Recoil Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Recoil Blu-ray Movie Review

. . .in horror?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 10, 2012

Gosh, here’s an idea that’s never ever been done before: a nice, decent guy, a cop in fact, is beset by the horrific tragedy of having his family murdered, and then he sets off on a testosterone fueled quest to avenge their deaths by personally hunting down the bad guys who did the dirty deed. But, wait, you also get: not content to simply be an avenging angel with regard to the criminals who killed his family, the good cop decides there are a bunch of other nasty villains out there who somehow managed to escape the not quite long enough arm of the law, and he single handedly (well, almost) decides that his new life’s mission will be to bring all of those bad guys to justice as well. The number of films that have used at least part of this set up are legion, including everything from the many Bronson Death Wish outings to more recondite fare like The Star Chamber. So did the cincema world really need something else utilizing this hackneyed premise? Judging by the results of Recoil, a straight to video outing starring Stone Cold Steve Austin (in yet another attempt to establish an acting career), the answer would be a pretty firm “no”. This is by the numbers filmmaking, not even populated by very exciting action scenes. It’s competent, and it kills time effectively enough, but that’s really about all it is and does. Austin has an appealing enough persona but he’s no Dwayne Johnson, and if that doesn’t make you laugh, simply start watching Recoil. You’re more or less guaranteed to be giggling within the first few minutes.

To be fair, Recoil at least attempts to shake things up with a nonlinear storyline that plunks the viewer down in media res, as we encounter a trio of hunters attempting to waste a little bunny rabbit with a submachine gun. That’s one of the intentionally hilarious moments in the film, perhaps the last. The lead hunter heads off on his own where he soon finds himself the hunted, by our Stone Cold star of course. Need it be said that the hunter’s demise is imminent? A quick segue lets us know that the FBI is on the trail of a vigilante who has been “taking care of business” that the justice system has let fall through the cracks, and this latest killing seems to be the vigilante’s most recent handiwork. Slowly but surely, in dribs and drabs, Recoil fills in the back story that has brought Austin to this course of action.

Austin next shows up in a rundown backwater called Hope (one must assume not the town that Bill Clinton grew up in), on whose welcome sign someone has scrawled “less” after the town name, a suitable description for a one street nowhere with just a few buildings. Now this is where the film gets unintentionally funny. It seems virtually the entire criminal class that Austin has been chasing is holed up in this backwater. And, even funnier, the FBI knows about this criminal element, which includes the ATF’s Most Wanted bad guy (played by Danny Trejo), and yet they evidently aren't quite smart enough to actually go there to make any arrests. No wonder the wheels of justice need a little Stone Cold greasing.

Alert readers may have noticed that no character names have been utilized in this review, and that’s because there really aren’t any characters in this film, only types. There’s the strong, silent good guy (Austin of course), the hyperbolically evil bad guy (Trejo of course), the pretty victimized woman (Serinda Swan), the well meaning deputy (Adam Greydon Reid) out to set his sheriff father’s mistakes, and assorted hangers on, each of whom can be described with a couple of adjectives and a noun. Everything plays out exactly as expected, without even a glimmer of surprise. In fact about the only unexpected thing here is the fact that Trejo doesn’t go down for the count instantaneously in his expected final showdown with Austin. Is there anyone who seriously believes Trejo in any way, shape or form could put up a decent fight against someone of Austin’s mass? Evidently the filmmakers do.

This isn’t an outright horrible film by any stretch, but it’s also completely uninspired. Austin is once again the strong, silent and stolid type which in and of itself robs him of any chance to actually act, if that is indeed his goal. Trejo just chews the scenery and is at least a fun villain. Swan is arguably the film’s one redeeming grace. She’s believable without overdoing the victim bit, which is refreshing. Recoil has a surprising lack of kick-ass action sequences, and even the few that are in the film are filmed and edited rather peculiarly, with lots of midrange close-ups that don’t adequately show very many of the great moves that made Austin famous.

Austin actually has a great deal of screen presence, but he needs to get out of this kind of fare if he ever wants to be thought of anything other than a musclebound knucklehead. Recoil is a completely pat enterprise that virtually defines what the straight to video market is made for. This is a film just about entirely without ambitions, and it achieves them pretty much as you'd expect it to.

Recoil Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Recoil is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Nasser Group North and Vivendi Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is yet another RED shot film that has the shiny smooth surface quality so endemic to digitally shot movies. The nice thing is this seems to have undergone very little tweaking at the DI stage, and so filtering is kept to a minimum and colors for the most part are well saturated and accurate. There are some minor compression artifacts on display, including some shimmer in the opening forest sequences and a couple of moments of instability leading to very minor aliasing at various moments. But generally this high definition presentation sports very nice clarity and sharpness, especially in close-ups, which reveal some very nice fine detail.

Recoil Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Recoil's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is surprisingly anemic for a supposed action film like this. Surround activity is pretty limited, though there are some occasional nice panning effects when Austin roars down the road in his souped up 1968 Plymouth. Even the two big explosions that dot the film don't offer overwhelming LFE or fantastic immersion. There's nothing downright horrible here, and in fact fidelity and dynamic range are both excellent, but action film aficionados are going to wonder where the "oomph" in this audio mix is. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly presented, but uniformly anchored front and center, as are almost all of the ambient environmental effects.

Recoil Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Recoil (HD 7:50) features the requisite interviews (most extolling the virtues of Steve Austin) and scenes from the film.


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 5:18) offers a few more establishing scenes for Austin's character.


• Trailer (HD; 1:25)

Recoil Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

What does it say about a film that the most convincing performance is given by a Plymouth GTX 440? Well, that's not completely fair— Serinda Swan is nominally better than the car, but only because she's at least a little prettier. (The former two sentences are jokes, in case anyone was wondering.) Recoil just ticks off the clichés, one after the other, and never does anything with them. The film is completely ludicrous on any number of levels and doesn't even have the courage to play that ridiculousness for a few laughs (meaning the intentional kind). Even the action sequences here are pretty lackluster. This is an okay popcorn movie rental experience for those who are in need of completely mindless entertainment.