Debt Collectors AKA The Debt Collector 2 (2020)

If I want to watch a film in which people are kicked in the face then I have some favourite people I like to see in the lead roles. There are obviously big names with big back catalogues (Chan, Yen, Li, etc), but I am less aware of people still putting out the kind of fare that used to make for a perfect weekend movie rental. Michael Jai White does a few, and does them well, but the current top dog is, in my view, Scott Adkins.

I remember quite enjoying The Debt Collector, a film that threw together Adkins and Louis Mandylor, but I didn’t love it. So I didn’t rush to watch this sequel when it first came out, and I was slightly bemused at how things would continue after the ending of the first film anyway. Thankfully, this was another solid Adkins vehicle, and I would say it is slightly better than the film preceding it.

French (Adkins) is now working as a bouncer, but he is getting in trouble for causing too much damage to the fixtures while dealing with violent drunks. One such encounter occurs on the same day that Sue (Mandylor) walks back into his life. Considering how their last “adventure” ended, French is understandably reticent to help Sue with some debts that he needs to collect within the next few days, but there’s the reward of a big payday at the end of it. 

Another film directed by Jesse V. Johnson, once again writing alongside Stu Small, this is an Adkins vehicle that feels as perfectly tailored to the star as any other film he’s been in. I can’t believe there was a time when I didn’t rate Johnson as someone worth your time, but he’s been slowly and surely delivering some of the best “back to basics” action movies over the past five years. His career stretches back way beyond that, but his earlier films seem to be missing that magic Adkins ingredient.

The leads work together even better than they did in the first movie, with Adkins now happy to bash heads together and get the job done as quickly as possible while Mandylor tries to now keep his own violence in the past. Our central pairing should be all you need, considering that most people they encounter end up on the wrong end of a beating, but there are also a couple of good cameo appearances from Martina Sirtis and Vernon Wells. Everyone else, good or bad (mainly bad), plays their part convincingly enough, but the film-makers know to stay close to Adkins and Mandylor, having them be friendly and antagonistic to one another in equal measure.

The fights may not be the absolute best from this director-actor combo, but they’re well done, the pacing is good, and the 97-minute runtime is pretty perfect. All in all, this is another winner for those involved. I won’t be so tardy if they make a third one.

7/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share

Netflix And Chill: Avengement (2019)

There are many films you could choose if you want to watch action star Scott Adkins kick people in the face. It's basically what he does best. I'd struggle to think of a film that is both as entertaining and brutal as Avengement though, which now holds the record for making me wince the most times in a 90-minute period.

Adkins is Cain Burgess, a man who has escaped from prison to settle a score against his brother (Craig Fairbrass) and the thugs who work for him. Cain is quite the sight to behold, his face covered in scars and his mouth full of metal dentures. He's been in prison for quite some time, and almost every day has seen him fighting for his life. Just what he did to end up there, and why he has had a big target on his back, is part of the backstory that we get when Cain locks himself in a pub with a group of men who work for his brother.

Directed by Jesse V. Johnson, who also helped to co-write the screenplay with Stu Small (a working relationship that has delivered a a good handful of other worthwhile Adkins movies), there's no better word to describe Avengement than savage. It's also bloody well put together, giving the main character a decent enough framework for a number of impressive set-pieces. Although it's often very grim, there's enough humour laced throughout to keep reminding viewers that it IS a piece of action entertainment.

Always ready to do whatever it takes in order to survive, Adkins is often animalistic in the lead role. The heavy scarring and change to his usual physical appearance, accompanied by a mood of absolutely no fucks given, have him making people nervous before he even throws a punch or a kick, and Adkins has fun in the role, revelling in playing someone so antagonistic and spoiling for the inevitable fights coming his way. Fairbrass is good in his role, playing someone who casts a long shadow over the film even when he's not onscreen. It's not really out of his comfort zone, but it's a good bit of casting. You also get Nick Moran, still ready to give attitude and plenty of chatter, even when it probably won't be good for his health, and there's a fun, nervy, turn from Thomas Turgoose, as well as Kierston Wareing's brassy barmaid who wouldn't look out of place working behind the bar of The Queen Vic. Mark Strange and Leo Gregory are also caught up in the violence, as are a number of actors who excel at portraying characters who could easily be named something like "tough nut #2".

