Ernesto Diaz Espinoza has a penchant for good action in B-movies. The writer-director-editor has made his mark in the genre with movies like of The Fist of the Condor and others, and Diablo is his latest installment. Scott Adkins is an action star in his own right, so the two are a match, with Adkins pitted against his John Wick 4 castmate Marko Zaror. Sadly, Diablo is not a special B-movie, but it is one with great fights.
When Kris (Adkins) is smuggled over the border, he thinks he is free until the smugglers immediately try and rob him. But Kris is an ex-con who shouldn’t be taken lightly, and he dispatches them to set out on a quest. Things get murky when Kris kidnaps a gangster’s daughter. The ruthless ᴀssᴀssin, El Corvo (Marko Zaror) also wants to hurt the gangster’s family and doesn’t care if Kris is in the way.
For all its flaws, Adkins and the action are undeniable.
The production value of Diablo is something to behold. The sets are almost totally practical, and the outdoor scenes are at times gorgeous. The lack of stunt work means a lot of Diablo can take place in the daylight. As a result, the punches are clean and the blood spatter is bright red. I’m not sure exactly when, but at some point, most action movies’ action scenes started taking place only at night. Thankfully, Diablo does not succumb to that temptation.
Adkins is no stranger to movies like Diablo. He has essentially made a career out of Steven Seagal’s late-career playbook. It doesn’t matter if the movies are good, audiences come to see him kick ᴀss. And Diablo is no exception. For all its flaws, Adkins and the action are undeniable. And while I won’t be handing out any flowers to the script Adkins helped pen, there is an experience level that is on display in terms of action sequences.
Diablo’s Action Is The Film’s Main Appeal
In Diablo, Adkins and Espinoza show off their skills in every fight. Action sequences should have a beginning, middle, and end. And they should feel as engaging on a story level as they are on a bone-breaking level. Look no further than the second action sequence in Diablo for an example of this. Kris wants to kidnap a child in a secure vehicle, posing as a window washer. This exact idea appears in numerous contemporary action flicks.
But the smallest tweak can make the biggest difference. In any other movie, the driver would at some point roll down the window or open the door to confront the man and unknowingly give him an opening. But in reality, we would ignore the man staying in the car and just drive off when the light turns green. Instead, Kris throws away the pretense and eventually destroys the driver’s mirror, forcing him out of the car and into a confrontation. Very little about Diablo is realistic, but practically everything about the action is.
While Adkins keeps the action alive, Zaror keeps the acting alive. It’s not that he’s doing anything special, but his combination of talent and fighting is hard to ignore. Zaror played the protagonist in Espinoza’s last film, Fist of the Condor, and the two are high school buddies. However, as the villain in Diablo, he is far more effective. Zaror isn’t perfect, but there is a case to be made that his is the best performance in the film. He undoubtedly keeps the movie in a place of palatable entertainment.
Ultimately, though, Diablo is a forgettable action flick. Hollywood is littered with such films, but they will always have a special place in my heart. This action movie is never elevated but always comforting, and there is skill in that. The performance by Zaror is notable, and Adkins has been playing the same character in similar movies for years. But Espinoza does seem to be getting better with time, and if he were ever given the keys to a wide theatrical release or a star like Jason Statham, he might just make something that more audiences will like.
Diablo is streaming now. The film is 91 minutes and rated R.
