La Clave 7

Rating:
Summary: Bring me the music
Review: Big Boss Pedro runs the drug business in town and owns the important cops. An "incorruptible" colonel from the "national state" (don't ask me) comes down with the muscle and will to take him out. LA CLAVE 7, or Code 7, authorizes the colonel to "totally eliminate the objective (Big Boss Pedro) and witnesses."
Jorge Reynoso directs and stars as the Big Boss. It's his directorial debut, but he has almost 200 films to his credit as an actor and I imagine he's a familiar face to Mexican audiences. He's certainly the best thing about this run-of-the-mill thriller. He has a certain bullish strength to him. The rest of the actors run the gamut from despicable to awful.
LA CLAVE 7 is the second Mexican production I've seen recently and it's the second one that is dotted with musical numbers - in bars, at the kingpin's poolside, etc. Perhaps it's a local tradition. They oddest musical insertion occurs during one of the kingpin's opponents wake. Amid the sobbing women and glowering men a character says "Don Lupe sent his music group. You know how Tomas loved music..." Omp-pah-pah, omp-pah-pah.
Surprisingly, there's a sequel to this movie that again stars Reynoso. Since his character took about twenty pounds of leads in the penultimate scene it's hard to imagine how the screenwriters managed it.