In case you hadn't realised already, this is not for the faint-hearted. While the fights are largely a collection of the usual moves, there are some bursts of violence here that rank as some of the gnarliest I have ever seen, including an eye-watering, and graphic, riff on the horrendous curb sandwich. 

I'll finish with this warning, although it may be too late for many of you. If you like the sound of Avengement then try to see it before seeing the trailer, which reveals far too much. Okay, you don't choose a Scott Adkins vehicle for complex plotting and emotional nuance, but this certainly does a better job than most in creating just the right motivation for the main character, and delivering one of the scariest potential antiheroes in a long time.

8/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Netflix And Chill: Triple Threat (2019)

Sometimes you want to settle down to the sit and brilliance of the Coen brothers. Sometimes you want to dive back into a comforting horror favourite. Sometimes you have some laughs with Buster Keaton. Cinema is there for you, whatever you want to do. Even if you want to spend over half of your waking day with someone like Lav Diaz or Béla Tarr. And sometimes you just want to watch skilled people kick each other in the face. If you're in the mood for the latter, Triple Threat is an option for you.

Directed by Jesse V. Johnson (who has helmed a number of enjoyable action flicks, one of the best being Accident Man), this is the tale of some people with big guns raiding a prisoner encampment in Thailand to free prisoners. The mission is a cover, however, and the people actually want to free their criminal leader, Collins (Scott Adkins). Once free, his group are then out to kill Tian Xiao Xian (Celina Jade), a wealthy woman who wants to use her wealth to battle corruption and crime. One thing leads to another, enemies become allies, people are used as bait, and the film eventually becomes a battle between one team (Adkins, Michael Jai White, Michael Bisping, and Jeeja Yanin) and another (Xiao Xian, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, and Tiger Chen).

Based on an idea by Chen, developing a movie that didn't come to fruition, this was then written by Joey O'Bryan, with Fangjin Song, Jian Huang, Sheldon Pang, and Lei Yan all credited as co-writers, as well as some additional work from Paul Staheli, it's amazing to think a) that so many people worked on the script for this, and b) this was the best they could come up with. Because this is a mess in places, with the first half moving between flashbacks and different moments that have no feeling of just how much time has passed. What could have been a decent framework, with the opening salvo, betrayals, and seemingly fluid loyalties, is instead turned into something that feels burdensome to a film that should have stripped everything else back in favour of making the most of the action stars in the cast.

Thankfully, the action/fight scenes are worth your time. Jaa, Chen, and Uwais may be relative superstars to those who want full-on fights that look as if they were put together with blood, sweat, and tears, but Adkins and White are no layabouts, and both of them are easy favourites of mine when it comes to modern action movies of this ilk (both having great presence AND the appearance of being able to handle themselves against crowds of unwitting henchmen). Bisping and Yanin are the lesser-known names, but both do well, and Jade is perfectly okay as the woman who finds herself in the middle of an absolute maelstrom of gunfire and hand to hand combat.

The cast list alone will be enough to attract anyone hankering for some enjoyable action that goes a step or two beyond what you would see in most glossy blockbusters, and there's enough here to justify choosing this for a weekend watch. It's just a shame that the non-fight scenes are so bad. That's something you can say about many action movies, and it's something that action movie fans are happy to put up with while they are at least getting GREAT fights, but I still think that this particular assembled cast could have been better served by a script that figured out how to pack in even more stuntwork within a much flimsier connective storyline.

Good stuff, but feel free to ask anyone (including myself) for better films that feature any of these stars doing what they do best. I guarantee you that asking the right people will get you at least 20 recommendations of films much better than this. At least.

6/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share 

Netflix And Chill: The Debt Collector (2018)

It's a shame that the unrelenting march of technology also comes with a few downsides. There are the obvious issues, to do with identity, security, predators, and trolls. But there are some other things that it is easy to forget about. And one of those things is the relative dearth of the kind of movies that would appear "straight to video" and provide perfect, uncomplicated, entertainment for those in the right frame of mind. You have ninety minutes, you have food and/or snacks, and you want a bit of action. Most blockbusters nowadays tend towards the two-hour mark, even if you're getting your fix of fights from someone like Jason Statham or Dwayne Johnson, and there aren't many that aren't part of some ongoing franchise (be it the bigger titles you always see cropping up or the lesser titles that have more sequels than you knew about, such as The Scorpion King movies and The Marine series).

