early on in the film, we see that he has been having lots of problems lately, and that he is quite a likable man, who wants to provide his family with everything they need for them to live comfortable, he seems to be having trouble with that, so he seeks help from a friend, but this will only bring him despair, as he enters a dark world that he never thought he would experience.
We get introduced to his son, played by Sebastian Ligarde (I know him as Mario from Apuesta vs La Muerte), early in the film, we see him helping a young lady who is being robbed, after he beats the criminals with the help of his friend, he takes the lady somewhere safe, after that, we learn that she is the daughter of a rich man, played by the great Mario Almada, and the two youngsters fall in love with each other.
The film does a very good job at balancing the stories between the father and the son, they are both very well written and executed, there's a point in the film were a character dies and another character takes the leading role, this would come off as clunky or weird, because we spend so much time with our first lead that another one would require more exposition, but since the stories are very well balanced and the characters were developed early on, this radical change doesn't feel weird or awkward, it feels rather natural.
The action scenes are really good, some of them don't really amount to anything, but some of them are quite gory, talking about gore, there's a scene in the film that involves two people being hanged and then mutilated by a crazy thug with a chainsaw, a very unexpected gory scene that was a pleasant surprise for me, it's not very graphic, but it gets the job done.
Roberto Cañedo and Sebastian Ligarde deliver really good performances, the acting in the film it's quite good, including the acting from people with minor roles, who are often bad in this kind of film, Mario Almada doesn't have a major role in the film, but he does a good job with what he's given, the villain it's quite entertaining, he's a crazy drug lord who talks in a weird Arabic accent, and has a homosexual rapist for sidekick, a very creepy looking individual.
I would recommend the film for those who are looking for a sleazy and gory, but engaging mexploitation film, this one does not disappoint, I was surprised at how good it was, at least, for this kind of film.
