Modus Operandi
February 29th, 2012 by chocko
Director: Frankie Latina
Starring: Randy Russell, Mark Borchardt and Danny Trejo
Genre: 70’s B-Movie, Exploitation Throwback
This film is by the young director Frankie Latina who clearly loves cinema especially grindhouse movies, blaxploitation films and Italian giallo. The movie has a lo-fi look, was shot on Super 8 mm and switches frequently from color to black & white. Each scene is provocative and carefully shot with lots of attention to detail. I got a kick out of seeing old gadgets (clunky outdated phones and top-loading VCRs!), sleek classic cars and drop dead gorgeous girls in various states of undress. If babes in bikinis firing off weapons is your thing, you’ve come to the right place. Just to balance things out, there is some male frontal nudity thrown in the mix.
There is so much genre mixing and crazy stuff going on in the movie that the plot seems to take a backseat at times. The movie tells the story of a CIA black-ops specialist Stanley Cashay (Randy Russell) who goes into retirement after his wife is murdered. Before drinking himself into oblivion, Cashay is called back on a mission to retrieve two briefcases stolen from the President. Cashay enlists the help of some fellow agents including a Tokyo badass named Black Licorice to help retrieve the cases with the mysterious content. In exchange for the briefcases, Cashay gets the identity of the killer who murdered his wife. Throw in the scene-stealing Danny Trejo in a white tux and you’ve got yourself a film with a lethal mix of bloody violence, betrayal, torture and mayhem.
Director Frank Latina shot most of the movie in his hometown of Milwaukee and took nearly five years to complete. Some of my favorite scenes include a character named Dallas Deacon (Mark Borchardt) being chased by a helicopter in an open field…no doubt in homage to “North By Northwest.” Seeing Black Licorice walk the streets of Tokyo was ultra cool. I also enjoyed the commercial for a fake TV show featuring the Bombay assassin, Ayesha Ayesha. More of her please! The showdown near the end is not to be missed…strippers, guns and nunchucks!
The DVD just got released. It’s got lots of bonus features including deleted scenes, interviews, audio commentary and an introduction by Sasha Grey who will appear in a forthcoming film by Latina. Check out the trailer below. You’ll know right away if this movie is for you!
Tags: danny trejo, frankie latina, modus operandi, movie, review, sasha grey
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