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AVENGEMENT
Director: Jesse V. Johnson Cast: Scott Adkins, Craig Fairbrass, Thomas Turgoose, Nick Moran, Kierston Wareing, Leo Gregory, Beau Fowler, Louis Mandylor, Terence Maynard, Ross O'Hennessy, Daniel Adegboyega, Mark Strange, Jane Thorne MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:30 Release Date: 5/24/19 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | May 23, 2019 An escaped convict walks into a bar, but in this case, it's not a joke. Co-writer/director Jesse V. Johnson's Avengement does play out like a shaggy dog story, though, in which the convict, in front of a literally captive audience, details the events that transformed him into a hardened killer. Cain (Scott Adkins) wants revenge against the people who orchestrated his downfall. The ringleader is his brother Lincoln (Craig Fairbrass), who runs a criminal enterprise and convinced Cain to do a job that got him in a maximum-security prison. Through a lot of flashbacks, we gradually learn how Cain ended up in prison, was betrayed by his brother, beat up a whole bunch of fellow inmates, became a grotesquely scarred and metal-denture-wearing monster, and eventually wound up in this bar. It's not a particularly unique gimmick, but there is something amusing about the way Johnson and co-screenwriter Stu Small play the high stakes of the flashbacks against the mundane telling of this story to a bunch of Lincoln's goons. They have to go along for the ride because Cain has a shotgun pointed at them. Even so, they aren't exactly the most patient of audiences. Although the story of Cain's transformation is played with severity, all of this is primarily an excuse for a series of scenes of Cain fighting assorted opponents. There are definitely worse ways to contrive such a schematic, and Adkins, a professional martial artist, is as convincing in the change from naïve boxer to cold-blooded killer as he is in his fighting. The combat is brutal, bloody, and shot with an appreciation for the physicality on display. As Cain's story goes on and on, explaining details that we can figure out without the exposition and diving into a criminal conspiracy, we realize just how hollow all of this is. Cain later reveals a motive that's slightly more sympathetic than pure revenge, but it doesn't change the fact that we're just waiting for the final confrontation between Cain and his brother, as well as all those now-irritated goons. Avengement has the potential to offer up a deeper study of Cain's conversion, but the movie is more concerned with its narrative mechanics and constant fighting to go beneath the surface. It's a lot of grimy style and flash but almost no substance. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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