The Retaliators

You say I wrote Pray with me wrong? That could not be the case now could it? No pun intended as always. And we start with the "here and now", before we go back and the movie shows us how we got to this moment we just witnessed. Does it mean the movie that unfolds has lost its tension? I would highly disagree with that notion.

I also would urge anyone with a weak stomach not to watch this. This does not take any prisoners (not necessarily literally ... though also that ... sometimes)! There will be blood ... there will be insanity ... there will be a lot of violence! And a few bad guys to enjoy ... to hate! I know this is just a movie, but certain things did hurt watching ... the amount of evil that was unleashed at times ... mind blowing (well and other things of that human body nature ... you'll get it ... wood you not?)

Better than a movie featuring the singer of Papa Roach has any right to be, "The Retaliators" is a fun revenge thriller, that switches between genres, offering just enough twist and turns (and a bonkers ending) to stay engaging.

The acting is not bad, with a certain Z Nation actor being the highlight.

I'm struggling to review this film as I didn't actually hate it, but it's littered with flaws.

My main complaint is that it never really settled on a tone. At times this film is dark as hell, with some properly gruesome and grotesque ideas and scenes.

At other times it strays into Evil Dead style comedy horror with some of its action scenes and sequences. This shift was quite jarring and had they picked one route and gone for it might have been more effective.

The acting was quite hit and miss, with no particularly solid performances to mention.

In terms of plot it actually had some interesting ideas, but took way too long to get stuck into the meat of the story.

The soundtrack is pretty great though I must say.

Overall a bit hit and miss. There's plenty for horror fans to enjoy and I did enjoy large parts of this film, but it felt a bit rough around the edges.

I felt like there was also an innovative movie here. The antihero was very interesting and should have been the focus of the movie. Instead it just became a run of the mill revenge flick and focused on the wrong character.

It's well acted and has good production value but, in the end, the redeeming qualities surrounded the cameos and the soundtrack. The rotating one-night only releases is also a marketing gimmick. I fell for both of them...

I feel like the names (i.e. Jacoby Shaddix, Five Finger Death Punch, Tommy Lee) was more of a marketing gimmick than of any real value.

Best leave this for when it becomes available on a streaming service.

The movie starts off with Bishop and his two daughters trying to buy a Christmas tree when all of a sudden some guy claims their tree as his. He acts like a douche and pushes Bishop away and after they get home the older daughter Sarah asks him why he didn't act. Bishop uses this scenario to talk about in his preaching the next day and says that revenge is not the answer.

Later that evening his daughter Sarah gets murdered by a guy for finding out that there is someone in his trunk. During his mourning he encounters a detective whose wife was also killed years before. He tells Bishop that he found the guy who killed his daughter and he wants to give him the chance to take vengeance. At that point a brutal and twisted story begins and Bishop has to go through a lot of character development to be able to survive.

The movie definitely has its shock value in the brutality and does not shy away to show it. And even though there is some weird pacing and editing at times the movie is able to entertain for its run time. The movies strengths are in the sheer brutality and action that come in the third act and also in the character development from Bishop. It's no masterpiece but I think that it did a decent job with how the story turned out. [5,8/10]