Recoil.

Okay, so Stone Cold Christmas kinda started on a low note...but this film is definitely more like it. Enjoy.

Recoil came out this year and went straight to DVD and that is basically all I know about this film. There is never much about these kinds of films on the internet. Although the coach who was Barnes' former rival in Knockout is in this and gets murdered by Austin's new character Ryan Varrett, I liked pretending that this was Barnes getting revenge for Matthew for all the times the coach let Hector cheat. Okay, let's get on with the actual review...

One of the most difficult aspects of reviewing Recoil is deciding how much shit is acceptable to swallow. Recoil is a throwback 80s action film about a dude seeking revenge and killing bikers with more than a few nods to Sons of Anarchy and The Punisher...and that is largely where the plot ends. For the most part, considering what kind of film this is, this would probably be okay. Recoil is largely an excuse to showcase how much of a badass Danny Trejo and Steve Austin are and how hot Serinda Swan is. And I was largely okay with this until the last twenty or so minutes, when I realised this was all going somewhere and the way the plot comes together is ultimately so poor, it really hurts the overall experience.

Although not quite as bad as Knockout, Recoil wants as much action as possible and will gladly take it at the expense of other things, so nothing in the film ever really gets the time or space to develop. There is a lot of plot floating around but none of it ever really comes together. So despite there being some scenes that are crying for an emotional reaction from the audience, they just end up coming off somewhat flat because we know so little about anything. Even our hero by the end, seems to have very little motivation for what he is doing, making it all come across a little pointless.

Plus, Recoil ends in this weird way where basically the story feels like it has nowhere else to go and yet the whole film feels like the introduction to a franchise that never happened. Varrett doesn't get the girl at the end, he doesn't stay in the one street town as some kind of protector, he just kills a bunch of bikers and drives off and ultimately this doesn't provide much resolution even to his character, either. I mean don't get me wrong, the film is a lot of fun but if they had a tighter focus or spent more time developing the characters and building the world, this probably would have had a lot more weight in its punches.

The crew of this film are excellent, which makes it kind of sad that they haven't really worked on many films and the films they have worked on, well I've personally not heard of them so I can't imagine many of you would have either. Terry Miles shows huge talent as a director, he really gets that film is a visual medium and tries to tell as much possible through images, rather than dialogue. And obviously a certain amount of that credit needs to go to the cinematography of Bruce Chun, for capturing Miles vision and he captures it beautifully. And finally the editing work of Trevor Mirosh and Gordon Rempel, who guide it all, hold it together and make it all make sense with their editing. Why are these four not huge, again?

The action in Recoil is spotty at best. In itself, the action is visceral, gory and absolutely brutal and the way Varrett picks off the Sons on Anarchy come Mayans ripoff is consistently epic, complete with cheesy action one-liners. However it's the choreography itself that leaves a lot to be desired. In some scenes they largely manage to edit and shoot around the clunkiness so you don't notice it but in other places it's hilariously obvious and pulls you out of the film slightly because it's supposed to be really dark, serious and straight but comes across like a fight from the original Star Trek TV series.

Sadly, the acting is still pretty weak. Austin gets to play a badass which is what he did for his whole career while he wrestled, so he feels comfortable without feeling lazy in his role and most of the cast do a good job for the most part but no one is going to be winning any Oscars for this film, let's be honest. Thankfully this time around, the writer, John Sullivan, is there to pick up a lot of slack. The film is chock full of big laughs, incredibly badass moments and a great cast of (not wholly original) characters. When a movie is this cool, you don't need no good acting.

So do I recommend it? Recoil isn't good, exactly, but my God is it entertaining. A true throwback to the hilarious awesomeness of the 80s action classics and although it does fall apart a little bit at the end from a narrative perspective, it didn't stop this film being a heap of fun. If you're a fan of Sons of Anarchy, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Punisher or any of the action classics like Cobra, Die Hard, Tango & Cash or Lethal Weapon, then you'll love this too.

Think About It!

-Locke