Avengement

I don't understand how it's possible that a guy who has made eleven bad movies, fucks up best cast action movie of all time and then makes gems like Accident Man and Avengement! Anyway, Scott Adkins is in fine form and stars in his best film in a while. A revenge, gangster and prison action flick all in one is a great combo. The fights are gritty, brutal and properly raw (the beat-up of the entire prison and the final pub fight are the best). I also enjoyed the wisecracks. Good stuff. A B-movie of a different kind! 80% (27/06/2019)

The walking, talking special effect known as Scott Adkins is not only keeping the sector of trashy, low-budget action flicks alive, but also repeatedly demonstrates that with the appropriate ambitions and physically fit actors, furious attractions can be created that the big-budget sector can’t match with its CGI colouring books. Furthermore, it is obvious from each of his collaborations with Jesse V. Johnson that Adkins, as co-producer, is building up a portfolio of unique acting parts and challenges with which he compensates for portrayal of generic parts in projects that he does mainly as a job. Avengement is the peak of this collaboration not only in terms of Adkins’s role, but also in terms of the screenplay and choreography, as well as the overall stylistic concept of the fight scenes. Instead of the spectacular acrobatics of Adkins’s previous top projects, here we have an unrefined, brawling style superbly combined with a coarse, loutish paraphrase of The Count Monte Cristo from the British underworld. Though it is merely the culmination of this whole brutally physical movie, the closing fight scene deservedly ranks among the best fight sequences of the decade. (05/01/2021)

The most ambitious Adkins so far. European stylization with an irresistible central melody reminiscent European gangster and crime films with Belmondo from the 1960s and 70, and a direct homage to Morricone's "Chi Mai", all combined with typically gritty British humour and an overall concept that is strikingly reminiscent of the work of Guy Ritchie and his ilk. The action is decent for a low-budget film, properly gritty in places as only Adkins's form will allow. The flashback from prison and the final pub brawl are also good. One of the few films from the king of action B-movies that offers a bit more than just kicks and punches of all kinds. (23/07/2020)

I had previously categorized Scott Adkins as a second-rate actor who appears in films that are generally not worth mentioning. However, in recent years, he has been committing to interesting projects (it's a shame his Batman role didn’t pan out—I could definitely see him as the Dark Knight) and has shown that he genuinely possesses some acting talent. Last year, he appeared in Accident Man, which managed to entertain sufficiently over its 90 minutes, and now he’s come up with a solid action film centered on revenge. It sounds cliché, but the film doesn’t try to be more than it actually is, so that didn’t bother me at all. You can tell at every turn that the budget wasn’t lavish, that some actors overact, and that there aren’t any truly impressive twists... On the other hand, the story moves along quickly, the fight choreography was surprisingly well-crafted, and Adkins clearly enjoyed the leading role. I also enjoyed the flashbacks that revealed parts of the story not immediately clear to the viewer, and by the end, all the pieces fit together, creating a B-movie puzzle that was amusing and light-hearted. In the end, I didn’t regret choosing this film. I give it 70%. (19/08/2019)