Recoil (2011) Reviews

• Classical revenge movie, with a rather boring plot

  siderite2012-10-25

  Steve Austin is a massive mean looking dude and he is angry because his family got killed by another mean looking dude: Danny Trejo! Small town violence and ass kicking ensues, to the viewer's delight. Or does it? "Stone Cold" Austin is a stone cold actor. He doesn't do much in the way of expressing emotions. Of course, his role here was of the do more say less type, but still, hard to empathize with a guy that answers with calm one sentence phrases in the discussion about his family's death. Also, Danny Trejo is a great psychopathic gang leader, but he could have done a lot more. I just loved the scene where he had to choose a weapon, he took the machete, then he changed his mind and took the sickle. Maybe he should do a sequel to Machete called Sickle :) Anyway, he is doing great at the age of 68! The plot was also terribly boring. In a bunch of situations anyone but the indestructible hero of the movie would have died a thousand deaths. Instead, he somehow always gets to fight in hand to hand combat, where he excels. Bottom line: a redneck punching movie. I expected this and I got it. A little more attention to the plot would have probably offended its intended audience.

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• Easily the best Steve Austin movie so far. A "Boondock Saints" like idea that isn't nearly as good, but watchable. I say B+

  cosmo_tiger2012-02-29

  "I think you know why I'm here." After the murder of his wife and child former cop Ryan Varrett (Austin) becomes obsessed with revenge and justice. When he gets to the town of Hope he finds what he is looking for. I have always wondered why wrestlers (who pretty much act for a living) have never been good movie actors. I liked Stone Cold when he was wrestling but as an actor he is quite bad. This is a hard movie to review for me. The opening five minutes were so bad I was laughing and wanted to turn it off, but the longer it went on the more I liked it. I'm not sure if it was because it was actually a good movie or if I just got used to it. I think I mainly liked it because of the idea. I loved "Boondock Saints" and while it's impossible to compare the two, any movie about a vigilante who doses out his own justice to those who fall through the cracks is OK with me. Overall, Steve Austin's best movie so far (which isn't saying much). I recommend this though. I surprisingly give it a B+.

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• From B grade to A grade!

  DoNotTrustImdb2012-02-27

  Yeah yeah here we go again, another try by Stone Cold Steve Austin trying to be an actor, so far all his films are the forgettable type. But not this one, no way there is a road to the Oscars for this film, but I was entertained and thought the acting was OK, good supporting cast, not bad fighting scenes, and loved that American muscle car. I sort of felt like I had seen this film before as the story line has been done before in other films, it sort of felt like an early Schwarzenegger 80's action kind film, OK to watch, and good enough for me to say Steve has lost that B grade tag. I would give it a 7.5, but the great IMDb would only let me pick a 7 or a 8, not good enough for a 8, so 7 is more than a fair score.

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• Routine at best, tiresome at worst

  Wizard-82012-03-15

  First of all, I should mention that I enjoy a lot of made-for-video movies, so you might understand why I was pumped up when I got my hands on a copy of RECOIL, because it starred not only Steve Austin, but Danny Trejo. However, I have to confess that I felt somewhat let down by the end results. The production values are okay, though some of the photography has that dark look you find in a lot of other low budget Canadian movies. But the screenplay is lacking, making a lot of time go by between action sequences, and containing plot elements and characters we have see A LOT before in other B movies. The action sequences, when they do come, aren't very exciting. And while Steve Austin and Danny Trejo do bring some presence to the movie simply by showing up, they don't deliver that much more - maybe they too found this story routine and predictable as well, and didn't think it was worth the effort to be more energetic. I guess the movie deserves some praise for giving some of my fellow Canadians some work in front of and behind the camera - but that's about all that's positive about this movie.

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• Repercussions

  kosmasp2012-11-26

  First things first: If you like brawl fighting, this will be your thing. It also won an award for this fighting, so the stunt people (coordinators) must have done something right. Apart from that the story is nothing special, you've seen it before. But it has a charismatic Steve Austin and a very good Danny Trejo in it. Serinda Swan fills in the beautiful woman in distress department. Effort is really good, but the story still lacks a punch here and there. It really begs you to suspend your disbelief, especially right before the big finale. Morality might not be the strongest theme in this movie, but it will do the job, if you don't expect much

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