Vendetta

Nothing special here, a pretty pedestrian film really. Dean Cain and The Big Show (I'd never heard of him before this film) are fairly entertaining though.

The Big Show is enormous, I find it hard to believe that anyone could grow to such a size. I am really amazed.

"This is my house, the only thing that badge will get you in here is a slit throat." Mason (Cain) is a cop at the top of his game. After finally tracking down and arresting Victor Abbott (Wight) he moves on to the next criminal. When there turns out to not be enough evidence to hold him Victor is released and wants revenge. The next time Mason finds him Victor is standing over his dead wife. Now it is Mason's turn for revenge and after deliberately getting arrested he has Victor right where he wants him. This is a movie that is pretty much exactly what you would expect. The movie is really a B-rate action movie that plays off every cliché in the book. All that said the movie is pretty entertaining and is watchable. There are not really any twists or anything that isn't unexpected but again, when you go to watch a movie like this you pretty much know what your are getting into. Overall, nothing terrible but if you've seen one of these movies you have seen them all. I give this a C+.

Well maybe for some, but I reckon most will not consider the movie itself a big show ... now obviously I'm having some fun with ... wordplay. Paul Wight also known to many as the Big Show in the WWE is one of the main characters at hand here.

The movie itself is nothing you won't expect from an action thriller of its kind. I can only imagine that the Soskas (twin directing sisters) did this for the money, not because they had the idea to do a movie like that. Having said that, I reckon it can be fun to direct something like this. Not having to wonder too much what to do or where to go. The movie practically writes itself.

Not trying to put it down, some will have more fun with this than others of course. And putting TV Clark Kent in here might help too. I've seen him act in other independent productions, so when it is needed he is up to the task. Do not judge him from this one effort here. He can only do so much with the material he is given (as I noted with the directors too - and can be generally applied to this)

The film was perfectly summarized by The Hollywood Reporter which said "the sort of B-movie violent actioner that makes you feel your testosterone level rising as you watch it". The film had a minimal plot which was used as a glue connecting all the fight scenes. For the most part, it was one action scene after another, and they were good. I felt like they were well-made and tense enough to be on the entertaining side.

I was surprised though to see The Soska Sisters making a film outside of horror. I generally think they succeeded at their first attempt. I recommend the film for those seeking a mindless and violent action film, and less for those seeking any meaningful story.

Any steel-thewed cop vs. Elephantine goon actioner including the trusty workhorse line: 'You should have killed me when you had the chance!' has the potential to be an enjoyably thick-eared DTV time-waster, and happily we soon thug-deep in Seagal/JCVD wronged cop turning super wrong-headed jailbird with brooding Det. Danvers (Dean Cain) ferociously going head to pectorals with towering, roid-raging rapscallion Victor Abott (Paul 'The Big Show' Wight') in the Soska Sisters pleasingly old-school head-knocker 'Vendetta', with its myriad knuckle-dragging, jaw-busting fights culminating orgiastically in one bodaciously bloody, free-for-all prison yard riot! The stone-faced anti-hero Cain is wickedly vengeful as the single-minded, spike-fisted, increasingly sociopathic skell slayer and his towering, Tor Johnson-sized, permanently perspiring nemesis power-grunts his expletive monosyllables with a useful Baritone belligerence. 'Vendetta' is so deliciously 90s the glaring omission of a Hed PE track over one of the gore-slathered Laundry room is an almost unforgivable faux pas! The far from static film has a comfortably familiar aspect and the adrenalized fisticuffs, while not always perfectly executed are reliably plentiful, frequently grisly and should keep any shank-happy fight-freaks distracted until the next Scott Adkins beat-down epic comes out. I went into this with ZERO expectations and happily exited entertained and sometimes that's all I really want from a bruisingly bellicose, gang-banging, plasma-drenched B-movie.