Leo

Leo starts with the same premise of one of my favorite films from one of my favorite years of movies. Joseph Vijay stars as a shop owner who defends his cafe against armed intruders. News of the event, however, brings out even more trouble. First we get the wave of violence from the dead robbers' friends and family which only draws more attention to the reclusive Parthiban. This brings the attention of a criminal empire who believes this local hero to be a mass murderer known as Leo.

Despite all the similarities to A History of Violence, Leo is a bit of a mess. It's inconsistent CGI gives the film a cheap look at times that matches the screenplay for an over-the-top B-movie action film with Parthiban mowing down legions of baddies in the style of Steven Seagal or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Oddly mixed in are some musical numbers, a family drama with is impossible to take seriously given the tone of the film, and a subplot about Parthiban being an animal handler for the film's initial action scene involving a spotted hyena threatening a school.

Also problematic is how the film handles the truth about Leo/Parthiban which it holds onto long after the audience has made up its mind. As a result, it's less a reveal than simply an admission to what we already know. As you would expect, the police are completely ineffective in this sort of B-movie, leaving Parthiban alone in protecting his family, which makes the oddity of holding Parthiban over for trial after his first set of kills (but never again) that much more bizarre in a subplot that only bloats the running time of the film even more. A 164-minute B-movie, Leo delivers its share of action and crazy sequences, offering a glut of spectacle while overcomplicating its rather straightforward premise to the point some may struggle to make it all the way through for its questionable payoff.

Watch the trailer

• Title: Leo
• IMDb: link