A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
The biggest mistake the marketing for “El Chicano” makes, is misguiding the viewers into thinking the movie is one genre, but upon actually viewing the film, it flips that misrepresentation and then lets you believe it is something completely different. So what is the final result? A mixed bag that never really knows what it is or where it stands. The trailer implies gang wars in East L.A. but the first half of the movie exudes an almost supernatural tone that I personally wish the filmmakers had gone with instead.
“El Chicano” has been around for decades and is a masked vigilante who fights against neighborhood gangs and the violence they inflict on the citizens of East L.A. As little boys, Diego (Raúl Castillo) and his brother Pedro and their friend Shotgun (David Castañeda), witnessed El Chicano kill Shotgun’s father as he was known as a particularly bad guy who liked to inflict pain on others. As the three boys grow up, their lives all follow different paths. Diego joined the police force, Pedro started his own gang, and Shotgun, like Pedro, became the head of a large gang that was more menacing than his father’s.
Regarded by his superiors as one of the top detectives in East L.A., Diego is brought in on a big case by his boss, Captain Gomez (George Lopez). Apparently, all of Shotgun’s gang were murdered, except one, Shadow (Emilio Rivera), and he is not talking. When Diego questions him, he shows him a tattoo on his arm, it is the date of his and his brother Pedro’s birthday. Shadow then refuses to say any more. While Diego and his partner, Detective Martinez (Jose Pablo Cantillo), are transferring Shadow to prison, he informs Diego that his brother Pedro did not kill himself, which is what had been reported years earlier but that someone had him killed. Before he can say any more, a sniper shoots Shadow dead.
As Diego begins to investigate his late brother, a man who, apparently, after he got out of prison, changed his ways and left his gang, he uncovers an old storage room of his with a hidden room in the back. In it is the motorcycle and mask that belonged to El Chicano. Clearly, the time Pedro spent in prison changed him and he wanted to rid his neighborhood of all the violence that surrounded him and his brother growing up but was killed before he had a chance to don the outfit.
When Diego and Martinez ascertain that a war is brewing, one that will bring the biggest Mexican drug cartel to East L.A. and that they are in alliance with Shotgun to rid his neighborhood of every other gang, they try to inform Captain Martinez but they are shot at and chased and in the ensuing chaos, Martinez succumbs to his wounds and dies in Pedro’s arms. With El Chicano’s bike, mask and bulletproof outfit lying idly in storage, Diego decides to suit up, and take on Shotgun’s new army in a fight to the death.
The action scenes are uninspiring and director Ben Hernandez Bray takes a page out of director Paul Greengrass’s book and decides to shoot all the fight scenes and car chases in extreme handheld close-up so if you’ve seen the last three Jason Bourne movies, you know exactly what I’m referring to. For the most part, director Bray shoots his movie utilizing stable shots which allows the audience to see exactly what is transpiring onscreen but once any element of action is introduced, the static shots are dispensed with and we are thrown headfirst, into “Blair Witch” territory, as the camera swooshes left and right, and up and down, never giving you a clear understanding of what it is we are supposed to be watching.
While Raúl Castillo, Jose Pablo Cantillo, and George Lopez are fine in their respective roles, everyone else is given so little screen time, you wonder why they’re even in the film in the first place. Had the filmmakers chosen to show El Chicano as a supernatural presence, much like Brandon Lee’s “The Crow,” who can be summoned by people in times of need, I think the film would have fared much better. Instead, what we get is another clichéd, gang-vs-gang shoot-em-up in the hood, filled with lackluster performances and some heavy-handed character exposition, all which amount to nothing more than a shameless set-up for Part 2.
In theaters Friday, May 3rd
