Review of Unit 7 (2012) by Al M — 29 Sep 2013

Unit 7 has a tough assignment: to clean the most dangerous drug trafficking networks out of Seville and bring an end to the corrosive power that has taken hold of the streets. A detail of four, the unit is led by Ángel (Mario Casas), a young officer aspiring to detective, and Rafael (Antonio de la Torre), a violent, arrogant yet efficient cop. But unit 7's modus operandi is slipping outside the bounds of the law through their use of violence, coercion, lies and half-truths. For them, anything goes. As they gain ground in their mission, the two officers head in opposite directions. Angel takes de path of ambition and police excesses while Rafael will begin to change as a result of his feelings for a young homeless girl...

"Unit 7" ("Grupo 7") is a cliché driven and standard formula cop thriller. Despite the general fact that it´s an ok thriller/action movie set in Seville leading up to Expo 92, I couldn´t shake the fact that the makers of this film seems to have had "Copthrillers for dummies" in their lap when they made this, as "Unit 7" has such an A-Z standard structure with a mishmash of every cop thriller that has come out the US the past 30 years. Thus, I felt that "Unit 7" adds absolutely nothing new in the genre as everything in the movie have been seen and done before. I´m kind of surprised the film was nominated for 16 Goya Awards in 2012. Nah, this is really nothing special as I hoped for.