Drenched in nineties vibes and featuring a banging soundtrack, Accident Man is a solid B action movie. Sure, the opening thirty minutes are a bit messy and over-the-top but there’s enough meat on the bones here to keep you munching for ninety minutes. One of the heftier chunks is none other than Ray Stevenson who gave another great performance. However, Accident Man is Scott Adkins’ baby. He bought the rights and even wrote the script for this graphic novel adaptation. They were going for that late aughts sleek visual style.
You know the one I’m talking about, the one featured in The Tournament, Smoking Aces or Shoot Em Up. If you want to see how it looks updated to modern standards, do check out Atomic Blonde. So, we will be following Mike Fallon, a hitman who makes his kills look like accidents. A man who was just doing his job when something happened that put him on a path of revenge. You might even say a path of Avengement. Accident Man features a lot of fighting and a lot of humor all wrapped into a nice little story that’s easy to watch.
It’s one of those movies you will forget as soon as it’s finished but it will leave you in a good mood. You can see that they tried their best on a relatively limited budget. Additionally, I really appreciate their brutal and quite old-school approach to action scenes. For example, after a successful hit, Mike likes to blow off steam in a local bar fighting bad guys. It’s a bit rougher around the edges but so were all those great movies of my childhood.
Meet Mike Fallon, an experienced hitman who just pulled off another successful job. He’s part of a group of professional assassins hanging out in “The Oasis”, a bar run by Big Ray. This is the place where they trade stories and get their new assignments. Everything seems to be going well for Mike but one day all of that is going to change. For the first time, he will be the one who’s supposed to end up dead. However, knowing just how good he is, that will be quite a mission.
Now, the first twenty minutes of the Accident Man may be a bit bumpy for some of you. They were going all-in with this casual and “cool” vibe, overdoing it a couple of times. Just get to the first “accident” Mike sets up and you should be fine. I wish there were more of them as each was quite clever and well-executed. And since this movie was well received by the audiences, we can expect a couple of sequels. I’m sure Scott wouldn’t mind coming back as Mike and that’s the most important thing.
I know that some people don’t like him and see him as a discount Jason Statham but I think that’s quite unfair. And I think those people didn’t see him as anyone other than Boyka from the Undisputed franchise. Do give him a chance and you won’t regret it. And you can start with this movie, Accident Man. I did something similar and found myself hungry for more of these casual action movies. It felt like I was taking my brain on vacation while simultaneously having a bit of a laugh.
Director: Jesse V. Johnson
Writers: Scott Adkins, Pat Mills, Stu Small
Cast: Scott Adkins, Ray Stevenson, Ashley Greene, Michael Jai White, David Paymer, Amy Johnston
Fun Facts: Scott Adkins is a huge fan of the original comic book, hoping he could turn it into a movie since he was a teenager.
Rating:
IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6237612/