So take a moment to appreciate the ass-kicking skills of Scott Adkins, here teaming up once again with director Jesse V. Johnson to deliver the kind of solid action fare that perfectly scratches that itch you didn't realise you wanted help with.

Adkins is French, a martial artist struggling to make his business a financial success. To make himself some extra money, he gets a job as a debt collector. Paired up with a veteran of the job, Sue (Louis Mandylor), it's not long until French is being tested against a number of muscular guys who are employed to protect their bosses from any harm. Things get even worse when French and Sue are given a job that involves someone who has double-crossed a gangster boss named Barbosa (Tony Todd).

I'm not going to try and make this sound like any kind of masterpiece. It's a film developed to showcase some fight scenes for Adkins, nothing more and nothing less, and the fight scenes are very well shot, always being both entertaining and believably painful. The script, co-written by Johnson and Stu Small (who previously worked with both director and star on their previous outing, the even more enjoyable Accident Man), has enough amusing banter between Adkins and Mandylor, makes it clear that our hero has a slightly better calibrated moral compass, and sets everything up to be unleashed in a super-violent finale. Basically, it does everything you need it to do.

I'm not sure what exactly has held Adkins back slightly over the years, whether it's his delivery of dialogue or his past choices, but this could be his best role yet. It allows him to show a more well-rounded character than some of his other roles, and there are some good running gags with people lightly mocking him as they underestimate his combat skills. Mandylor works reasonably well alongside him, although the film does him a disservice by adding some backstory details that weren't really required, and Todd is very well-suited to his character, one who exudes an air of menace even from his first moments onscreen. Vladimir Kulich is fine, playing the boss of Adkins and Mandylor, and there's an all-too-small role for Michael Paré.

There are better action movies out there, there are better Adkins movies out there, but there isn't the range of these kinds of movies that we used to be able to find, so I recommend this one for those who want to encourage those involved to make more. You know what you're letting yourself in for, and you get exactly that.

6/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

Accident Man (2018)

If you look back through the filmography of director Jesse V. Johnson it doesn't really have anything that marks him out as someone you can rely on to deliver solid film fun. I might be being very unfair there, having not yet actually seen any of his other movies, but that's just how it is. But having now seen Accident Man, and enjoyed it, I may have to give some of his earlier movies a shot.

I decided to give this a go because of Scott Adkins in the main role. Adkins is a decent action star and I hadn't seen him in anything for a while. And it was a Saturday night with nothing planned.

Mike Fallon (Adkins) is a contract killer who specialises in making the deaths look like accidents, or sometimes suicides. He works for a firm that also employs other killers, all with their particular styles (one uses poison, one generally just goes mental with an axe, etc), and all is going well enough until Fallon's ex-girlfriend is murdered. It was obviously a professional job, although made to look like a random burglary gone wrong, and Fallon can't contain his anger, which leads to him questioning the people who work alongside him. And when I say questioning them I actually mean fighting them until he finds out information that leads him to fight someone else.

Based on a comic book, with a screenplay co-written by Adkins and Stu Small, this is an unpretentious little film that should keep action movie fans delighted from start to finish. The humour of the material doesn't always work, which is the fault of both the script and the delivery of the dialogue, and you have to kiss goodbye to any idea of believability, but none of that matters when the fights are happening.

As well as our leading man, you also get Michael Jai White, Ray Park, Ross O'Hennessy, Amy Johnston, and Ray Stevenson all impressing with their physicality onscreen. The most impressive moments involve Adkins, White, and Park, but everyone has at least one decent moment, and Johnston stands out as the lone female who is more than a match for the men around her. There are also roles for David Paymer and Ashley Greene, as well as a cameo for Nick Moran, and they're all decent, if a lot less involved in the punching and kicking sequences.

Johnson doesn't really do much to take this up another notch, although I'm not sure how much more he could do when you consider the limitations of the leading man (Adkins has got the moves but he sometimes falters with other aspects of acting like . . . well . . . acting), but it's also worth noting that he doesn't do anything to ruin the whole experience. Sometimes that is more than enough.

Accident Man has quite a few faults, undeniably, but they're easy to overlook if you're looking specifically for the kind of violent entertainment that this absolutely delivers.

7/10

There's a DVD here.
Americans can get a Blu here.