{"id":5463,"date":"2009-11-09T17:00:04","date_gmt":"2009-11-10T01:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=5463"},"modified":"2009-11-09T19:40:56","modified_gmt":"2009-11-10T03:40:56","slug":"modus-operandi-frankie-latina-2009-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=5463","title":{"rendered":"Modus Operandi (Frankie Latina, 2009): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Lea Encarnacion<\/a>. \u00a0Viewed at the Mann Chinese Theater 6 in Hollywood during the AFI Film Festival, 2009.<\/p>\n

\"ModusModus Operandi<\/em><\/a> is a funny and thrilling \u201870’s exploitation film about a CIA spy agent on a mission to find the murderer of his wife, set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. \u00a0Directed by Frankie Latina and featuring Mark Borchardt as Dallas Deacon, Randy Russell as Stanley Cashay, and Danny Trejo as Director Holiday (from Devil\u2019s Rejects, Grindhouse, Grand Theft Auto, Once Upon a Time in Mexico).\u00a0 I have never seen a blaxploitation film before (which, according to Wikipedia, refers to \u201c\u2018exploitation films from the \u201870s that targeted urban black people\u201d) and took a chance with seeing this film since the trailer looked different from all the other films and it made me curious.\u00a0 It stood out from the rest of the films I saw at the AFI Film Festival because of its low budget, art-house, underground, vintage and grainy look.\u00a0 The film was surprisingly interesting, exciting, bizarre, cheap, cheesy and hilarious.<\/p>\n

Stanley Cashay, a former CIA agent, is a drunk and balding middle aged bum who, after the murder of his wife, was about to shoot himself in despair in his small apartment, when he gets called by his old agency to duty.\u00a0 The task is to retrieve two briefcases that were stolen from Squire Parks, a presidential candidate.\u00a0 He calls for his two assistants, Black Licorice and Casey Thunderbird to help him, where they follow the briefcases to Tokyo, Taipei and back to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.\u00a0 In a bizarre shootout sequence, scenes full of scantily clad women, blood, guns and violence mash together, where numerous people are killed and the briefcases finally get back to the rightful owner. \u00a0But that\u2019s not the end, and Stanley Cashay’s plot for revenge leads to an outrageous and hilarious climax led by Director Holiday.<\/p>\n

The acting and special effects in this film are terrible, the humor is very gory (like Quentin Tarantino’s style), and the soundtrack is funky and whimsical like in 007 James Bond films. \u00a0The editing and cinematography is similar to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain. \u00a0The movie is very fast paced, which makes it exciting and fun to watch. \u00a0If you like Grindhouse or Pulp Fiction or Quentin Tarantino, there’s a good chance you’ll like this film.<\/p>\n

Director Frankie Latina said this film took four years to make because of money issues, and had about ten producers on and off.\u00a0 It is clear that he is passionate about this genre and told the audience at the AFI Film Festival that he grew up watching these kinds of films from his grandmother\u2019s living room on a shag rug.<\/p>\n

I would recommend this film to adults who are into movies like Grindhouse or Pulp Fiction or just Quentin Tarantino’s style and humor, and to those who don’t mind the ethically questionable, sexist and violent themes, and the hardcore exploitation and nudity that fill the whole film. \u00a0For me, it was worth seeing and definitely was one of the most entertaining films I saw at the festival.<\/p>\n

Modus Operandi\u00a0Trailer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Lea Encarnacion. \u00a0Viewed at the Mann Chinese Theater 6 in Hollywood during the AFI Film Festival, 2009. Modus Operandi is a funny and thrilling \u201870’s exploitation film about a CIA spy agent on a mission to find the murderer of his wife, set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. \u00a0Directed by Frankie Latina and featuring Mark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":618,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afi-filmfest-2009","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/618"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}