Bullet Points: Recoil (2011)
There aren’t many options for retired professional wrestlers outside of the ring. That is one reason you see so many of them bouncing around the independent circuit till they die at 57. But for the truly great ones, that charisma that made them a star in the ring also leads to success outside of it. Stone Cold Steve Austin, for instance. He may not soon star in Macbeth but he kicks ass very well, and sometimes kicking ass is more than enough for me.
Synopsis: A cop turns vigilante after his family is murdered, exacting vengeance on the killers – and then on all criminals who have slipped through the system.
- Vigilantes ‘R Us: Ryan Varrett (Steve Austin) must have done a Google search to find out what vigilantes are supposed to look like. He drives the late 60’s model muscle car, wears the leather jacket, and quietly moves around town without ever really being seen till it’s too late. He doesn’t even use a gun! What kind of vigilante does he think he is?
- Every hero needs a villain: You’re bound to see Danny Trejo in about 35% of direct to video action movies these days. This one just so happens to use him as the leader of The Circle, a biker gang operating in Hope, Washington. You may remember that Hope was the primary setting for John Rambo’s destruction in First Blood.
- The Fights: I wasn’t thrilled with the way the fights were cut. Lots of use of slow motion and quick cuts. I felt like there were a couple of good opportunities to let Austin and guys like Keith Jardine to have some good knock-down, drag-out fight scenes. Haven’t any of these directors ever seen They Live? Just do that!
- Reasons to kill: Every vigilante has his reasons for going off the deep end and suddenly transforming into a killing machine. Like Tom Jane’s Punisher, Varrett’s family was killed by some gang thugs and instead of taking him out with them, they only left him wounded and pissed off.
- A beautiful Swan: The very lovely Serinda Swan plays Darcy, the operator of a local motel and something of an accomplice to Austin’s Varrett. Yeah, she’s way too hot to be working in a place like that in a shithole town but she has her own issues and seeing Varrett cruise into town isn’t going to make her life any easier.
- Favorite line: “Where’d you learn to fight like that?” “From fighting.”
The Verdict: Recoil isn’t a bad movie but it doesn’t do anything spectacular. There aren’t any memorable characters and there isn’t much that happens that you won’t expect, but it’s still the kind of movie that you can easily watch on a Tuesday night. I would have liked Austin to have had more lines but he’s content to keep it to minimum dialogue in this one. My biggest problem with the movie had to be how pathetic the gang was. They literally get the crap kicked out of them for the entire movie and for a motorcycle club that got powerful from running guns, they sure as hell don’t have many lying around. No matter, fans of DTV action with simple stories, endless fisticuffs, and an evil Danny Trejo will have fun with this one.
