TRACERS (2015)

Tracers (2015)
Directed by: Daniel Benmayor
Written by: Kevin Lund, Matt Johnson, T.J. Scott
Starring: Adam Rayner, Josh Yadon, Luciano Acuna Jr., Marie Avgeropoulos, Rafi Gavron, Taylor Lautner

TRACERS (2015)
Directed by Daniel Benmayor

Cycle courier Cam is struggling to make ends meet. Living in a rented garage and owing thousands of dollars to a loan shark he unfortunately found himself borrowing money from, he needs his job more than ever. After his bicycle is accidentally destroyed after a run in with a free-runner named Nikki, he finds himself drawn to the young woman and the underground parkour movement. When she replaces his bike with a new one, he seeks her out and begins to train in parkour to join her close-knit free-running group. After discovering the group, led by Miller, use their skills as criminal couriers, Cam opts to join their lucrative venture but once he’s joined the crew, he realises it’ll be even harder to leave it.

TRACERS is a fresh, exciting, action-packed dramatic thriller starring Taylor Lautner as protagonist Cam. Cam is a likable young man who finds common ground with the free-running group of orphans taken under the wing of Miller. Finally feeling as though he fits in and having a soft spot for the mysterious lone female of the group, Nikki, Cam sees the free-running lifestyle and the lucrative career it brings him will be just what he needs to pay off the Chinese loan sharks that are constantly hounding him. Being an athletic young man, he soons gets to grip with scaling buildings and leaping over obstacles which puts him in good stead for manoeuvring around a building unnoticed to perform the special courier service required from him and the parkour crew. Despite being welcomed into the fold, he can’t help but suspect secrets are still being kept from him as the danger level of the workload increases.

If you’re a fan of the likes of Point Break or extreme sports, then you’ll probably, like me, enjoy what TRACERS has to offer. It’s non-stop action with youngsters leaping off buildings, swinging around stairwells and all other manner of tricks that I could only dream of performing. What makes it better is that most of the cast are doing their own stunts with several experienced parkour professionals employed in some of the main roles too. Taylor Lautner, in particular, impresses with his breathtaking ability and completely stunned me in his role as Cam where he performs all his own stunts. Forget Twilight and rom-coms, Lautner’s future is action movies. Not only has he the physical presence to tackle any obstacle that comes his way with such dynamic athleticism, but his likability and acting-chops make him a star you can invest in and I truly hope he seeks a route that will follow in Jason Statham’s footsteps and then some. The full-throttle action scenes starring him and co-stars Marie Avgeropoulos (Nikki), Adam Raynor (Miller), Rafi Gavron (Dylan), Luciano Acuna Jr (Tate) and Josh Yadon (Jax) are exhilerating and the film very rarely comes up for air. Whilst there is a similarity to Point Break, TRACERS concentrates on the fast-paced parkour action rather than the drama.

TRACERS is just the breath of fresh air I was looking for. It’s exciting to watch and there’s never a dull moment. Whilst the story could have been developed a bit better in terms of Miller and his crew, it doesn’t ruin the film one bit because the action is where it’s at. Without a doubt, we need more of these movies but well done to TRACERS for being a film of its own with its own plotline for the viewer to get involved with.

A genuinely thrilling piece of cinema.

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