Shrapnel

Pulse pounding gunfights and a tense script keep the eyes glued to the screen. I did not except too much going into this movie and thought it would be just another mediocre action movie. What a surprise to find it thrilling and entertaining. Starts off slow as it builds the backstory and the inevitable showdown that is about to come.

Once that starts it is non-stop.

Most of all it was the gunfighting that hooked me. Some of the best since movies like heat or John Wick, but more more visceral.

Who does not like to see a violent cartel get what's coming, and this movie delivers in spades. What needs to happen, happens.

"You promised to keep us safe. You didn't."

Shrapnel is directed by William Kaufman and stars Jason Patric and Cam Gigandet.

After releasing The Channel earlier this month William Kaufman is back with a revenge thriller in the vein of Taken and Rambo: Last Blood. Unfortunately I didn't think this was as good as The Channel but that was sort of a high bar to live up to well at least in terms of DTV movies. I didn't think this was a total misfire either there are definitely some redeeming qualities here.

I actually thought this movie was too short surprisingly and I feel like this could've benefited from actually showing Sean's (Jason Patric's) daughter getting kidnapped in the beginning or maybe a few more scenes between Gigandet and Patric to further flesh out their relationship. Unfortunately this also suffers from pretty weak writing and I blame Chad Law and Johnny Martin Walters for that. Johnny Martin Walters only other writing credit is a Steven Seagal movie from 2019. Chad Law is actually a pretty prolific writer in the DTV space having written last year's Ryan Kwanten led Section 8, as well as this year's Tubi Original The Getback and the abysmal movie The Flood starring Nicky Whelan. Luckily Law's writing is better here but it's still not great.

For the positives I thought Jason Patric was good here and he actually sold the emotional scenes pretty well. Cam Gigandet is also pretty good here and adds some charisma to this that's needed but he unfortunately barley has any screen time. Kaufman does what he does best and turns this into a pure home invasion shoot em up during the last 15 minutes which was the best part of the movie for me. All the action scenes here are good and Kaufman is the main reason for that but I feel like they were lacking compared to The Channel. With a better script and more emotional depth for the characters this could've been way better.

Zero originality. Zero imagination. Did this have a script? You can't tell. Looks like an exercise in trying to rewrite and reenact a small piece of "Rambo: Last Blood".

Obviously low budget. Barely sufferable acting all-round. The lead's dead eyes are a monument to total lack of acting ability. The mother just had her first-born child kidnapped by a Mexican Cartel and is completely unfazed throughout the whole movie. Zero depth.

The usual shaky-camera to provide some fake tension.

As fake as the stellar reviews around here...

The only thing that makes this barely watchable is the fact that from mid-movie on there are always people shooting at each other in several different ways, although again in stupid ways: for instance, the sheriff trying to shoot bad guys with a shotgun from 50 yards, while the bad guys are shooting him with an assortment of military-grade automatic weapons.

There are also a ton of other stupid things, and goofs (like the extra van that you can only see in some shots in the car chase scene).

Bottom line: watch this if you are in the mood for a mind-numbing action sequence of people killing each other.

So impressed by this. Simple story but well told. Great pace . Good enough acting and well staged action sequences. Small criticism is the sound during gunfights seemed at odds with action on the screen but more than watchable. Maybe it was the platform I watched it on(sky cinema) I'd recommend this as a brisk. Brain out , 89 minute action movie that for sure has you rooting for the hero not the Mexican cartel. Satisfactory ending. Don't expect a big budget hollywood blockbuster and accept it's a better "B" movie than we have a right to expect and you will be absolutely fine. Probably made for the catering bill on a marvel bill. Impressive.

Former Marine Sean Beckwith (Jason Patric) is searching for his missing daughter in Mexico. Max Vohden (Cam Gigandet) is his war buddy.

I come into this knowing that it's a B-movie. When the daughter says "You promised you'd keep us safe. You didn't.", I realized that this is going to be badly written, too. This is an old school Rambo action flick where the good guys take out dozens of bad guys. Sean is never going to get killed and the daughter is certain to be rescued. That's the part which seems to be annoying most critics. I'm not as annoyed with that. It doesn't help that car doors and flimsy walls become bulletproof in this world. It's all badly written. Sean should have taken the cartel brother hostage and make a prisoner exchange. Instead, two guys are going into Mexico to take on the cartel home base. Of course, nothing can go wrong.