Review: One Shot

Scott Adkins leads an elite Navy SEAL team who arrive at a high-security CIA black-ops prison site. There they are met by CIA analyst Ashley Greene-Khoury as they are to escort a British citizen with possible terrorist ties (Waleed Elgadi) off the island the prison is situated on. He claims to be an innocent man, but the CIA feel he knows vital information about an impending terrorist attack. Meanwhile, a group of Algerian insurgents (led by Jess Liaudin and Lee Charles) arrive to rub out the prisoner, and a shootout/siege ensues. Ryan Phillippe plays the prison head with a distrust of Greene-Khoury, whilst Terence Maynard (from Adkins’ enjoyable “Accident Man”) turns up as an underling of Phillippe’s.

 

So far as one-take films go, this 2021 action flick from director James Nunn (Adkins’ quite watchable “Eliminators”) and his co-writer Jamie Russell (whose previous experience is short film scripts) has one thing over Alfred Hitchcock’s experimental “Rope” – Nunn doesn’t appear to employ any cheeky ‘hidden’ edits. Although some online have been sceptical, to my eyes this one appears to be the real deal. So while the plot couldn’t be more simplistic and the characters not much more layered, at least this film achieves what it sets out to do in cinematic terms. It’s good, clever action filmmaking and OK storytelling. It must’ve been so damn hard to make this in just one take. Imagine if someone knocks over a light or something comes into shot that wasn’t meant to be there, and then having to start over again. That’s difficult enough with a drama, let alone an action film with gunfire, explosions and choreography to take into account. The blockbuster war movie “1917” is probably the closest comparison.

 

The performances here aren’t brilliant, but they’re better than I expected. Scott Adkins’ American accent is having a good day here, his best moments are action scenes that are away from the other protagonists while he quietly and efficiently dispatches terrorist goons. It’s not a showy, swaggering performance like in “Accident Man” or the “Undisputed” sequels, but it’s one of his most assured and charismatic turns nonetheless. The man is bad arse personified, and I can’t wait to see him in “John Wick 4” (hopefully in a sizeable role). Ashley Greene-Khoury is surprisingly rather good in these surrounds, a bit like a less tiny Anna Kendrick. Ryan Phillippe has no issues convincing as a total dick, but his character is underwritten to the point where his motives seem jarring. We don’t know him well enough for his behaviour to seem convincing. As the two lead terrorists, Jess Liaudin and Lee Charles are good value, quite possibly giving the best performances in the film. They are refreshingly business-like and ice-cold, nicely matching the cool and calm team Adkins heads up.

 

The action is impressively choreographed and shot under the circumstances, though this is more gunfire-heavy than martial arts. It’s actually fun to watch it all play out like a highly rehearsed 90 minute dance sequence…with headshots. The filmmaking gimmick means there’s none of the quick-cut bullshit of many action film fights, so that’s a big plus. The downside is that the action is a bit less gracefully shot at the same time. The climactic fight between Adkins and French performer Jess Liaudin is particularly terrific, the previous bout between Adkins and Brit fighter Lee Charles only suffering from brevity. Meanwhile, look out for the extraordinary bit where one poor terrorist ends up being pretty much pressured into being a suicide bomber by Liaudin.

 

This is solid and commendable action filmmaking with a well-executed gimmick and solid performances. You do wish the characters and story had more meat, but given the gimmick and action aesthetic, it may have been difficult – especially from a pacing point of view. Solidly done with no visible cheats that I could see, and a commendably high body count.

 

Rating: B-