No Rest for the Wicked (2011) User Reviews

Good Spanish thriller with magnificent performance by the main cast and well directed

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 23 August 2012]

There is no man more dangerous than a man with facial hair and a shotgun , this is a lesson American learned in the 1970s thanks to Charles Bronson and Enrique Urbizu clearly never forgot and as he demonstrates it in ¨No Peace For The Wicked¨ (No Habra Paz Para Los Malvados) . It deals with a burned-out cop named Santos Trinidad becomes involved a triple murder but there is a witness that manages to getaway . Meantime, Judge Chacon (the singer Helena Miguel in his second acting) helped by Comisario Leiva (Juanjo Artero) are investigating the murders, but what seems to be a case of killing spree , actually is something far more dangerous . Santos attempts to eliminate clues but in the process , he uncovers an Islamist cell scheming diabolic plans .

The comeback of one of the most gripping Spanish film noir directors after an eight year absence . Urbizu is the director of No Peace For The Wicked (No Habra Paz Para Los Malvados), an upcoming 'tough cop with big gun' movie coming out of Spain . From start to finish action-packed , fast-paced ,thrills , emotion and suspense is continuous . It is one of the best noir film that have been realized in Spain, is a thriller that keeps you interested and expecting . José Coronado, Rodolfo Sancho, and Helena Miquel star in the sort of story we've seen many times before - a police inspector is part of a shootout that leaves three people dead and the suspect on the run, thereby casting suspicion on himself - but one that is always fun when executed with style and Urbizu certainly seems to have that. Jose Coronado is simply awesome , he steals the show as a veteran and violent police with dark secrets , furthermore a good support cast as Rodolfo Sancho, son of recently deceased Sancho Gracia and Pedro Mari Sanchez , an actor working from his childhood as well as Juanjo Artero of ¨Verano Azul¨. The motion picture was professionally directed by Enrique Urbizu . He is an expert on Thriller as proved in ¨Todo Por la Pasta¨, ¨Caja 507¨ and on comedy such as ¨Cuernos Mujer¨, ¨Como Ser Infeliz¨ and ¨Tu Novia esta Loca¨.

No Rest for the Wicked gained various winners for the 2012 Goya Awards , as the 26th Annual Goya Awards , presented by the Academia De las Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas De España (Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences), is "Spain's main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards ; it won : Director Enrique Urbizu ,Original Screenplay for Enrique Urbizu and Michel Gaztambide, and Adapted Screenplay . Rating : Good , a highly recommended picture , worthwhile seeing .

Good

[manitobaman81 · 7/10 · 18 August 2014]

A highly recommended film that fills more than expectations. A film that grabs you from start to finish. It is one of the best noir cinema that has been made in Spain, the kind of film that proves that a small story can be much more meaningful than a larger one. Jose Coronado is superb, cold, wild and credible. The cinematography is stark and bare, with only the soundtrack adding some effect. From an artistic standpoint, there were some plot elements and character developments I didn't think were totally needed. They do however drive the story, which seemed to be their purpose, so I can accept them. Nothing to laugh at. Heartfelt and riveting from the first frame to the last.

This Could Have Been Excellent

[leftbanker-1 · 6/10 · 9 June 2019]

We begin with a completely pointless and unmotivated massacre. While trying to tie up loose ends in the crime, we watch the cop following people and walking around a lot-not exactly an action-packed thriller. The pacing is nonexistent after the initial paroxysm of violence. A parallel investigation begins to uncover a sinister terrorist plot, that very coincidentally, ties in with the initial mass murder.

There are so many scenes of just watching nothing happen: the cop having a quick cubata in a bar, someone walking through the metro or down a street while the cop tails him. It's these dead areas of the film that sink it. The dialogue in parts is quite good. The scene when Santos in interrogated by the señoría (can't remember the title of the woman investigator) was excellent and showed a lot about his character as a tough guy not at all intimidated by whatever evidence she thinks she has against him.

With just a little bit of doing the writer could have made the initial murders less pointless and more related to the terrorism plot. It would have made a lot more sense, and this could have been an excellent movie.

The claims that this film is somehow racist because it portrays Muslim men as terrorists is simply absurd. The fact that the Spanish father is concerned about the well-being of his daughter who married a Muslim man and now she goes around covered up like a nun isn't some sort of outlandish fiction. It happens all the time. Muslim culture towards the treatment of women goes completely against the values we have fought for in the West.

