Review: Seized

Set in Mexico, Scott Adkins stars as a widowed former special forces op and parent to a moody teenage son (played Matthew Garbacz). After being drugged with a poison dart or some such, Adkins awakens to find his son has been kidnapped and a drug cartel boss (Mario Van Peebles, wearing a black cowboy hat) wants him to do some special favours to get the kid back. Basically, he wants Adkins to wipe out his competition. Karlee Perez plays Van Peebles’ main squeeze.

 

Director Isaac Florentine and star Scott Adkins are usually a good pairing (“Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” in particular is outstanding), and that trend pretty much continues with this 2020 action movie. It’s not their best offering but it’s certainly better than the first “Ninja” movie, their only dud to date that I’ve seen. Scripted by Richard Lowry (a writer-director-editor who made something called “President Evil” about a deranged killer in a hybrid Trump and Michael Myers costume), the plot is high concept action stuff, combining two familiar ideas into one: The innocent person tasked with performing misdeeds to get their kidnapped loved one back, and secondly the drug baron trying to wipe out his competition. The combination of the two is at least a bit more fresh, and Adkins is certainly more appealing in the lead than Ruby Rose was in the similar but dreadfully dull “Vanquish”.

 

Adkins is a widower with a kid again, this time a smart arse teen son. It’s neither his best nor worst performance, and he’s much better here in action mode. It takes about 20 minutes to get there, but once it does, Florentine and Adkins give us a blend of gunfire and martial arts. Holy crap Adkins sure is still a bad arse to behold here. He doesn’t fuck around and at times seems “John Wick” levels of unstoppable. It’s quite violent, though Florentine’s visual flourishes occasionally mask the bloodshed a bit. Florentine probably didn’t need to indulge in first-person shooter gimmickry, but it’s kinda fun for a moment or two. I was more interested in Adkins spin-kicking the fuck out of people while hand-cuffed. That’s a helluva thing. The issue is that there’s not quite enough action. As for the rest of the cast, it’s interesting to see former NXT/WWE performer Karlee Perez, but she’s basically given a nothing role. Amusing himself greatly is Mario Van Peebles as essentially the main villain here. Sporting a bad Hispanic accent for much of the film – is his character even meant to be Hispanic? I have no clue – it’s pretty much the furthest thing from a good performance (I’ve rarely seen him give a good performance), but amusing he certainly is.

 

Quite enjoyable on the B level, though with perhaps not quite enough action to elevate it higher. This is the film “Vanquish” wishes it were, but could never be.

 

Rating: B-

 

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