Bullet Points: Revenger
Getting revenge is easily one of my favorite motivators in an action movie. Is there anything more pure than wanting to kill the man who wronged you? There is clearly a reason that we’ve seen so many movies with this recipe over the years.
Synopsis: A former police investigator gets himself sent to a island full of prisoners so that he can avenge the deaths of his wife and child.
- AP101: The island prison known as AP101 is a place where the worst prisoners from 12 different Asian nations are sent to live out their lives in total chaos. I don’t think that places like this really exist anymore but it sure sounds like a great way for some reality show to make a quick buck. Bring it on!
- No Escape: Have you seen the 1994 film No Escape? It’s amazing. Ray Liotta gets sent to an island with Stuart Wilson and guys just run around killing each other with sharp sticks. Revenger feels very similar, but instead of Ray Liotta showing up it’s Bruce Khan as Det. Yul Kim who wanders onto the island as the newest badass. He walks up wearing a straight jacket and one of those Hannibal Lector masks and immediately starts beating the crap out guys.
- Save the Children: Adding children to action movies is normally a bad idea. Rarely are they not the most annoying part of the film. Revenger follows Kim as he searches the island for the man who killed his family but he uses the knowledge from a little girl to constantly get into fights with dozens of random dudes.
- KUHN!!!: Is this the Korean version of Kahn? If that were the case then I would have expected there to be a scene of Kim screaming “Kuhn” into the camera at some point.
- A Well-placed Arrow: No matter how many people you can beat up, all it takes is one poisoned arrow to ruin everyone’s day. The inhabitants of the island have pretty much split up into two groups; one led by Kuhn and another bunch of misfits that have taken up residence in a cave-village. Kim saves the little girl so often that the folks at the village don’t have much choice but to trust him at that point. Too bad for them, though, because action heroes don’t get to live happily ever after.
- Beauty and the Beast: One of the coolest fight scenes, and there are a ton of them, is when Kim goes 2 vs 1 against a duo I like to call “beauty and the beast”. When you see the movie you’ll know exactly what I mean. The movie has the feel of a video game where Kim just kills his way through various levels until he fights against a few different bosses. These two would be the badasses before the main baddie.
- Burn Notice: Finally, after killing dozens and dozens of criminals, Kim comes face to face with Kuhn. By this time Kuhn is all by himself and there is nowhere left for him to hide. What makes it even cooler is that Kuhn is covered in scars and bandages and it looks like Kim is fighting a creepy version of The Invisible Man.
The Verdict: I thought Revenger was great! It’s pure action without a ton of story but who the hell needs story when you have dudes running around killing each other with swords? It felt like a mixture of The Raid: Redemption and No Escape. Lots of martial arts action and a really cool bunch of choreography. I had never seen Bruce Khan before but he kicks all kinds of ass in Revenger. Check it out!
