Review: Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday (2022)

Scott Adkins returns as Mike Fallon, the title orchestrator of ‘accidental’ assassinations. After getting on the wrong side of his boss (the late Ray Stevenson) in the first film, Mike has been hiding out in Malta carrying out his trade in different surrounds. He eventually bumps into a familiar face, explosives expert Finicky Fred (Perry Benson) and before long the two are teaming up for business purposes. Eventually they are hired by crime boss Faminia Cinque to protect her idiot son (George Fouracres) from the assassins trying to rub him out.


Although director Jesse V. Johnson dipped out of this one, some of the original “Accident Man” cast and crew are back for this 2022 sequel directed this time by debutants The Kirby Brothers. Based again on the Pat Mills comic book, there’s an inevitable drop in quality this time out (the first is one of Scott Adkins’ best films to date), but not nearly as much as you might expect. Scripted once again by Stu Small (“Triple Threat”, “Avengement”) from a story by he and star Adkins, it’s still a pretty watchable vehicle for the martial arts star.


As before Adkins seems to be having fun getting to be silly, and his Mike Fallon is as much of a masochistic dickhead as ever. This time, instead of getting into pub fights to ‘decompress’, he hires an Asian woman to beat him up on occasion. It’s such a twisted character and worldview. This one’s a little more comedic than the first film, with henchmen breaking their hands hittting Fallon on the head, and some of the contraptions Fallon and old comrade Fred (a returning Perry Benson in fine form) come up with are amusing too. Especially funny is George Fouracres as a onesie-wearing, bad karaoke-singing entitled heir to a big crime family. This character is peak Leo Getz-levels of annoying (and funny). He gets the film’s funniest line when referring to Fallon: ‘You look like a fucking melted Ben Affleck!’.


The film also doesn’t skimp on the action, as Adkins certainly doesn’t seem to have slowed any with age here. He even gets to show off some weapon fighting skills against…a supposed vampire from Ghana. Jolly good fun. Look out for the bloody marvellous bit with a dislodged eye as well. The highlight of the entire film is a fight with a guy named Oyumi (Andreas Nguyen) who has skills in Ninjutsu. The very clear low-light is the seemingly indestructible clown assassin (Beau Fowler). I think we were meant to be way more amused at that than I actually was, I found it a touch too goofy even for this universe.


A slight step down from the first film but this one’s still enjoyable enough to recommend to fans. Moderate expectations may be the key.


Rating: B-

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