“Maybe I don’t wanna come back.”

Josh’s rating: A night at the pub with the boys gone wrong.

Josh’s review: Avengement is a weirdly titled action movie that almost plays like a bottle episode of a very violent television series. “Hey, remember that time I chopped that guy’s hand off?” *Flashback* “Yeah, that was great.”

Scott Adkins plays Cain — a little on the nose — a man who is out to get bloody revenge on his brother (Craig Fairbrass) who done him wrong. The beginning finds him escaping from prison custody while on a field trip to visit his dying mother. He makes his way to a pub that is the epicenter of his brother’s illicit business dealings. There he takes a group thugs hostage and regales them with his story while they wait for his bother to arrive.

Adkins is in peak form, and there is no shortage of shots where he is whipping up on people sans shirt. His kicks whip around at face level, his punches are fast and thunderous, and he moves like a wild animal. This is very impressive considering he was 43 at the time of release in 2019. I can’t squat down to pick up anything that my pre-arthritic hands have fumbled without my knees crackling like pop rocks in soda… and I am younger.

The choreography in Avengement is brutal. The whole thing plays like one long violent bar brawl between rival biker gangs (I may have piqued Drake’s interest there). Nothing fancy here, just knuckle up and bash some skulls. Action scenes are quick and effective. You can really feel some of the blows landing and some, what I am going to call “fatalities,” had me reacting with a quick inhalation and an audible “ohh.” Also much appreciated were the practical blood effects even if they were excessive in some instances.

There isn’t anything particularly new here in regards to story. I did say his name was Cain, so you can find similar tales from at least a couple thousand years back. That being said, there is a certain comfort in well worn archetypes and in the case of this type of action movie they are just a medium in which the fun bits are suspended.

I am unfamiliar with writer/director Jesse Johnson’s work, but looking though his filmography, a pattern certainly becomes clear. He is a regular collaborator with Scott Adkins as well as other action stars working today. He also has a strong stunt background, and I do love seeing a working man make it.

Overall, this is an entertaining hour-and-a-half wherein no one involved is going to be up for an Oscar but everyone is on the same page as to what they are making. Thank you to Jesse Johnson for keeping the straight to video action movie trend from my childhood going.

Intermission!

• This coat actually looks pretty cozy.
• Yikes, the curb stomp is still effective so many years after American History X.
• I say we cast Scott Adkins as this character in the next Bond movie and call it Son of Jaws.
• He still left his brother with more money in his account than me.