Tuesday, February 06, 2018

Accident Man: Scott Adkins Goes to Work


Accidents are convenient. They usually get a perfunctory police investigation and they are nearly always covered by insurance policies. That is why Mike Fallon is such a handy guy to know. His specialty is making hits look like ever-so unfortunate accidents. However, he can get just as messy as the next assassin, if need be. That is exactly what happens when his own guild carries out a contract on his ex-girlfriend in Jesse V. Johnson’s Accident Man (trailer here), which releases today on DVD and VOD.

Fallon is probably the baddest cat operating out of Big Ray’s very private public house. Accidents are his thing, whereas Mick and Mac, veterans of the US and British special forces specialize in making hits look like random street crime. There is also a poisoner, a silly inventor, an axe-wielding lunatic, and Jane the Ripper, a lethal and seductive martial arts master. There are rules to Big Ray’s place, largely to protect their weaselly business agent Milton, but Fallon chucks the rules out the window when Milton accepts a contract on his do-gooder ex and then sets him up with the Triad’s least competent assassin.

There is a narrative to Accident Man, but it is really just an excuse to have Scott Adkins’ Fallon face-off against Tim Man, Amy Johnston (from Lady Bloodfight) and twice against Michael Jai White and Ray Park (Darth Maul), simultaneously. Plus, Ray Stevenson binges on grizzled hardnosedness as Big Ray.

Johnson, the stunt performer turned helmer, who previously directed Adkins in Savage Dog, certainly knows how to stage a fight scene. Adkins’ two sessions with White and Park are real barn-burners, but his death-match with Johnston is all that and more. There is a reason why Adkins is an action movie fan favorite—and Johnson totally plays to his strengths, while also bringing his not as well-known facility for humor. We are definitely talking about Bondian one-liners and world weary snark, but that works for us.

Indeed, the entire film works like a well-oiled machine. The big fights scenes are appropriately big, brutal, and wildly cinematic, while the villains are all larger than life. A cast like this sounds like loads of fun, which they duly deliver. Highly recommended for fans of Adkins and action, Accident Man releases today on DVD and VOD.