A Dark Foe – Movie Review (1/5)

A DARK FOE is the new crime thriller by father-daughter duo Oscar Cardenas and Maria Gabriela Cardenas. Oscar Cardenas also stars in the movie, and that probably wasn’t the best idea. However, Selma Blair is also in it and she’s fierce! Read our full A Dark Foe movie review here!

A DARK FOE is a crime thriller that rolls out all the tropes and stereotypes, you can imagine. This is the kind of movie that works perfectly for a drinking game or as some form of absurdly dark comedy. As a thriller, it doesn’t work for me. At all.

Mostly, I blame the fact that Oscar Cardenas stars in this and over-acts in ways I would have never thought possible. And I do also blame the screenplay with its downright silly storyline as well. It has moments where it works, but immediately after a “good moment” something weird happens again to throw you off.

Continue reading our A Dark Foe movie review below.

You could watch it for Selma Blair

To be fair, Selma Blair doesn’t exactly get much to work with either, but she still improves every scene she’s in. The woman is fierce and while her character is also over-the-top, she can pull it off.

Overall, this movie has so many cringe-worthy moments that it was difficult to get through. Also, the excitement and intensity – which is something a crime thriller should always bring to the table – is non-existent.

Oscar Cardenas as the star is like watching an 80s version of Jean Claude Van Damme playing the same character today. It just does not work. Everything is so stereotypical and he just does not work as the heartthrob action star/hero for me. Not in the least!

Plenty of action movies have male leads that can play their age perfectly. Watching Oscar Cardenas in A Dark Foe is a study on how not to do it!

You can watch A Dark Foe On-Demand

As mentioned earlier, A Dark Foe was created by the father-daughter duo Oscar Cardenas and Maria Gabriela Cardenas. The director is Maria Gabriela Cardenas and the screenplay was written by both Maria Gabriela Cardenas and her father Oscar Cardenas, who plays the all-important lead character.

ANOTHER MOVIE WITH THE SAME ISSUES

Read our review of the worst Neil Marshall’s movie which stars the co-writer, his girlfriend >

Simply put: This duo is in desperate need of some outside help from people who are not “yes men”. There is a huge need to work on what is famously called “Kill your darling”. The story needs a lot of fat to be trimmed. Also, the lead characters should be written differently (more realistic and age appropriate) or someone else should have been cast.

This movie is not as bad as Neil Marshall’s The Reckoning (not much is!), but is it by no means good either. The fake beard Oscar Cardenas wears in way too many scenes early on, is enough to break the illusion of any realism. In other words, we’re off to a bad start, but on to some good moments. Just not with a good overall story!

A DARK FOE is out on demand from July 30, 2021.

Details

Director: Maria Gabriela Cardenas
Writers: Maria Gabriela Cardenas, Oscar Cardenas
Stars: Oscar Cardenas, Selma Blair, Graham Greene, Kenzie Dalton, Bill Bellamy