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.

I felt like there was also an innovative movie here. The antihero was very interesting and should have been the focus of the movie. Instead it just became a run of the mill revenge flick and focused on the wrong character.

It's well acted and has good production value but, in the end, the redeeming qualities surrounded the cameos and the soundtrack. The rotating one-night only releases is also a marketing gimmick. I fell for both of them...

I feel like the names (i.e. Jacoby Shaddix, Five Finger Death Punch, Tommy Lee) was more of a marketing gimmick than of any real value.

Best leave this for when it becomes available on a streaming service.

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.

This is simply bad and not worth watching based on the acting and poor directing. Definitely feels like someone had some resources meaning money to do a move but wasn't able to cast properly and hire directors capable of making something good and worthwhile.

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]