Colombiana

I got to see Colombiana during my Christmas break and what an unexpected treat this film was. Unfortunately, the title of the movie is uninspired, and I don't remember seeing this film advertise anywhere, which is a shame because it really is a good solid action film. Sometimes the lack of publicity or the wrong kind can kill a film. Which is a shame because this really is an entertaining film. It has some great choreography in its fight scenes and the acting is pretty good. If you like a good action film, then you should rent Colombiana.

Cataleya is a ten-year-old girl whose life suddenly changes when she sees her parents get gunned down by a drug gang. She uses the information that her father gave her moments before his demise to get a passport out of Columbia into the United States. She finds the brother of her mother and asks him to teach her to be a killer. He agrees but only if she goes to school so that she can be a smart killer. Fast-forward fifteen years, and we find our young girl has become a first rate assassin. She leaves a tag on her kills (the orchid she is named for a Cataleya) and the FBI dubs her the Tag Killer. After trying to crack the case of her 22-tagged kills for two years, the FBI finally release information about her to the press. They hope this will help them gain some information about their mysterious killer's identity. This was Cataleya's goal all along as she hopes this will flush out the location of the drug lord, Don Luis. She aims to kill him and all his men in retaliation for what he has done to her family. Will she get her revenge on Don Luis or will it cost her everything she has built for herself? You will have to watch the movie to find out if her scheme is successful or if it costs her, her family, life and boyfriend.

This movie had some great visual effects with some very nice elaborately choreographed fight scenes. It also had some great explosions. They did a great job with the action scenes as a whole. The plot was also solidly written. The premise holds up okay, and her assassinations were thought out and interesting.

The acting was good too. Zoe Saldana plays our lady assassin, Cataleya. She does a fantastic job with the acting. She is very believable, you can see her as the assassin as well as the girl who is trying to decide whether or not she wants to continue with her path of revenge. You can see the struggle on her face as she considers her life and what she has done with it and what it has cost her. She seems to transition into the action sequences well. She is very athletic or so it seems. You might remember Zoe from her roles in Avatar (she was Neytiri) or from Star Trek (Uhura). Jordi Molia is Marco, the man who was supposed to kill her as a 10-year-old whose job it is to take care of her now. Lennie James plays the FBI agent who is after the Tag Killer. He does a decent job of your basic FBI agent role. Michael Vartan (of Hawthrone and Alias fame) is the nice, cute boyfriend, who is caught in the middle. He does this role well as seems to be his favorite role to play. Cliff Curtis plays the adoptive Father (brother to her mother we think) to Cataleya. He supports her goal of revenge to a point but tries to get her to see that sometimes revenge is not worth it. He does a good job in his role. And Beto Benites shows up in a couple of scenes to play Don Luis, the drug lord that Cataleya wants to kill. Zoe Saldana was excellent in the film and everyone else did a solid job of acting.

Overall, Colombiana, was a real surprise. I thought it would be a B rate action film with more cleavage and bang than plot. I was wrong. It was a solidly written, acted and choreographed film. I was glad that I got a chance to see it. I really enjoyed it.