3 Star

Vengeance All Around.

Once again, writer/director Brian Skiba (The 2nd, Dirty Little Trick) ventures into the action film genre. This time, the innocent are already dead, and now it is time for vengeance. With plenty of gunfire and explosions, this will keep you entertained for the ninety-five minutes.

Rick Calloway (Emile Hirsch, Into the Wild, Force of Nature) is a top class hacker that is unknown to the authorities, due to his hacking skills. He is on the trail of the persons unknown that have kidnapped his wife. On the dark-web, he has put up a fifty bitcoin reward for information. He even searches to see if she has been arrested and when he gets a lead, ‘Thanatos’ connects with him, showing his wife alive, but tied up and gagged. He hands over the reward, but then there is silence.

Where is my wife?

Ask Salvador De Leon is the only reply. A big drug lord in New York and beyond, Rick now has a target for his pent-up frustration. His frustration is of the murderous kind, and he targets a drug deal in a motel room. This room is also a sting by NYPD drugs department, with Nikki Styles (Laurie Love, Anatomy of Deception, Slaughter Creek) camped out in the usual van parked around the corner where she can see everything happening in the room. That is Sal (Martin Peña, Assassin 33 A.D., Submission) and his two associates, awaiting their buyer, who is Mike Breslin (Jake Manley, Midway, Hotwired in Suburbia) our undercover drug officer along with his imposing friend. The deal starts as Rick and associate turn up and the bullets start flying, and Mike has to become acrobatic defending himself. With Rick shooting up the place as Mike takes cover, he has words with Sal.

Where is may wife. You touched her.

One of Rick’s problems is that his father is Jack Calloway (John Cusack, Grosse Pointe Blank, High Fidelity) is also in the drug supply and demand trade, and he has Rick’s son living with him, but Rick still wants nothing to do with him. Jack knows a lot of bad people, and he doesn’t want them going after Rick, but all these bad people cannot exist in the same place without something kicking off. That’s where Mike and his new sidekick Zoe Carter (Elizabeth Faith Ludlow, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2) come in, but there are bad people at every turn. Even when you think you have your man.

John Cusack plays the Stoic father figure as all around him is turned upside down, it is his kid that causes all the trouble. With twists and turns and explosions, this will keep you entertained for the duration.