Day of Reckoning

This movie is so poorly written it's almost bizarre. There are certainly a lot of characters in this movie but in order to enjoy a film, especially a thriller/crime drama with supposed good guys and bad guys, most people need someone to root for. So in this film are we suppose to root for the weak, lame-brained, gullible, naïve sheriff, the lady bank robber who is also an admitted killer, her killer bank robber boyfriend or Trace Adkins in a small role. On top of turning the worst or at least most moronic characters into the ones we are suppose to be rooting for, the writers decided that some characters should completely change personalities to advance the plot. The movie is well made, the acting is ok, Billy Zane stands out as excellent, but the plot completely fails every actors best effort to make this an enjoyable movie. It may come as a strange compliment but Zach Roerig plays an almost mentally challenged sheriff really well. His lead character is so unlikeable , almost an anti-hero, that it ruins the entire movie.

A nice unrealistic semi-western set in the present time that needed to be a series with 7-8 episodes. As it is, many wrong decisions were made, random unrealistic ones, they fought each other clumsily, shot at each other with disdain and even the mini romance there could have been more elaborate with an unlikely romantic ending. That they needed to do with more hotness in the air.

The acting was good, the cast more or less famous and played well, just the script and the turn of events were the weakest links of 'Day of Reckoning'.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 3
• Production value/impact: 4.5
• Development: 4.5
• Realism: 4
• Entertainment: 4.5
• Acting: 5
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 7.5
• VFX: 7
• Music/score/sound: 5.5
• Depth: 3
• Logic: 2.5
• Flow: 5
• Martial arts/contemporary western/action/thriller/drama: 4.5
• Ending: 4.5.

Not really your typical action western film but I still brings a punch of excitement with how much action the films has. Scott Adkins delivers in the greatest way possible. Scott adkins martial arts/ hand to hand combat scenes were amazing and blew me away. Everybody pretty much had decent acting and the shootouts were also very fun and exciting to watch. This movie is better than most modern westerns and it delivers to its fullest. Billy Zane does a great job playing as a Marshall hunting down Adkins character who happens to be Kyle Rusk, the head of a bank robbing biker gang. Definitely recommend this film to anyone.

Ignore the high ratings from the crew members and bots. The acting is good and all the technical things one would expect to be good like the cinematography, audio, editing and so on are there. No, that is not where this film fails. Once again, like pretty much everything else media companies pump out these days, the problem lies in the writing. I found myself constantly being dragged out of the film because I kept asking myself, "Why would they do that?" and saying things like, "That doesn't make any sense."

Now, I'm not going to spoil anything for anyone so don't expect me to give you any examples. I'm sure you're here because you've already seen the movie and if you haven't, I'm sure my opinion isn't going to stop you. And if I'm being honest, I stopped watching in the middle because I'm tired and old and I don't want to waste my time with a movie that can't be bothered to at least try and hire someone who can actually write something with a little thought put into it. So, I'll just end this with my recommendation to not waste your time either.

Scott Adkins is one of my go to actor that i pretty much have to watch anything he is in. Sometimes for the better, but others for the worst. It was obvious from the trailer he was gonna play the bad guy and there didn't seem to be a lot of martial arts, that said i still had to watch it.

Turn out the movie was actually better than i expected. Its obvious this has been shot on a low budget with very few filming locations, but everything look pretty good. Gunshots look great, and looked all done practical. I didn't noticed those cheap CGI blood splatter that often plague low budget action movies.

I was interested in the characters and i really liked Cara Jade Myers who play Emily. Lot of the movie is centered around her and her dynamic with the Sheriff who got dragged into this by Marshal Hayden (Billy Zane) vendetta against Kyle Rusk (Adkins), her husband.

When it comes to Scott Adkins himself, he does not have that much of screen time. He plays the vilain sure, and you do get action from him, but the movie center more around the Sheriff, the Marshals and Emily. Scott does an American accent rather well compare to his british native accent, but beside that he is very "basic" as a vilain. Basically the movie would had been the same without Scott playing the role. But thats not to say he was not good for what he was given.

Overall i am surprise that i actually enjoyed this movie as much as i did. Because on paper it is a very generic run of the mill direct to video action movie (it had a limited theatrical run but you get what i mean).

Yet the characters, the actors portring them, they all enhanced the movie and made it interesting to follow. The gun fights were well done and looked great, so that also help elevate it.

This will be another 7 out of 10, a movie i enjoyed, had a good time with, but thats it. It does nothing original or ground breaking, its not one that i see myself rewatching in the near futur, but it brough me entertainement on a beers movie night.