So far, very unoriginal. Starts w/ cliché mob boss sending "snitch"/rat into river. Then opening credits that try to combine 007 with martial arts with modern comic book movie credits.
First, some technical stuff. It was shot in HD Digital. Everything is crisp and clean, but it has that surreal look that come from color correction. There were scenes shot either handheld or with a jimmy-rigged steady system that should have been done on a tripod. Action scenes can be done hand held to get the "you are there" feel to it, but not a conversation. One last technical detail: the editing. Some cuts are too long, some too short, and some just don't follow the three-shot sequence (long, medium, closeup, or vice versa) properly and that all conspires to take the viewer out of the scene.
So this movie is a bunch of action flick clichés running one right after another. RVD plays Bobby Kalinowski, a seeming regular guy, that gets invited out by his new neighbors. His wife gets attacked, and the attacker accidentally stabs himself when RVD defends her. Turns out the would-be rapist is the brother of the city's big bad from the opening scene, who puts out a 100K bounty on RVD. After the group returns to the police station after getting attacked by a bunch of cliché gang-bangers, RVD flashes an ID at the on-the-take detective proclaiming him "Special Services," whatever that means. Never saw any of that before (yeah right). Along with the 1-dimensional archetype bad guys, you get a cameo by Viscera. Big Dave Bautista (who for some reason is on the cover as if he were the main character) also plays a part as BR, a former member of RVD's old Navy Seal team that refuses to help, and tells RVD to get lost "Before I decide to collect the bounty myself."
Based on the crooked cop's explanation to the big baddie, RVD is the type of ex-Navy Seal that produced every one of Steven Seagal's and Lorenzo Lamas's characters. The elite of the elite. The kind of guy that can kill the most hardened of criminal with a slight glance of a pinky. Hell, he falls off a building about a third of the way through the movie, and thought it gives him a limp, it barely slows him down. He also get shot at one point, but it barely bleeds, and he is able to pull out the bullet with a home first aid kit and patch it up with a gauze pad. He is AWE-some, I guess.
A musical cue based on his "Respect Walk" entrance theme plays as he heads out to the final fight at –where else – the docks in his "I retired from the seals 15 years ago but still have my ass-kicking Navy Seal gear" kit. I won't spoil the ending, but I'm sure you can guess.
So, in conclusion, this is total Direct-to-DVD stuff. 10 years ago, it would have starred Steven Seagal or Lorenzo Lamas. It's up to you if you think that's good or bad.
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