Tercer Grado (Geoffrey Cowper, 2015):Spain

Reviewed by Felix Palmqvist, Santa Barbara, 2016. Antioch University SBFF Screening.

This is the first Spanish film I have ever seen. You could tell they didn’t have the biggest budget to do this film, but it was still good for being a minor production. It had great action scenes, felt almost like an american production at some moments. The style of it wasn’t very European in my opinion. A lot of transportation shots though, I felt like it was not really necessary to tell the story, but they were driving in nice environment so I guess it was okay.

Director of the film is Geoffrey Cowper, was actually at the screening and talked to us after the screening at Antioch University. It was interesting to hear how the whole crew had put in money from their own pocket to pay for the production and then travel the world and attend film festivals, It is a really is a gamble.

It starts of like a hangover film, worn out sweaty Spanish looking man wakes up outside of a car on an empty gravel parking lot in the blazing Spain heat, his name is Mark Rodriguez. He takes a sit in the car where you soon realize what just happened when you see empty wine bottles and a girl climbing out from the backseat. They seemed like strangers and he was really arrogant to her while they were driving back to the civilization. While dropping her off he decides to park the car and follow the girl in to her work, a bar, in a mall. He sits down for a coke, when he is on the way back to his car two guys with masks appears and starts shooting and steals a two bags of money from a transportation of valuables. He then takes off after the robbers to steal the money from them, since his brother just got evicted and Mark hasn’t been the best brother he figures it is worth the risk. The next 24 hours turns into a adventure of blood, sweat and tears.

Good VFX in the action scenes, but otherwise was the cinematography nothing really special. It was a yellowish color of the film, to emphasise the heat of a Spanish summer.
Some scenes remained me of the film Drive, 2011 by Nicolas Winding. Guess the long driving scenes and the mirror shots in the car was similar.

So if you like movies like Drive and Gone in 60 seconds you will like this one. Action packed, but with emotional moments, good guy doing bad things for good reasons. Car chases, shoot outs and hot romantic scenes. This is the film for you.