Colombiana (2011) /Review

Release Date: 26 August 2011 (USA)  Runtime:107 min

Genre: Action | Adventure | Drama | Thriller 

Tagline: Vengeance is beautiful.

Budget:  $40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:  €174,369 (Belgium) (31 July 2011) (33 Screens)

Gross:  €328,248 (Belgium) (7 August 2011)

Production Co: Europa Corp., TF1 Films Production, Grive Productions

Filming Locations:Chicago, Illinois, USA

Director  Olivier Megaton

Writers:  Luc Besson & Robert Mark Kamen

STORYLINE

A young woman grows up to be a stone-cold assassin after witnessing her parents' murder as a child in Bogota. She works for her uncle as a hitman by day, but her personal time is spent engaging in vigilante murders that she hopes will lead her to her ultimate target - the mobster responsible for her parents' death.

CASTS

Zoe Saldana, Amandla Stenberg, Michael Vartan, Cliff Curtis, Callum Blue, Jordi Mollà, Max Martini,

Lennie James, Graham McTavish, Monica Acosta, Beau Brasseaux, Jesse Borrego, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Affif Ben Badra

Production Companies

• Europa Corp.
• TF1 Films Production (co-production)
• Grive Productions (co-production)
• A.J.O.Z. Films (executive production)

REVIEW

Among  Luc Besson's most famous films are Léon: The Professional , Nikita and The Fifth Element

 Besson started his own production company, EuropaCorp, which in the last ten years or so has funded its fair share of diverse movies, both in the French and English language. Nevertheless Europa (as it's known in short) is best known to mass audiences for its numerous, high-octane, medium-budget action films, most of which are written or co-written by Besson himself

Among these are the Taxi, Transporter and District B13 series of films, Wasabi, Taken, From Paris With Love, Danny The Dog (also known as Unleashed), Bandidas, Kiss Of The Dragon, Yamakasi, Crimson Rivers 2, Hit-man,... Through these films, Besson is also responsible for introducing the world to Parkour, which seems to have taken over action cinema in the past 5 years (and even making its way to films such as Step Up 3D).

Colombiana is another one of action's movie . The story starts in 1992 in Bogota, where some mob guy, Don Luis, orders a hit against a former associate of his who he considers has betrayed him, and naturally his whole family. Only young Cataleya Restrepo escapes the bloody shootout during an intense Parkour chase (what else?), and manages to reach her uncle in Chicago, to whom she swears that she'll become a hit-man and avenge her family. Fast-forward and enter Zoe Saldana as adult Cataleya as the rest of the film takes place, strangely enough, in 2007. With her uncle's help, Cataleya has indeed grown up to be an awesomely skilled contract killer, having performed 22 jobs in 4 years. However, she signs each of her kills with a message destined for her real prey, making her one of the FBI's most wanted. When the FBI decides to divulge her "serial killer" status, Don Luis and his men know what's up, and all hell breaks loose.

Much has been said of the film's similarity with Besson's Léon and Nikita, with many people musing that the film could just have well have been a sequel to Léon with Natalie Portman's character all grown-up and kicking butt.  Colombiana is really your typical, run-of-the-mill Besson action production, which is really not a bad thing. It is not in the top-tier of action films but still it's an entertaining romp.