The Retaliators

The movie starts off with Bishop and his two daughters trying to buy a Christmas tree when all of a sudden some guy claims their tree as his. He acts like a douche and pushes Bishop away and after they get home the older daughter Sarah asks him why he didn't act. Bishop uses this scenario to talk about in his preaching the next day and says that revenge is not the answer.

Later that evening his daughter Sarah gets murdered by a guy for finding out that there is someone in his trunk. During his mourning he encounters a detective whose wife was also killed years before. He tells Bishop that he found the guy who killed his daughter and he wants to give him the chance to take vengeance. At that point a brutal and twisted story begins and Bishop has to go through a lot of character development to be able to survive.

The movie definitely has its shock value in the brutality and does not shy away to show it. And even though there is some weird pacing and editing at times the movie is able to entertain for its run time. The movies strengths are in the sheer brutality and action that come in the third act and also in the character development from Bishop. It's no masterpiece but I think that it did a decent job with how the story turned out. [5,8/10]

Michael Lombardi is the aptly named "Bishop" - he's a rural pastor - who traditionally shuns confrontation and generally encourages others to do the same. Until, that is, his daughter has a run in with a gangland hoodlum who has a car stashed with cocaine, loot - and a man who is not in great shape. She attempts to flee but while being chased chooses to ring her dad, rather than 911 (or maybe drive off in the general direction of the police station!?). Anyway, the remainder of this terribly lacklustre revenge thriller follows dad's attempts to avenge his daughter. For a previously gentle man, he adapts to the brutality of his new environment with an ease that made me think that if Sigourney Weaver had had him in the "Alien" films, those acid bleeding critters wouldn't have lasted twenty minutes. That's really the problem here. The scenario is just daft. Right from the get go when we have an altercation over a Christmas tree through to the very end, it's all just predictable and implausible tosh. The acting is college project standard, as is the writing and the direction. Indeed, quite how this got a cinema release at all is a far more worthy and ponderous question than anything raised by the script. Nope, I really wouldn't bother.

Following the death of his daughter, a grief-stricken priest sets out to seek revenge for the person responsible, eventually finding him in the form of an underground criminal kingpin being sought by a multitude of organizations for his work and must dig deeper into his own resolve to escape the situation.

There was quite a lot to like with this one. Among the better features found here is the incredibly enjoyable setup that provides quite a fun setup to the later insanity featured here. The initial setup with the easy-going lifestyle of the priest trying not to get into confrontation or violence and then wretched with grief when his daughter is killed and eventually learning to stand up for himself works rather nicely, while the secondary setup of the need to catch up with the drug-deal gone wrong featuring the criminals scouring their own underworld trying to discover who the psychopath is and what he's done with the money. This gives the film quite a unique setup that brings some rather interesting points along the way. As well, the film manages quite a lot to like with the brutal and over-the-top confrontations with the killers coming into play. With the strong opening about the girls being stranded in the van and then finding the attempted saviors getting dispatched gruesomely before the graphic final scene, this one manages quite a lot to like almost immediately in a fast, frenetic sequence. The car chase and resulting accident that sets this one in motion are quite thrilling, and the relentless attacks that come about in the finale where the freed prisoners are let loose bringing upon a ton of frantic, furious sequences together as they attack the group in the underground dungeon and eventually make their way out into the woods which features all sorts of impressive effects-work on the graphic kills throughout here, giving this some likable features. There are some flaws to be had with this one. The main problem is that so much of the film's first half is so generally unappealing as a horror film that it's easy to think this one doesn't even fall into the genre. The opening attack is very misleading to the later scenes as the main setup that gets focused on the search for the figures in the criminal underworld that revolve around the killer that kills his daughter than it is about the deaths being dished out. This plays far more like a crime thriller than a genre effort with the way the scenes play out as the drug deal gone wrong involving the brutal murder of the courier which is not that interesting or features anything remotely close to what's going on later on in the film so it just isn't that good to get started. That early setup highlights the films' other issue in that there's such a pronounced and obvious stylistic change between the first and second half that is awkward and clumsily put together. The sluggish pacing from the non-genre first half gives way to a furious, fast-paced second half that's quite different not just in style but also in presentation. There's so little about what's going on here that feels cohesive and connected to what's come before it as the turn from crime thriller to horror is not that well-defined and comes out of nowhere with how it's played off. The shift in tone is drastic much like the content of the action featured here which all combine together to knock this back a bit.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and heavy drug use.

I'm struggling to review this film as I didn't actually hate it, but it's littered with flaws.

My main complaint is that it never really settled on a tone. At times this film is dark as hell, with some properly gruesome and grotesque ideas and scenes.

At other times it strays into Evil Dead style comedy horror with some of its action scenes and sequences. This shift was quite jarring and had they picked one route and gone for it might have been more effective.

The acting was quite hit and miss, with no particularly solid performances to mention.

In terms of plot it actually had some interesting ideas, but took way too long to get stuck into the meat of the story.

The soundtrack is pretty great though I must say.

Overall a bit hit and miss. There's plenty for horror fans to enjoy and I did enjoy large parts of this film, but it felt a bit rough around the edges.

Better than a movie featuring the singer of Papa Roach has any right to be, "The Retaliators" is a fun revenge thriller, that switches between genres, offering just enough twist and turns (and a bonkers ending) to stay engaging.

The acting is not bad, with a certain Z Nation actor being the highlight.