Vendetta(2015)

The Twisted Twins once again teams up with WWE Studios and Lionsgate for their newest film which is a little bit of a change a pace for The Soska Sisters instead of horror what they are best known for they decide to take on a hard boiled action revenge tale here.

Vendetta stars Dean Cain(yes that Dean Cain) as Det. Mason Danvers who after bringing down two vicious criminals Victor(Paul “Big Show” Wight) and Griffin(Aleks Paunovic) the Abbott brothers.

Three months pass when Danvers is told that The Abbotts have been released, Danvers gives his wife Jocelyn(Kyra Zagorsky) a call but is shocked to hear Victor answer, as Danvers races home, he calls his partner Gainer(Ben Hollingsworth) both men, get to Danvers home but are too late as Victor has viciously beaten Jocelyn to death.

After sometime has gone by Danvers isn’t the man he once was, he decides to track down Griffin Abbott and kills him so that he can be arrested and sent to the same prison as Victor, who has basically been running things in the prison since he’s arrived.

Vendetta is somewhat of a throwback to the old 80s style revenge flicks where they get straight to the point of what’s going on.

Dean Cain gives one of his best performances here as shows that he can really go to some dark places that fans of him especially recently with the many Hallmark films he’s done aren’t expecting him to go, It would be nice to see him do more of these kind of films going forward.

WWE Star Paul “Big Show” Wight is really good as the bad guy, something that he’s a natural at doing with his 20 years in wrestling, just like another WWE Star Kane who the Soska’s worked with on See No Evil 2 even though both men in recent years aren’t as menacing as they once were in the WWE but with the Soskas they are allowed to be those monster heels that fans love to hate.

Maybe If there is a See No Evil 3 we could get a Big Show vs Jacob Goodnight show down, that would be a interesting thing. That’s just a wishful thought of mine though…

Michael Eklund steals the film as Warden Snyder the way he plays the role reminds me somewhat of Alan Rickman in Die Hard where he’s always cool and calm but there is more going on behind the nice suit.

It was nice seeing The Soska Sisters expand their talents beyond the realm of horror here with this hardnose, straight forward action flick, even though there isn’t alot with the story, their directing is rare and in you’re face when it comes to a few of the action scenes, my only complained would have to be that when Danvers wife is killed It would have been a little bit more impactful if more of it was shown, but it’s still effective enough.

 Also there is no Soska's Cameo here which is a bit of a disappointment but then again there was nowhere really for them to show up since majority of the film takes place in prison.

There seemed to be a few homages to earlier flicks that are similar in tone here I’m not sure if this was on purpose or just happy accidents, but there seemed to be a bit of The Punisher, Death Warrant, Locked Up and the big prison riot reminded me of the prison riot from Natural Born Killers

All in All if you like action, a badass Dean Cain, Big Show doing what he does best, and are a fan of The Soskas I recommend checking out Vendetta since it is out now in Select Theaters and on VOD.

MY RATING 

7/10

CAST

Dean Cain-Mason Danvers

Paul "Big Show" Wight-Victor Abbott

Michael Eklund-Warden Snyder

Ben Hollingsworth-Joel Gainer

Adrian Holmes-Drexel

Matthew MacCaull-Ben

Kyra Zagorsky-Jocelyn

Aleks Paunovic-Griffin Abbott