When it was first released in the US last year, James Nunn’s One Shot was well revived with those in the action genre hailing it as the best action film in a long while. Starring Scott Adkins who has quietly been going about his business carving out a niche in the straight to video action genre and One Shot is probably his best role to date.
In an effort to prevent a terrorist attack on Washington D.C., an elite squad of Navy SEALs led by Lt. Jake Harris and junior CIA analyst Zoe Anderson must retrieve a detainee from a CIA black site on a remote island. Tensions flare as site manager Jack Yorke refuses to release the suspected terrorist based solely on Anderson’s intel, but when the base comes under attack by waves of insurgents, they must band together to complete the mission.
One Shot is what you get if Call Of Duty made 1917. Like those gamers who are stuck on a certain level, we follow in the action in one continuous shot (See what they did there). Smoothly transitioning between various protagonists, One Shot easily engages the viewer once you get the first 10 minutes, which consists of a first person view wobbly-cam but once we get into the action proper it works like a week oiled machine.
The cast handle all the action well with Adkins joined by Ryan Phillips and Ashley Greene for some mid level star appeal. Adkins however delivers his best all round performance while he’s kicking butt and taking names, or dispatching the seemingly unending supply of bad guys via bullets and knives, echo sequence is technically better than the last, from the close quarters battle with Dhelkor (Lee Charles) which while short shows two martial arts stars just simply throwing down and beating each other up to his battle with insurgent leader Hakim (Former UFC star Jess Lauidin) which ends in bloody style is simply brutally brilliant.
One Shot succeeds on many levels, it doesn’t outstay its welcome, Adkins is the star and promoted that way, the action is brutal, fast moving, intense and at times as claustrophobic as Aliens, when our heroes are hunkered down with no escape from the marauding bad guys.
It may or may not be the best action film of recent years, but one thing is for sure it’s certainly worth checking out as soon as you can. A new bar in low budget action films has certainly now been set.
