An average movie

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this flick but I thought it could be a decent action flick. At first, it might sound like yet another sequel or spin-off to ‘The Fast and the Furious’ franchise, especially since Dwayne Johnson was playing the main character but, eventually, it didn’t have anything to do with the rejuvenated franchise. Surprisingly, Georges Tillman Jr., the director, made this movie as an homage to the action films from the 70’ s but, personally, I thought it was more a throwback to those 80’s revenge action flicks starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone or one of those guys. The problem is that, nowadays, successful commercial features are either book adaptations with an already established fan base, super-hero flicks, or yet another sequel to a well known franchise. Anyway, basically nobody is really looking for such action movies, except if they include a dozen of action veterans. So, personally, I wasn’t blown away by the whole thing but I think it was still a decent action flick. Indeed, I enjoyed the slick directing by Georges Tillman Jr., for someone who made only dramas so far, he shows a flair for the action scenes. Dwayne Johnson was not bad, and looked pretty menacing but he basically looked pissed off during the whole thing and it became a little bit ridiculous after a while. Furthermore, there were many characters, many sub-plots and it is was probably too much to handle for this action flick. The most striking sub-plot was the one involving a contract killer. Indeed, this story was intriguing but it was either too weird or too underdeveloped to become really compelling. Finally, the whole thing about the tough guy seeking revenge has already been done to death and the makers didn’t add anything really new or interesting to the formula. Still, it remains a rather entertaining feature and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

6/10