Bullet Points: I am Vengeance

I would categorize Gary Daniels as a trailblazer in the world of action entertainment. Long before we had Jason Statham or Scott Adkins, Gary Daniels was the first UK born action star to burst on the scene.

The latest UK native to follow in Gary’s footsteps is Stu Bennett. Bennett left behind his gig with World Wrestling Entertainment in 2016, where he traveled the world and decided to focus on his acting career. Was this a wise career move? Time will tell, but 2018’s I am Vengeance gave Bennett the unique opportunity to not only follow in Gary Daniels’ footsteps and be a British action star, Bennett also had the opportunity to star opposite of Gary Daniels in the film…

• The Premise: Stu Bennett plays John Gold, a highly trained special ops guy who learns that a friend he served with in the military, Sgt. Dan Mason, has been brutally murdered after he found out what some of his fellow veterans were up to in the small English town of Devotion. If that was not bad enough, Dan’s parents were also murdered. These murders are played out before us, so we already know who is responsible, but John Gold does not… so John packs a few things, hops in his GTO and makes his way to the town of Devotion where he plans on finding out why his friend was killed and bring those responsible to justice.

• Balls of Steel: When John Gold gets to Devotion, he is not quiet about why he is there… in fact, he goes right into the local pub makes a beeline for the bar and announces he is there to find out who killed Dan Mason and his parents. Things get really quiet and people try not to make eye contact with the bravado filled stranger. Gold chastises the townsfolk for their cowardice, reminding them what pillars of the community the Mason family was. And when four guys who were sitting in the corner of the pub ask John to step outside (the same four guys who were responsible for the Mason murders… John does not hesitate. Before things can get physical, their ring leader Hatcher played by action movie veteran Gary Daniels, tells his men it is time to leave. John is befriended by a local junkie named Sandra (Anna Shaffer), who reluctantly helps out John partially because she is intimidated by him and partially out of guilt for being a part of the drug infested underbelly of the town.
• Those Damn Drugs: John learns that Hatcher and his men served in Afghanistan and while they were stationed there they managed to intercept a huge amount of heroin. This gave Hatcher the bright idea to become a drug dealer and he figured what better place to do it than a little town, where the constable can be easily manipulated and they can pretty much take over and basically run amok. John Gold once again showed off his balls of steel, when he goes straight to the factory where they make the drugs, beats the crap out of everyone working there and sets it on fire! This does not please our villains.

• The Main Event: Now when I saw that Stu Bennett and Gary Daniels were in the same movie together, the first thought that popped into my head was… I want to see those two fight! And sure enough after John Gold spent most of the third act of the film dispatching of Hatcher’s minions the fight I paid to see, the fight I waited over 70 minutes to witness was finally about to happen! The Bennett/Daniels fight met all my expectations, which was not a surprise considering the caliber of action that was featured in I am Vengeance up to that point and the backgrounds of the participants.

I am Vengeance was nothing I have not seen before… the movie featured the classic town gone bad elements as seen in classic movies like Walking Tall, China O’Brien and Eye of the Tiger and inserted the modern day, highly skilled fighting machine action hero as seen in movies like Taken and The Equalizer. The only unique element between I am Vengeance and the movies I listed was the fact that I am Vengeance is distinctly British.

Stu Bennett was a solid choice as our hero. Bennett’s tough guy face conveys the story of a man who is not afraid to fight. Even the leaner and meaner Stu Bennett (especially compared to his Wade Barrett days in the WWE) has the physical presence to be an effective action hero… although I have to say, I think I prefer Stu in the villain role as he was when starred opposite Scott Adkins in Eliminators, but I don’t blame Bennett for wanting to try to branch out as much as he can and play both sides of the fence if you will… it is a tactic his co-star Gary Daniels used throughout his career and probably one of the reasons Gary Daniels has enjoyed the longevity he has.

A tactic I often use to give my reviews some longevity is to throw in some Bonus Bullet Points…

• The Name Game: The original title of the film was simply Vengeance. The slight name change to I am Vengeance was probably a good move since there have already been a ton of movies named Vengeance over the years. Some examples include… Jim Brown and Lee Van Cleef in Vengeance (1977)… Danny Trejo and 50 Cent in Vengeance (2006)… and Johnny Hallyday and Simon Yam in Vengeance (2009).
• If You Ever: …wanted to see Stu Bennett kill a guy by sticking his thumbs into the guy’s eye sockets and then snapping his neck, then this is the movie for you.
• Favorite Quote: “You’re about as hard as a baby’s first shit.”
• Name Drop: There is a guy named Frost who is trailing our hero John Gold from a relatively safe distance for most of the movie. When Frost finally catches up with John Gold, we learn he is there to bring Gold back in to whatever agency John Gold had been working for prior to basically falling off the grid. Frost does a major name drop when he mentions how Gold had a knack for “going all Charles Bronson” on the bad guys.