Superb Spanish noir movie...

[Rabbit-Reviews · 10 February 2013]

I was just partially prepared for this gritty thriller, so I am warning you in time to get ready for it to maximize your enjoyment. This is another gut-buster coming to us from sunny Spain, in case you missed it the first one is Mientras Duermes, and this just goes to show you that no matter what Hollywood decides to do to cinema, there will be always other countries to step up. This vibrant noir movie is just too cool, and the reason for that is Santos Trinidad masterfully played by José Coronado. While the American take on your average alcoholic, corrupt and dangerous detective set the standards, Jose took it to another level with his believable acting, right appearance and that crazy look in his eyes is the thing that completes the whole image. These are the guys that you don't wanna see or have anything to do in real life, but secretly fantasize about being them or hanging out with them.

The director did not hold back, and once again we can enjoy in this glass of whiskey that is not watered down or with ice. The taste that this movie leaves is that one of bitterness of life, wrong choices and the those moments of perfect clarity where you can actually feel alive and meaningful. Just beautiful.... And gripping, from the beginning to the end, this movie will hold your attention and let it go just for brief moments that are to be used to light up another cigar or pour another shot of whiskey (well, I guess any alcohol will do). One more thing I found very interesting and that is that upon viewing this movie Sylvester Stallone immediately bought the rights and expressed desire to make an American version (with him in the lead role, no doubt)

Using the actual events of 2004 Madrid train bombings, No Rest for the Wicked further develops this story, from the eyes of one Santos Trinidad. Santos Trinidad is a bad man, a police detective who likes to drink, gamble, misuse his authority and all the fun things that we would do, if, of course, life was a video game. He comes alive at night and as an alcoholic vampire prowls the streets and strip clubs looking for trouble, life and death. One of those visits, will prove to be a very important one as he accidentally stumbles on something much, much bigger than the usual sleaze that you would expect in a nightclub. Not to reveal too much (again, but what can I do when the movie is that good...), I will leave you with this, enjoy this phenomenal movie...

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To Live and Die in Lavapiés

[Arthur_Desmond · 6/10 · 23 February 2012]

This film transits common places without having anything new to say except that it urgently wants to up the grittiness ante -- which, much to my annoyance, it seldom succeeded in doing. This is a film that desperately wants to pull all stops in bleakness and wholesale desperation, and in filmmaking the last thing you should do is having the audience notice your intentions beforehand. A project of this sort demanded a director with more guts and nothing to lose and Urbizu doesn't seem to be the man.

Coronado's job is excellent but it cannot rescue this film on its own from a comfortable zone of correct mediocrity. His fatalistic mien, coupled with a devil-may-care nihilism and a teeming rage which his character makes little effort in choking back, makes him altogether a train wreck waiting to happen.

And happen it does, but the rest of the film falls short of his performance. Urbizu's style still needs a lot of polishing. Dialogues still seem forced and theatrical to the point of haphazard, totally at odds with the naturalistic tone his protagonists demand. Supporting characters are either poorly developed or handed out to the wrong actors: Juanjo Artero just switches the automatic pilot on his TV police procedural role, and Helena Miquel may be a very good singer but is totally out of place in a "serious" film project such as this.

The film's middle part is protracted to the point of boredom. It ends up leaving more things unexplained than it should care to, and eventually sacrifices whatever interest the audience might have for the characters in the altar of narrative sparsity. It does throw the barbs at institutional incompetence we would expect considering its subject matter, but the tameness with which it does betrays the overall bitterness deliberately pursued by the project.

The terrorist subplot is omnipresent though not overbearing; it is, however, ostensibly calculated to give the film the extra mileage worth of "cinema vérité" bleakness and tragic tone which character development alone seemed unable to achieve. In that respect, it seems aimed at boosting the film's appeal to the audience, and as such it verges on the exploitative. From the artistic point of view, Urbizu didn't need such a cheap ancillary plot device, but I understand it will pay off for him commercially.

Way More Complicated than it Needs to Be

[fatcat-73450 · 6/10 · 12 October 2021]

The bare-bones premise is interesting: a drunk is having a bad night and kills some people in a seedy bar but one witness manages to escape. The rest of the movie involves the killer going after the guy and the police trying to figure out who committed the original crime on scant clues.

