Explosive
Summary
Counterattack AKA Counterstrike is an action packed 85 minutes with a fantastic final shoot-out and a fast pace making this an easy watch.
Plot: When a Mexican Army officer saves two hostages, he and his team of special agents find a graveside full of cartel victims — making their squad the target of a drug cartel leader who’ll stop at nothing to silence them.
Review: Netflix are knocking it out of the park lately in terms of International action films; with the Lost Bullet Trilogy and now Counterstrike AKA Counterattack.
This is an 85-minute-long Mexican movie which is pretty much constant action as a group of soldiers face off against some cartel members with a grudge after a kidnapping is foiled.
Despite the brisk runtime I really got to like and care about our heroes with Luis Alberti playing the honorable Capitán Guerrero who can’t turn away when he sees injustice occurring. My favourite character was the sniper Pollo (Luis Curiel) who looks about 12 years old, but is a total badass with a heart of gold.
Noé Hernández makes for a ruthless villain called Josefo out for revenge against the soldiers and we hate him every moment he’s on screen.
In terms of flaws I guess a last stand story is hardly anything new, but Counterstrike is executed so well with a climactic shoot-out climaxing in a final fight between the Captain and Josefo.
Due to the short runtime there isn’t an ounce of fat keeping things tightly paced and intense where we wonder if the team will get out alive. There isn’t anything that makes this hard to believe and it paints a scary picture of what life dealing with the cartels is like where life is cheap.
Overall, Counterattack/Counterstrike is a riveting 85 minutes with near constant action and a huge bodycount making this one of the better recent offerings on Netflix.