Director: Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah
Writer: Nabil Ben Yadir, Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah, Bram Renders, Kobe Van Steenberghe, Hendrick Verthe (Screenplay)
Starring: Matteo Simoni, Nora Charib, Said Boumazoughe, Junes Lazaar
Plot: Antwerp. The lives of four dealer friends, who want to become real life swaggers, spins out of control when they steal a shipment of cocaine. They trigger a full out war between them, an Amsterdam drug lord and the ruthless Colombian cartels.
Runtime: 2 Hours 5 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Fun Twist on the Gangster Genre
Story: Gangsta starts as we meet Adamo (Simoni) a half Italian half Moroccan man growing up in Antwerp with his three best friends, Junes (Lazaar), Volt (Boumazoughe) and Badia (Gharib), the four do everything together and believe in the gangster way of life.
Adamo gets the first break working on trafficking cocaine from Morocco to Antwerp and he brings his friends along for this first chance to shine only for things to get out of hand when the coke goes missing and the friends become targets for the dealers.
Thoughts on Gangsta
Characters – Adamo is the leader of the four he can get the contacts to the drug underworld, which he does showing his confidence walking into that world. he knows how to use his team the best and wants them to have a future outside of the small neighbourhood. Badia is the kick ass of the group, she has studied every Jean-Claude Van Damme movie and will hurt anyone that touches her or her friends. Volt is the loose cannon that is hyper active which can only cause problems as the story unfolds. While Junes completes the gang believe he is all style when fighting. We do get the drug supplies, the bigger deals and the dirty cops to deal with through the film that complete the line up of character like we would expect to see.
Performances – The cast do a good job, with Matteo Simoni in the leading role making us believe his wild ambition to be a gangster. Nora Gharib does look like the badass when it comes to the fighting scenes, she seems to make the biggest impact, the rest of the cast are good through the film embracing their characters well.
Story – The story follows four want to be gangsters as they take their first steps into the deadly world of drugs and soon find enemies as they bring a drug war down on their city. Where this story can stand out from other gangster movies, is by having the film broken down into the chapters of the seven deadly sins which is important to Adamo’s beliefs. Outside this we see the story unfold in the traditional method of everything getting out of hand quicker than the crew can manage and we even get a false ending to trick you into thinking the credits are rolling.
Crime – The crime we enter is one the gang want to be part of only to find themselves left in the world they can’t handle when the drug war comes to them.
Settings – The film is set in Antwerp which beings us a new setting for the drug war because we have seen one on in the places around the locations the characters are coming from.
Scene of the Movie – The final shoot out.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Failing to use Babia in the final act when we could have seen how deadly she could be.
Final Thoughts – This is a gangster film with its own style which is one that you will remember, it uses the deadly sins to show how the crime world can be for the people involved.
Overall: Fun stylish gangster flick
Rating