But that's not really the film you're watching, because it has plot complications stacked upon backstory stacked upon character introductions stacked on plot complications. It's a police thriller, it's a mafia movie, it's about international intrigue.

In short, this is a meter-high club sandwich of a plot, with the writer trying to cram as many action movie plots into one two-hour film as possible. If you lose your concentration for more than a few minutes you'll get lost and you'll have to start all over again.

That puts a damper on the impact of this work.

Many have praised Coronado's portrayal as the film's lead antihero (Santos), but I wonder how much of that comes down to just casting and costume. The guy just looks like a sleazebag in his black clothes and oily long hair. I'm not quite sure he's the next Anton Chighur who would have made the character believable even with normal clothes and a comic haircut.

For me, the standout performance was the portrayal of the female investigating judge, who came off as both stern and mysterious.

Competently directed and the story was fresh, but the it would have been more interesting had it not been so labirynthine.

Honourable Mentions: Torrente: El Brazo Tonto de la Ley (1998). Let's face it, Santos might be tough and determined, but he's also dumb (yeah, going into bars late at night with a gun and getting extremely drunk when you know you're prone to murderous outburts is dumb), moody, corrupt, and of disheveled appearance, much like Torrente.

Wow what a film

[glyndapper · 10/10 · 3 February 2021]

What a great film if somewhat dark but thats what makes it real must watch

Prententious police procedural film, with deep racist undertones

[marcopesqueira · 3/10 · 31 March 2012]

This film has won the most important awards given by the Spanish film industry, the Goyas, for best film, best director and best main actor(among others). I had great expectations when I got the DVD. However, once the opening scene is over, the film becomes a dull and confusing chase between the main character, the psychotic policeman Santos Trinidad, and his nemesis the instruction judge Chacón and the straight policeman Leiva. There are too many characters to be remembered and the inclusion of the 2004 Madrid bombings plot is too accurate to the point of resulting vaguely ridiculous. The worse part of the film for me was the absolute lack of understanding of why this man behaves as he does, other than been an alcoholic and a loner. This character has been widely praised here, but to me is a completely flat , unidimensional rendering of a supposedly complex human being. No redeeming features at all, miles away from the Javier Bardem character in No country for old men , for instance. The idea that all immigrants in Spain are basically whores, drug traffickers, radical Islamic militants or terrorists is deeply unsettling. I doubt that this film would have found financing in France, the UK or the US, as it is basically highlighting a reactionary message of incompetence of the democratic institutions ( the law and order represented by the instruction judge and the clean policeman) to act against rampant drug trafficking, Islamic terrorism, and police corruption. To avoid disaster, we are only left to luck. I have already mentioned how poor is the Jose Coronado acting, but he is excellent compared to other crew members. Juanjo Artero is a very popular TV actor in Spain, whose rendition on his character is awful even by his own standards (there is a TV series here named El Barco, the boat, where he is the main character, wonderful laughing stock). The former young heartthrob Pedro Mari Sanchez comes back as the fat, spectacled and corrupt superintendent from the anti-terrorist unit. Age has changed him , but his acting skills remain extremely limited. Same goes to the female instruction judge, a beautiful but rigid and stiffened young woman called Helena Miguel. Perhaps she might be luckier next time if she gets the chance. In summary, a overpraised police film based on a confusing plot, unbelievable characters and terrible acting. I would mention that the general atmosphere of suburban contemporary Spain is well drawn. But the deep message of this superficial film is certainly very unsavory.

A cerebral and absolutely original thriller

[abisio · 1 November 2011]

This movie is so good; that I will start with the bad things. The only reason I did not give this movie a 10/10 is because somewhere in the middle, the pace slows down and drags for about 10 minutes. I assume the director was aware but wanted this in order to set up a particular mood. In my opinion he could get there another ways, achieving the same effect.

The story is different from what you usually expect. A very drunken cop in what apparently is a personal crisis, kills three people in a moment of rage; but a witness gets away. As the victims are from Colombia, the case is related to drugs and an ambitious judge tries to get to the bottom of the issue which soon is also linked to terrorism. In the meantime, our drunken cop is dealing with his internal demons while looking for the witness that can recognize him and avoiding the judge (and his companions) to relate him with the crime.

Jose Coronado plays Trinidad. He is almost every scene in the movie. He is so good and his presence so strong that when he is not in the scene, is like something is missing. He is not a good person but we are never clear if he really is bad. We get glimpses of his past but never a clear account of what happened. It is to the viewers to figure it out and make the proper judgments.

