{"id":31106,"date":"2019-05-03T17:04:23","date_gmt":"2019-05-03T21:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=31106"},"modified":"2019-05-03T17:04:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T21:04:23","slug":"el-chicano-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/03\/el-chicano-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"El Chicano (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>During the first half of \u201cEl Chicano\u201d main character Diego is going through his brother\u2019s belongings remembering him before he died, and flips through a couple of \u201cDaredevil\u201d comic books. That\u2019s basically the head space that Director Ben Hernandez Bray is in during his crime thriller superhero movie \u201cEl Chicano.\u201d Essentially, \u201cEl Chicano\u201d is an urban superhero with heaps of potential to be the next big avenger against drug dealers and gangsters. A mix of \u201cDaredevil,\u201d \u201cThe Phantom,\u201d and \u201cBatman,\u201d Ben Hernandez Bray\u2019s action thriller is admirably ambitious and fun.<\/p>\n

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Young L.A.P.D. Detective Diego Hernandez is assigned a career-making case investigating a vicious cartel. While digging in to a potential gangster uprising, he uncovers links to his brother’s supposed suicide and a turf battle that’s about to swallow his neighborhood and over throw the police. Torn between playing by the book and seeking vigilante justice, he resurrects the masked street legend \u201cEl Chicano\u201d who is known by many as the boogeyman. Now, out to take down his childhood friend turned gang boss, he sets off a bloody war to defend his city and avenge his brother’s murder.<\/p>\n

One thing you can\u2019t fault Ben Hernandez Ray for is the ambitious obvious work of love he brings to life on the big screen. His primarily minority cast help convey a lot of the resonant themes he aims for, as \u201cEl Chicano\u201d falls between a genuine crime thriller and a superhero picture. Much in the way \u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d aimed to be a Batman tale set in the crime world, \u201cEl Chicano\u201d is essentially a tale of legacy and fighting for justice set in a world filled with drugs, gangsters, and poverty. I don\u2019t entirely know if the film itself had to be almost two and a half hours in length, but \u201cEl Chicano\u201d works as an engrossing crime and gangster picture setting Diego down in a mystery that begins to mount the deeper he digs in to the case.<\/p>\n

Director and writer Hernandez Ray delves in to the mysticism of Mexican American culture, while also implementing a wonderful cast of Mexican American actors. This includes Marco Rodriguez, and Raul Castillo as Diego Hernandez, the film\u2019s noble officer turned masked avenger. I especially enjoyed George Lopez as Captain Gomez, the films answer to Commissioner Gordon. The pacing of \u201cEl Chicano\u201d is measured in that it builds on the world that created El Chicano, and explores how much the city needs him. At two and a half hours, though, I wish we\u2019d seen so much more about El Chicano and learned a lot more about his legacy. How many more El Chicanos have there been?<\/p>\n

How does he lurk about without being detected? Does he have any other weaponry? For a film that unfolds a quite engrossing crime mystery, I think director Hernandez Ray could have given us so much more time with Diego donning the mask of El Chicano and becoming the avenger of his neighborhood. \u201cEl Chicano\u201d ends no a note that implies there is a sequel or series in the works, but I just don\u2019t think there\u2019s enough of the hero doing what he does so well, especially for something that prides itself in being a Latino superhero film. That said, \u201cEl Chicano\u201d is a strong superhero film that I had a very good time with.<\/p>\n

Though long in the tooth, Ben Hernandez Ray dares to work outside the more fantastic elements currently embraced, and works more at a ground level down to Earth crime thriller we haven\u2019t seen since Nolan\u2019s Batman trilogy. I hope we get more of this character soon because I definitely want to see more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the first half of \u201cEl Chicano\u201d main character Diego is going through his brother\u2019s belongings remembering him before he died, and flips through a couple of \u201cDaredevil\u201d comic books. That\u2019s basically the head space that Director Ben Hernandez Bray is in during his crime thriller superhero movie \u201cEl Chicano.\u201d Essentially, \u201cEl Chicano\u201d is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,71,240,302,391,631,703,840,1087],"class_list":["post-31106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adventure","tag-crime","tag-drama","tag-gangster","tag-martial-arts","tag-mystery","tag-revenge","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31108,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31106\/revisions\/31108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}