Wednesday, July 11, 2018

8.

Pit & his wild 90’s-looking motorcycle gang have arrived to his hometown in Mexico from all the way from Los Angeles. Pit has come back to claim everything that is supposed to be his. He feels this strong entitlement to everything because his father just so happens to be a local powerful politician, whom is away traveling all over Europe. What Pit wants more than just the entire town is a girl named Paola (Stephanie Salas). Paola was once his girlfriend but left her behind when he headed out to LA. Now that he’s back, he wants her again, but she’s with someone new and this guy is a good ol' med student named Efren (Ernesto Rivas). When Efren and Paola get married, they’re attacked and Paola is taken away by Pit’s gang and leave Efren to die in his truck. Efren luckily survives the attack and wants his beloved bride back. With the help of a local cop (Manuel Ojeda) who hates Pit and his family, Efren is trained to fight Pit and his gang.


8 Malditos (aka "The Damned Eight") plays out like something that would of been made in the late 60’s to early 70’s. There's a motorcycle gang, has excessive use of drugs & alcohol, is set in a small town, there's someone out for revenge, etc. That kind of stuff, ya know? Then of course our leading lady is held hostage by the gang and starts to become a part of them by drinking and listening to cheesy rock stock music. How groovy sounding, right? Yes!

Eduardo Yáñez playing Pit was perfect because I couldn’t see anyone else play such a complete dick of a bad guy. Eduardo knows how to play these kinds of characters perfectly! Pit is spoiled, privileged and thinks he’s cool because he rides a motorcycle and wears an ugly tasseled jacket. Pit’s gang are very interesting aesthetically. They wear ripped denim, wear chains & studded leather and one of the guys carries an old skateboard around and he's called "Snoopy". Pit’s 2nd in command of the gang is a girl called “Black” (played by Paola Santoni) and she is fine as hell. Fine as hell and pretty damn evil just as Pit is. She tells Pit a few times throughout the movie “what’s yours is also mine”. She clearly wants Paola for herself as well!


8 Malditos is a fun watch. I was lucky to catch it on TV a few years ago and was genuinely surprised by it. Sure it’s corny and not very well acted at times, but it’s fun overall with its colorful characters terrorizing a small Mexican town with their motorcycles, acts of violence and excessive use of drugs & alcohol. A fun watch for a lazy afternoon at home. 5/10.