Main cast: Scott Adkins (Cain Burgess), Craig Fairbrass (Lincoln Burgess), Thomas Turgoose (Tune), Nick Moran (Hyde), Kierston Wareing (Bez), Mark Strange (Clif), Leo Gregory (Mo), Luke Lafontaine (Chas), Beau Fowler (Vern), Dan Styles (Newbold), Christopher Sciueref (Yeates), Jane Thorne (Mrs Burgess), and Louis Mandylor (Dectective O’Hara)
Director: Jesse V Johnson

Jesse V Johnson once again collaborates with Scott Adkins, this time to deliver Avengement, a no-nonsense old-fashioned beat-’em-up and guns show designed to thrill the audience with things and people being broken and shot up.

Basically, we have Cain Burgess, a fairly decent guy – for a shady sort, that is – who ends up in prison as a result of his brother Lincoln setting him up as payback for refusing to throw a fight that Lincoln had a lot of money riding on. Luckily for Cain, he knows how to fight, but still, his years behind the slammer leave him a scarred, angry, and bitter man out for revenge.

While the movie attempts to have some quirky banter and humorous nitwit gangster antics – see Tune, the moron – this one won’t be mistaken for, say, a Guy Ritchie film anytime soon. It wisely knows not to try too hard, instead of focusing more on tough talk and manly man bust-ups. Scott Adkins is also a surprise here, as he plays very well the morally ambiguous guy who has gone through hell and doesn’t really care much about honor and all that crap anymore.

This one doesn’t have many surprises, just the story of a guy who learns the hard way that maybe being too nice to a criminal brother isn’t the smartest thing to do. I don’t really have any complaints with it, aside from how it isn’t a very long movie and hence there isn’t much room for character development. Does it matter, though? Avengement is one of those few no-CGI, no BS straight-up guts-and-bullets movies that deliver what they set out to do, and it’d most likely satisfy people who know what they are going to get out of it.