Counterstrike emerges as a brisk, no-nonsense action thriller, pitting an elite Mexican commando unit—known as the Murcielagos—against a formidable cartel in a tense battle for survival. The plot unfolds when Captain Armando Guerrero and his team of hardened soldiers are thrust into an unexpected fight after their vacation is violently interrupted. What begins as a break from duty quickly turns into a desperate struggle for life as the soldiers are ambushed by the cartel, setting off a relentless chase across Mexico’s treacherous wilderness.

At the heart of this relentless survival tale is the film’s sharp, uncomplicated narrative, grounded firmly in the genre’s familiar action tropes: camaraderie among soldiers, relentless gunfights, and near-impossible odds. Counterstrike leans into these tropes, offering a streamlined, almost mechanical progression of action sequences, each more intense than the last. The stakes are clear—if the Murcielagos are to survive, they must...