Rating: C
Dir: Elliott Montello.
Star: Scott Adkins, Vinnie Jones, Nicole Deon, Mark Strange.
Weirdly, the basic premise here is similar to a Korean film I saw recently, 2024’s Revolver. In both, the protagonist gets out of prison after being the scapegoat for a group of criminals, and sets about obtaining, by any means necessary, the money they were promised before their incarceration. Not to say this is a knock-off. There are significant differences, not the least being that in the Asian version, the hero – heroine, actually – is a corrupt cop rather than an armed robber. It also takes things seriously, in line with classic Korean revenge movies like Oldboy or Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. This is much more a comedy. Albeit with a running joke about prison raped.
Devon (Adkins) is the patsy here, abandoned by his colleagues to take the fall. He spent five years in prison as a result, harbouring a grudge and learning how to defend himself. After he gets out, he goes to visit the gang leader, only to find him dead on the floor, with a young woman, Kimber (Deon), standing over the bloody corpse. Given the circumstances, everyone thinks Devon is responsible, so he is forced on the run with Kimber, while he locates the other members of the gang. They tend to end up dead as well, courtesy of Kimber, while the real power behind the crime, Trent (Jones), looks to tidy up the loose end Devon represents, mostly through former prisonmate, Bishop (Strange).
It might have been amusing, had Kimber been Trent’s assassin, taking people out in ways which don’t look deliberate. That would also have been a nod to Adkins’ Accident Man franchise. However, such a concept would be far too subtle for this, which is very definitely from the blunt instrument school of action comedies. This means a lot of yelling and bonka-bonka. As you’d expect, the action is good with Adkins and Strange facing off on a number of occasions to fine effect. But it’s the stuff between the fights where the film struggles. Adkins might also be the best actor here, or at least is giving his best, making us care for a man who simply wants to visit California.
Jones, in comparison, seems to be phoning his role in. To be fair, the extent of the characterization he gets from the script, is that his wife yells at him. Meanwhile, Deon is mostly irritating, and doesn’t serve any particular purpose – perhaps to defuse the gay not-very-subtext about Devon. Had the hero actually been gay, that would have been an interesting wrinkle: again, too much to expect from the writer here. Instead, it’s all particularly English, not least the heavy use of grime on the soundtrack. There’s a reason that musical genre hasn’t escaped the UK. Feels like the makers were going for a distillation of Guy Ritchie-ness, only for the end result to be more pastiche than anything.
This review is part of Project Adkins, covering the movies of Scott Adkins.