Rent Avengement (2019)

Scott Adkin's Crank (also Adkin's best lead role to date) - Avengement review by AER

This is really Cain and Abel retold in the East End - on this outing we see mad dog Scott Adkins square-off against his toe-rag criminal brother,(Lincoln (geddit?)), played by the solid and reliable Craig Fairbrass. Cain (Adkins) went to jail for nearly 10 years and has run the gauntlet of daily deadly fights. When he finds out that his brother has sponsored a hit on him he sets about planning a jailbreak. This culminates in him taking Lincoln's gang hostage in a grotty pub HQ. The dialogue in Avengement is poor and the plot predictable, but such is the energy of the fantastic leads and the cool fight scenes (very gory) that this stand head and shoulders above many other low-budget British gangster/action flicks (that usually star Adkins anyway).

This is directed with flair by frequent Adkins collaborator Jesse V Johnson (GREEN STREET 2 / TRIPLE THREAT / ACCIDENT MAN) and it's a fun quickie for fans of basic action. Scott Adkins pushes himself here by trying a bit of character acting on for size (for once) and it's a success. One of the best new DTV actioners to come out of England in recent years.

Co-starring Nick Moran, Thomas Turgoose, Kierston Wareing and Leo Gregory.

Great cast and story - Avengement review by sw

this is a gangsta, prison type film but set in multiple locations out of prison so keeps it interesting.

great cast and acting. the story is different to the usual which is fresh.

lots of really brutal action and fighting which is pretty non stop so you wont get bored.

if you like films simular to lock stock, green street, snatch, death wish, death sentence then im sure youl enjoy this.

A really good, incredibly choreographed & fast-moving actioner with a brilliant Adkins - Avengement review by Timmy B

Straight-to-DVD films, although somewhat dying out as the disc format becomes evermore redundant in a streaming world, are their own (slightly infamous) genre. When you buy one, you know that the chances it will be good are pretty slim. They are often the gangster genre, rated 18, full of swearing and gratuitous violence & with acting/production values that any normal person would be embarrassed to put their name to. Bruce Willis in particular was ridiculed for appearing in a series of absolute schlocky garbage, given his incredible previous work, where he clearly turned up to do a couple of days acting for a massive pay-out (before his dementia diagnosis was made public.) Whilst there have been occasional great movies (Tucker & Dale vs Evil is a riot,) mostly it is atrocious tripe.

But what prompted me to add this film to my rental list was the many reviews I saw which praised it as an amazing little British film (one of my favourite genres,) with incredible fight choreography & a great lead performance. I had no idea who Scott Adkins was, although when I looked at his IMDB page he has made many appearances in action films I've loved, as well as building a reputation as a skilled stunt performer & actor. So I pressed play with the mindset not to take the film seriously, just enjoy it as a piece of schlocky entertainment. And I absolutely loved it.

Cain Burgess is a legitimate boxer who, whilst he was born into a criminal family, is in no way involved & has a clean record. His brother Lincoln is the defacto leader of the organisation, who loves Cain & accepts that his sibling wants nothing to do with criminality. After an errand he is running goes badly wrong, he is then sent to Belmarsh prison, the most violent in the UK. This environment forces him to change into a total psychopath, actively attacking inmates before they go for him, in order to stay alive. He swears revenge against the people who wronged him, escaping & hunting them down.

This film is a riot, mainly because it knows exactly what it is, with the filmmakers absolutely leaning into the genre's clichés with a good script & compelling protagonist. Everything that you would expect from this type of film is here & turned up to 11: the swearing is off the charts, ridiculous scenarios which would never happen in a million years (withholding of legal representation to an arrested man; a prison governor having the power to increase sentences; 1 character repeatedly attacking the protagonist without consequence...) and brutal violence. But it is so well-made & enjoyable, these tropes actually make it more enjoyable.

Adkins in particular is excellent, completely believable as the man who transforms from a Jack-the-Lad boxer to a scarred & psychotic prisoner fighting for his life. Clearly set in the Jason Statham mould of action star, Adkins has a mastery & command of stunt work which pays dividends in the fight sequences, which are as good as anything Hollywood can produce. Fairbrass (a man synonymous with Straight-to-DVD,) is also good in the small amount of screen time he has, the filmmakers clearly appreciating that less is more.

But what I most liked about this film was that quite simply it is a bloody good watch. It does exactly what it says on the tin, with no pretensions, just a cast & crew committed to making it the best movie possible. And it also makes a mockery of many obscenely expensive films which cost tens of millions and leave you feeling like you wasted 2 hours of your life.

An absolute riot and perfect film for a Friday night in front of the TV with friends & beer.