La belva (2020)

La belva: Directed by Ludovico Di Martino. With Fabrizio Gifuni, Lino Musella, Monica Piseddu, Andrea Pennacchi. An unstable veteran tries to rescue his kidnapped daughter and unleashes the beast within himself during his quest. He quickly becomes suspected himself.

“La Belva is a stylishly-made-but-ultimately-generic actioner with a father-saves-daughter plot thatu0026#39;s been done to death. Leonida Riva is an ex-army veteran suffering from PTSD and has partially disconnected himself from his wife and children. When his little daughter gets kidnapped, he revives the beast inside of him to get her back. A film that goes the u0026#39;Takenu0026#39; route with slightly more layered characters, La Belvau0026#39;s strength lies in its set-pieces. Though thereu0026#39;s nothing we havenu0026#39;t already seen, thereu0026#39;s some beauty in the staging of a car chase or a good olu0026#39; fashioned fist-fight.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs in the case of action thrillers, fallacies (Riva infiltrates places with ease) in continuity and logic are conveniently ignored. The climactic finale gets over even before it begins; the weakest of all. Fabrizio Gifuniu0026#39;s rugged, tough-man act is befitting the filmu0026#39;s plot, while the rest of the cast is adequate. La Belva offers nothing new to the genre, but as an action-movie fanatic, it didnu0026#39;t put me to sleep either.”