Legacy of Lies

Scott Adkins is always watchable, but the man has a few turkeys in his back catalogue and unfortunately, Legacy Of Lies is one. He plays Martin Baxter, a former MI6 Agent living with his 12 year old daughter in a dingy Peckham flat. He works as a bouncer and has a side hustle as a cage fighter, but is also a broken man, tormented by the memory of a mission gone bad.

Then one day, the daughter of a dead friend turns up asking for his help. Before he can even answer, bullets start flying and Baxter winds up in the middle of an intricate spy web, trying to retrieve a MacGuffin that could bring down the Russian Government.

This is definitely more Bourne than Boyka, but it misses the mark. There's a couple of cracking action scenes in here, including a nightclub shoot out and a short but memorable punch-up with Leon Sua, but otherwise it drags. The final confrontation on a bridge is disappointing and the film is so unsubtle, there's literally a scene where one character turns to face the camera and explains the title.

It's not terrible, but it's not amazing either. Legacy Of Lies is okay. It's all right. And credit to the cinematographer, Kiev looks amazing. But if you're an Adkins fan, this is way down on the list of his essential movies.

Folks who make movie trailers-not movies, should get academy awards cause the preview of this film convinced me to buy it; stupid me. It's plot is confusing, the characters are cardboard, the daughter is annoying, the "action scenes " are...yawn inducing. Scott Adkins is handsome and believable in his kick-but skills, I can't say anything else that's positive about this film.

Legacy of Lies attempts to be a tier-1 actioner but it's really a tier-2 or -3 with its cast of inexperienced unknowns. Filmed in parts of Europe, mostly in hollowed-out Ukraine it appears, this is writer/director Adrian Bol's first feature film so he's got a few lessons to learn. Honor Kneafsey plays young teen daughter "Lisa" to "Martin" (the lead) but her character seems wrong for the whole situation, and her throwback Shirley Temple look is really obtuse. Plausibility suffers too when semi-automatic pistols prevail over automatic machine guns, really?! If you do sit through this, please tell me your cost was $0.

Scott is a talented action star and has been in many films over the last 20 years, always playing the same type of character, and never seems to improve his acting ability.

Perhaps it's the directors and poor scripts but after a while you realize that it's him. He's just as good as he's ever going to get and that's average and all the movies where he is a lead look the same.

There's enough Adkins fights and action to hold you over until the Isaac Florentine directed "Seized" gets released. This isn't a Florentine or Jesse V. Johnson flick but, if you're an Adkins fan, a true fan, you'll like this movie.