Centauro (Netflix) is a faithful remake of a 2017 French-Belgian action thriller called Burn Out, so while the action moves to Barcelona, the setup is the same. When a budding superbike racer’s ex is threatened by a gang of Colombian drug-runners, he becomes a high-speed courier to pay off her debt. Centauro stars Alex Monner as the would-be superbiker in over his head; Monner plays Felipe on Netflix’s racy Spanish teen thriller Elite.
The Gist: When we first meet Rafa (Alex Monner), he’s walking determinedly through the pits at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, past the berths of well-funded superbike teams to his lone, self-maintained Kawasaki Ninja. He’s an independent, and that determines his hunger on the track. When his bike blows a gasket with two laps to go, Rafa’s ready to chalk it up to bad luck and move on. But team owner Regina (Patricia Vico) notices his tenacity, and offers him a tryout.
This could be the break that allows Rafa to quit his job as a cargo loader down at the Barcelona port, and finally prove to his ex Natalia (Begoña Vargas) that he’s worthy of a relationship with her and their young son Mateo (Abraham Perez). Sure, at his domicile, the kitchen and bedroom share space with his superbike and unruly piles of tools and solvent barrels. But Regina’s offering him a real future on the track.
Trouble throws a torque wrench into Rafa’s hopes when Natalia is leaned on by a crew of cartel-affiliated dealers working in Barcelona. The drugs she was stashing for them were stolen, and if she doesn’t pay back the difference…well, Rafa pledges to confront Carlos (Edgar Vittorino) and Boro (Carlos Bardem) and reach a compromise, even if his buddy Cortes (Dollar Semouni), himself a low-level drug dealer, warns him off. “They’re sketchy, brother. Latinos. Colombian.” Rafa won’t be dissuaded, and just like that he’s in the back of Boro’s van on the way to Marseille, where he’ll pick up a packet of product and race back to Barcelona with the drug interdiction highway cops hot on his tail. If Rafa works for Carlos and Boro for two months, Natalia’s debt is paid and he’s free to go. Yeah, right.
