Mo Ali’s tale of revenge delivers a knockout blow
Edited by London Live TV reporter @tobyontv
Since 1991 Johnny Utah from Point Break has stood alone with the best moniker that’s also the name of an American state; there is now real competition from the Londoner in this thriller, even if he doesn’t do much skydiving or surfing.
Montana is the name of a teenager set for revenge, McKell David playing a young gang member framed for a crime but rescued by a grizzled Serbian commando hunting the murderer of his family. What a Serbian commando, too, the Borgen star Lars Mikkelsen an efficient and ruthless machine who recognises the young man’s anger, tutoring him in the ways of war.
Luc Besson’s genrebusting Leon is the obvious influence, and Eighties kids will spot shades of Rutger Hauer’s Blind Fury, too, as this odd-couple pair slash their way through the East End in search of justice. Director Mo Ali even throws in a homage to David Cronenberg’s slippery Eastern Promises sauna massacre in a thriller that has ambition and no little élan.