Devotion
is an out-of-the-way English village, but you can find its ilk in plenty of 1980s
Cannon action movies. Shunned by hope, it has become the home turf of a gang of
ex-military drug-runners. Yet, it only needs one lone hero to start cracking
skulls at High Noon to re-establish justice and order. John Gold will be that
man in Ross Boyask’s I Am Vengeance (trailer here), which opens tomorrow
in New York.
Frankly,
it had been a while since Gold had seen his former brother-in-arms, Sgt. Daniel
Mason, but when he hears of his murder, the mystery mercenary jumps in his mint-condition
muscle car and drives straight for Devotion for some payment. Mason and his
equally dead father had been investigating Hatcher and his men, a former unit
assigned to Afghanistan, who parlayed their poppy connections into a burgeoning
narcotics empire. Not being the subtle type, Gold announces his intentions in
the local pub as soon as he arrives.
From
here on out, the narrative does not get much more complicated. Gold picks up
Sandra, a drug-addicted party girl to guide him through Devotion’s seedy underbelly.
Of course, Hatcher expects her to inform on Gold’s whereabouts, but the tall
guy reckons as much anyway. Gold also manages to befriend Rose, the café proprietor
and possibly the only decent citizen left in Devotion, but his relationships
will remain strictly professional.
Nobody
would call I Am Vengeance ambitious,
but it is clear a lot of thought went into presenting former wrestler Stu
Bennett (a.k.a. Wade Barrett) in his action leading man debut. The story is as
straight forward as an 80’s Bronson film, but he is surrounded by a top-notch
ensemble of thespian-athletes, starting first and foremost with former British kickboxing
champion Gary Daniels as Hatcher. He definitely still has the moves and physicality
to be a more than convincing nemesis. Likewise, Bryan Larkin and Wayne Gordon make
worthy sparring opponents. However, Anna Shaffer is an awkward distraction as Sandra,
the vapid, druggy, wannabe Dr. Who companion.
Bennett/Barrett
can strut the strut, plus Wikipedia says he is a fan of Margaret Thatcher, so
how can you root against him? It is also cool to see Daniels can still get the
job done old school style (considering he is an action movie veteran older than
many of us Eighties kids). It doesn’t have the same grungy exploitative purity
as vintage Cannon films, but we can still relate to it on that level.
Recommended as a guilty pleasure for late nights or Saturday mornings, I Am Vengeance opens tomorrow (8/24) in
New York, at the Village East, with a simultaneous VOD release.