The rest of the cast is not bad but no character has a deeper development than Trinidad so they are all just secondary characters within his tale.

This is not the American thriller. There is no redemption, not even a will on doing a good deed. This is a tale of survival within a society and a justice system which is just a big mess. The action is located in Spain but could apply to USA and in many other countries.

Actually very good - If Dirty Harry had gone to the Dark side

[twridge · 9/10 · 26 January 2024]

Thought was very good - easy subtitles to follow - This actor, very good , was playing the really amoral dark side of a Dirty Harry character , builds to very intense story - very straightforward and ironic - Spoiler - he commits crime in synopsis and tries to find the one witness that escaped - The straight arrow other police in movie fully concentrating on the murder crime looking for the shooter -while he lone wolfs it looking for that witness of his crime to finish the coverup , the witness , it turns out is leader of jihadist terror cell planning big terror bombing in Madrid at the malls / train stations /dept stores etc - very scary and intense .....and he is only one that can stop it by chance -will he be a hero for the wrong reason , but still a hero ?.

A very tedious film

[newjersian · 2/10 · 9 May 2019]

It starts with a bloody crime scene that apparently has no motive and no meaning. And then for almost two hours we are watching somebody walking and walking and crawling on the screen. Half an hour into the movie you beg for it to end. Absolutely preposterous and pointless film. If you skip it, you lose nothing but save two hours of your life.

A deeply unsatisfying movie with no real purpose

[pinkybanana2000 · 3/10 · 25 November 2013]

One day, a drunken police officer callously guns down two bartenders who refuse to serve him any more alcohol because he was already drunk. He does this after showing them his badge. One of them manages to get away.

No real explanation is given at that time why he goes around killing people who would not let him have more alcohol. Later on, it is explained that he might have some psychiatric problems, though nobody is sure why he is then allowed to continue on the force, particularly after it is alleged that, prior to this, other persons may have been killed or seriously wounded by him.

The movies then plods on, slowly and confusingly while this crooked officer searches for the witness ostensibly with the aim of removing him. At this point, it is brilliant why this witness did not just go to the police and ID him. It is because the witness was himself involved in illegal activity. Why not continue on this predictable path is beyond me. For some strange reason, the movies veers into an unnecessarily complicated direction, multiple characters introduced and disposed of without explanation.

Thereupon, it stumbles onto right-wing red meat territory. There are Arab terrorists bent on blowing up people on the streets to protest the upcoming G-20 summit. The connection is tenuous, at best. First of all, it is like Arabs have nothing better to do but go around blowing up people. Secondly, G-20 summits don't usually attract Arabs. It is the domain of young people fighting inequality. But no matter. The silliness continues to where this cop stumbles upon the bombing plot, and kills three of the terrorists.

Movies have plot twists all the time. The best of them challenge you or leave you in amazement because you don't see them coming. This one is a gratuitous shot at an easy target. In the end we are left with this unsatisfying feeling that a murderous cop is a hero because he gunned down the would-be terrorists.

This confused maelstrom of a movie won awards alright because it panders to a predictable constituency. Much like fast food makes money even though there is no real nutrition, just sweeteners.

Spanish noir at its peak

[searchanddestroy-1 · 19 July 2015]

What could I add more than the other users have already done? They told everything about this authentic gem from Spain, dark, bleak, violent, speaking of a brutal, borderline cop for whom the audience may although feel empathy, no matter the evil side of this character. The first sequences of the killing in the bar are astounding. I won't repeat the scheme, but this could have pleased to Olivier Marchal, William Friedkin or David Ayer. The brutal cop character reminds me the film SHIELD FOR MURDER, starring Edmond O'Brien, made by Howard Koch in the fifties. In the future, I will watch out for further films from this director

I agree with the reviewer with header "A very tedious film"

[jpeschka · 4/10 · 25 March 2020]

And it is, tedious. I'm over an hour and twenty minutes in to the movie and I'm going to have to stop and give up. Technically it was fine, the acting was good, but the storyline, wow! The bad cop is trying to chase someone down for an hour, going from bar to bar, house to apartment! He talks to no one during the film so I had no idea what he was really doing and why. I seriously learned nothing about the plot other than what I had learned five minutes in. I feel nothing but disgust for the main character and there is no one to root for. I quit.