Not even John Wayne

Rating: 4/10 (17 June 2015)

If you love fast paced action, where the hero recovers from numerous crippling assaults and stabbings, (that would kill any bad guy) faster than you can say Jack be Nimble... this is the movies for you. Story line is very very simple, acting mediocre, but fully action paced to the hilt. Our hero, kills at least 84 bad guys, including the 'Big Boss' and effectively takes out the whole Russian Mafia: All because the Big Boss' son kills his dog and steals his car. Our hero makes Superman, Batman and Spider-Man look like kindergarten babes as he wisks through more than 80 thugs and trained killers and underworld henchmen like a 300km/hr tornado. The movie starts off with our hero collapsing (you think he dies) due to a mortal stomach wound, then it flashes back to fill in the intervening events, and ends with our hero rising like a Phoenix out of the ashes, as good as new (almost) for what could only be a the first step towards a future sequel. After beating and killing over 80 trained and ruthless mobsters, our hero is given a very good hiding by a female assassin, just hours after he was patched up from a previous almost fatal beating and stabbing. and a day or two later, the only way he can disarm and beat a much older (and nowhere near as fit or capable as our hero) Crime Boss is to let the crime boss stab him in the pre-existing stomach wound so he could take the knife off him and stab/kill him; perhaps this is where our hero's batteries were running low.Though not all is far fetched fantasy because this is one of a very few movies where the hero's gun runs out of bullets as any normal gun would, and we do see him reloading a few times. Apart from the miraculous recoveries (more than once) of our hero, the movie does have some somber or comical scenes to break up the voluminous killings, like when our hero goes to a classy hotel (akin to a sanctuary or demilitarized zone, where only assassins, hit men and criminals are allowed entry, to gather, stay and unwind or just take a breather from their hectic routine), with very stringent rules where any transgression carries an immediate death sentence: as ones greedy guest discovers. And for the car enthusiasts, our hero does do some very impressive driving/pursuit scenes. Pity because with a bit of toning down on the outlandish stunts and super recovery from serious injuries, this could have been a much better film.