Recoil

I'm a big Danny Trejo fan, and he seemed to really have a meaty role in this film. Otherwise, I would have dismissed it as another ex-wrestler grabbing a paycheck for kicking butt. Of course, Serinda Swan also made the time spent watching it worthwhile.

I typically like a good revenge flick, but this one was missing something. It was like, "They killed my wife, and now I am going to do something about it." There wasn't any real passion in Austin's character. Trejo chewed the scenery every time he appeared. This was his best role, but Austin just didn't have the stones - he was cold.

Austin needs to find some John Cena passion.

Steve Austin is a massive mean looking dude and he is angry because his family got killed by another mean looking dude: Danny Trejo! Small town violence and ass kicking ensues, to the viewer's delight.

Or does it? "Stone Cold" Austin is a stone cold actor. He doesn't do much in the way of expressing emotions. Of course, his role here was of the do more say less type, but still, hard to empathize with a guy that answers with calm one sentence phrases in the discussion about his family's death.

Also, Danny Trejo is a great psychopathic gang leader, but he could have done a lot more. I just loved the scene where he had to choose a weapon, he took the machete, then he changed his mind and took the sickle. Maybe he should do a sequel to Machete called Sickle :) Anyway, he is doing great at the age of 68!

The plot was also terribly boring. In a bunch of situations anyone but the indestructible hero of the movie would have died a thousand deaths. Instead, he somehow always gets to fight in hand to hand combat, where he excels.

Bottom line: a redneck punching movie. I expected this and I got it. A little more attention to the plot would have probably offended its intended audience.

It opens with ex-cop, Ryan (Steve Austin) arriving at a small town called Hope with an agenda, which is to seek retribution to the criminals responsible (shown in flashbacks throughout) who wiped out his entire family. And when he arrives, he arrives by driving a 1968 Plymouth GTX, booked himself to a motel/ inn owned by a young widowed, Darcy (Serinda Swan). While there, and as it turns out, the town is overrun by a motorcycle gang called "The Circle" gang lead by Drayke (Danny Trejo) for the intention of illegal activity including guns and drugs. And it isn't long before Ryan's first victim happens to be Drayke's younger brother Rex (Noel Gugliemi) whose supposed to be an alleged ped before he slowly goes after the rest of the gang.

One of the main problems of this movie is the fact that although, Drayke played by Trejo is a known criminal who deals with guns and drugs, that he does not really use any guns against Ryan until more of his own men are killed, until it's to Austin's convenience but it could be the result ex wrestler Steve Austin who's also credited as "executive producer" and that they were unable to afford a dummy car.

"I think you know why I'm here." After the murder of his wife and child former cop Ryan Varrett (Austin) becomes obsessed with revenge and justice. When he gets to the town of Hope he finds what he is looking for. I have always wondered why wrestlers (who pretty much act for a living) have never been good movie actors. I liked Stone Cold when he was wrestling but as an actor he is quite bad. This is a hard movie to review for me. The opening five minutes were so bad I was laughing and wanted to turn it off, but the longer it went on the more I liked it. I'm not sure if it was because it was actually a good movie or if I just got used to it. I think I mainly liked it because of the idea. I loved "Boondock Saints" and while it's impossible to compare the two, any movie about a vigilante who doses out his own justice to those who fall through the cracks is OK with me. Overall, Steve Austin's best movie so far (which isn't saying much). I recommend this though. I surprisingly give it a B+.

First of all, I should mention that I enjoy a lot of made-for-video movies, so you might understand why I was pumped up when I got my hands on a copy of RECOIL, because it starred not only Steve Austin, but Danny Trejo. However, I have to confess that I felt somewhat let down by the end results. The production values are okay, though some of the photography has that dark look you find in a lot of other low budget Canadian movies. But the screenplay is lacking, making a lot of time go by between action sequences, and containing plot elements and characters we have see A LOT before in other B movies. The action sequences, when they do come, aren't very exciting. And while Steve Austin and Danny Trejo do bring some presence to the movie simply by showing up, they don't deliver that much more - maybe they too found this story routine and predictable as well, and didn't think it was worth the effort to be more energetic. I guess the movie deserves some praise for giving some of my fellow Canadians some work in front of and behind the camera - but that's about all that's positive about this movie.