The Retaliators

Michael Lombardi is the aptly named "Bishop" - he's a rural pastor - who traditionally shuns confrontation and generally encourages others to do the same. Until, that is, his daughter has a run in with a gangland hoodlum who has a car stashed with cocaine, loot - and a man who is not in great shape. She attempts to flee but while being chased chooses to ring her dad, rather than 911 (or maybe drive off in the general direction of the police station!?). Anyway, the remainder of this terribly lacklustre revenge thriller follows dad's attempts to avenge his daughter. For a previously gentle man, he adapts to the brutality of his new environment with an ease that made me think that if Sigourney Weaver had had him in the "Alien" films, those acid bleeding critters wouldn't have lasted twenty minutes. That's really the problem here. The scenario is just daft. Right from the get go when we have an altercation over a Christmas tree through to the very end, it's all just predictable and implausible tosh. The acting is college project standard, as is the writing and the direction. Indeed, quite how this got a cinema release at all is a far more worthy and ponderous question than anything raised by the script. Nope, I really wouldn't bother.

This is an enjoyable movie, just don't expect it to be the next Saw. This is more of a soundtrack movie than a horror movie. That's probably why a lot of the lower level characters are played by members of the band by the same name who also wrote the theme song. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot that are big misses in the movie, but if you're bored and just want a good revenge movie to watch this will fill that pretty easily. It's not on the level of I Spit on your Grave, American Merry, or any of the other great revenge horror, but its watchable.

The acting is sub par, but that's on point for the genre.

First off horror is my favorite genre and I've watched just about everything out there worth watching. I consider myself to be a somewhat manly man who enjoys lots of action and bloody action at that! After watching the trailer I figured this was definitely the movie for that and I was really looking forward to it!

My first problem is that it took way too long to get to any of that action I previously spoke of and second it had more of a slapstick feel to it instead of a straight up "kick butt, take names" feel that I definitely would have preferred for this type of movie. It's like they couldn't figure out who they wanted to be so they figured they would try both which for me just didn't work. If they would have just went with the same stuff they gave in the trailer, and doled out a lot more of it, I think it would have really worked good.

I give it a 5 out of 10 because again it was okay but could have been something great!

Better than a movie featuring the singer of Papa Roach has any right to be, "The Retaliators" is a fun revenge thriller, that switches between genres, offering just enough twist and turns (and a bonkers ending) to stay engaging.

The acting is not bad, with a certain Z Nation actor being the highlight.

The movie starts off with Bishop and his two daughters trying to buy a Christmas tree when all of a sudden some guy claims their tree as his. He acts like a douche and pushes Bishop away and after they get home the older daughter Sarah asks him why he didn't act. Bishop uses this scenario to talk about in his preaching the next day and says that revenge is not the answer.

Later that evening his daughter Sarah gets murdered by a guy for finding out that there is someone in his trunk. During his mourning he encounters a detective whose wife was also killed years before. He tells Bishop that he found the guy who killed his daughter and he wants to give him the chance to take vengeance. At that point a brutal and twisted story begins and Bishop has to go through a lot of character development to be able to survive.

The movie definitely has its shock value in the brutality and does not shy away to show it. And even though there is some weird pacing and editing at times the movie is able to entertain for its run time. The movies strengths are in the sheer brutality and action that come in the third act and also in the character development from Bishop. It's no masterpiece but I think that it did a decent job with how the story turned out. [5,8/10]