jcappy Two superior, non-pretentious performances make "Box 507" striking and memorable. Rafael Mazas (Jose Coronado) and Modesto Pardos (Antonio Resines) represent two distinct lives, one is an ex-cop mobster, the other a bank officer. Their lives are parallel and determinedly related but they barely touch. This is no "High Noon" . What we have in "Box" is a corrupt, corporate masculine world in which violence spirals out of control, and a civil world where law can still be used to obtain justice.Now the ex-cop's murderous rampage does pose a problem both for viewers and for the film itself. Some viewers may want to skip it, others may watch it reluctantly, and others will scoff at this. My own take is that if the director, Enrique Urbizu, had chosen to half the body count, this film would be a near classic. What makes this call harder is that it's an unusual combo of convincing characterization so typical in French films, and of a disturbing gratuitous violence so typical of Hollywood.What we can say about Coronado's portrayal of a mob affiliate is that it bears no resemblance to Clint Eastwood or Chuck Norris. His masculinity is not one-dimensional, nor bound to other men, nor polemical, nor is it aligned with patriotism. He's neither a man among men, nor a male imitator. If money and power are his driving force and if he's armed to the teeth, men and their games are far more dispensable to him than his love for his partner Monica Vega(Goya Toledo). But what brings out the worst--and best, in this man is an inescapable life and death crisis which is suddenly thrust at him. Unimaginable, unforeseen, and unlucky forces combine not only to test his very fiber, but seem to collude to block and frustrate his most compelling and riveting moves. Given this, his convincing physicality, his unrattled nerve, and his severe determination, are no less than magnetic. But perhaps it is this solitary heroism that seed his suicidal mission. Or perhaps it's the big heat taking its reckoning on his bad cop past, or the maddening quality of enduring severe frustrations. No matter the causes, we know that as his crisis deepens, his violence escalates into sadism and murder. Yes, his execution blitz may take down only the guilty, but there's no doubt about his ruthlessness, or his lost control. Even the hoist gang tremble at his lacerating cruelty. Only when captured by mob goons does he regain himself, proclaiming his lover as a victim of injustice, and demanding that he himself be immediately shot. The bank officer's motivation is not revenge, but rather justice--for a murdered daughter and a nearly murdered wife. He enacts his parallel commitment as a novice private investigator. Armed with nothing more than incriminating documents, and a determination that matches that of the ex-cop, he confronts equally dangerous situations and connections. Beyond his courage, and his pedestrian heroism, what is most rare about him is his unswerving love for his wife and his daughter. In fact, for Modesto Pardos combined love and justice underwrite his incredible persistence. He visits his comatose wife daily, reporting to her his progress, encouraging her in healing words, and reminding her of both her certain recovery and his equally certain legal victory. (The unpretentiousness here and its lack of conventionality is quite remarkable.) This reminds of one clear distinction between the Resines and Coronado characters. Pardos rejects his own interests and, in his risk ridden struggle, refuses to purge his feelings. That he never resorts to violence and rage, and instead relies on cunning, complex planning, and a kind of bold integrity, speaks of a control and competence informed as much by passion as on any fixation with scoring a victory. And that emotion goes beyond the lives of his wife and daughter to all those affected by the fires and land seizures. These people also drive his urgent research, and his pressing need to outsmart and outmaneuver the powerful controlling forces that cause pain and suffering. He takes the criminality as deadly serious because he takes its victims in a deadly serious way. When the two men are finally paired, they're the centrals stars of the mob's revenge, occupying their rooms of slaughter, with bleeding corpses strewn about them. The most dignified and loving thing for Razas to do, given his Monica's bloody corpse a few feet away, is to be shot down. The most dignified and loving thing for Pardos to do, given his wife is recovering, is to turn his back and walk out the door. Neither man deviates from his own script. For the viewers, the connection between the two protagonists might seem closer than it does to them, and ditto for the two women in their lives, who stand in for the civic notion in a deranged male world.

Marcelino Plaza A thriller with a finely carried plot that keeps the viewer's interest alive throughout, no mean feat, yet not the kind of plot one expects from mainstream Spanish films (or even European ones, the plot would more than suitably fit a Humphrey Bogart-starred American movie). To me, the main flaw is the main character's (portrayed by the customarily excellent Antonio Resines) moral inconsistency. He starts his crusade out of outrage for hitting by chance on the real cause of his teenage daughter's death, but ends up being no better than the thugs he seeks to punish by accepting money from them in order to keep his mouth shut. It may be argued that he does so in order to secure not being killed by the gangsters in question but to me that in turn begs question and shows him as being no better than them. The high morals that the scriptwriters lead you to believe at first as the main propeller in the man's behaviour, by the end of the film have just vanished into thin air!

Steve (BDPI) Spoilers alert: there is no way to state the plot of this movie without at least one spoiler, so you can either watch it for the first time without reading this (which I recommend), or read on anyway.Antonio Resines stars as the father of a girl who he had thought died in an accidental forest fire. Once he wakes up (alone) after he is locked in the safety-deposit vault of his bank after being bound and drugged, he accidentally sees some documents. These documents reveal to him, the manager of the bank whose safety-deposit boxes were robbed, that the fire was caused to bring down property values due to the stigma of a young girl dying there.So, he ties loose ends, and sets out for justice against all that were involved in the nasty plot. Oh, in case you read on without having seen the movie I have good news: I left enough out for you to watch and enjoy thoroughly.A well-directed and acted movie, it is a prime example of the sort of quality film Spain produces on a regular basis. So, I obviously recommend it.

silentkiko Great tension. Great actors. great script. a delicious film. maybe it´s the spanish "HEAT". I think the Coronado´s role is the bad guy of the year. Very nice!