REVIEW: ‘Diablo’ Keeps The Mid-Budget Action Goodness Going

Diablo (2025) keeps the action flowing in 2025. This year is becoming the return of the mid-budget actioner, and to be honest, I’m here for it. From The Working Man to Fight or Flight, there is no shortage of films made that put action first, plot second, and lean all in on their leads. And for Marko Zaror, who was in last year’s The Killer’s Game and this year’s Fight or Flight, he’s in yet another film – only in Diablo (2025), he’s taking on the role of the film’s primary bad guy.

With Scott Adkins playing our hero, Kris Chaney, Diablo (2025) is directed by Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, and written by Mat Sansom, Espinoza, Adkins, and Zaror. Shot on location in Colombia, their film centers on Kris, an ex-con, who seizes the daughter (Alanna De La Rossa) of a Colombian gangster (Lucho Velasco) to fulfill a noble promise to the young girl’s mother. When her father enlists both the criminal underworld and a psychotic killer named “El Corvo” (Marko Zaror) to exact his revenge, Kris relies on everything he’s ever learned to stay alive and keep his word.

At its core, Diablo (2025) is anything but complicated. It’s a straightforward beat-em-up with one solid goal. Keep the girl safe and away from her gangster father. While the film does throw in more than a handful of novela-inspired twists, they only kind of land. That said, the film embraces camp and eccentric flair in that quintisential action way that makes you excited to see.

Diablo (2025) offers a kickboxing variant to an action cycle dominated by grappling.

Sure, El Corvo’s metal hand looks kind of bad, but when Zaror weilds it in combat, it’s entirely worth it. Diablo (2025) invests everything into setting up great action seuqences, story be damned. To be honest, though, that’s exactly what I want when I put on a film with Scott Adkins in it. He’s just good at what he does.

The best thing about Diablo (2025) is that both Scott Adkins, our hero, and Marko Zaror, our villain, are trained in similar martial arts techniques. While John Wick-style aikido and judo have taken over much of the action world with gun fu to boot, seeing a larger focus on kickboxing and how devastating it can be from extremely tall men is refreshing. Their fight sequences have impact, and the ADR effects for close-quarters fights are top-notch.

Where the story lacks or hits convoluted moments of melodrama, the action makes up for it. Where other films will lull between the action they’re trying to sell you and the story they’re hoping to tell, Diablo (2025) doesn’t waste too much time on the finer details. Sure, it makes the narrative slightly harder to track, but the action it devotes its time to instead is greatly propped up by it.

Scott Adkins and Marko Zaror are a perfect duo to watch fight it out.

As more action films get picked up for North American distribution, I only know I want more Marko Zaror and Scott Adkins teaming up. Or, well beating the crap out of each other. And if we take the film’s ending to mean anything, maybe we’ll get to see them again in this world. Still, no matter what, Diablo is well worth the time spent watching it. The film scratches that action itch, and I can’t wait for another one from either of its leads.

With Zaror already being in what we called “the best action movie of the year” in our review for Fight or Flight, seeing Adkins and him fight it out is extremely refreshing. Not only that, but it also shows that mid-budget martial arts films still have a place at the heart of action cinema, and not everything has to be connected to John Wick or starring Tom Cruise.

Diablo (2025) is what you want your actioner to be. It’s loud, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and its hero and villain work perfectly off each other. While Adkins has led other international films, and Zaror has become a constant in American action bad guys, seeing the two lead a film of their own keeps the future for actioners bright.

Diablo (2025) is streaming now on Prime Video and Video On Demand.