One Shot (Sky / NOW) Movie Review & Comments

Casimir Harlow

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or the recent, excellent and vastly underrated The Outpost - (which, if you haven't seen, should definitely take priority, it's up on Amazon right now)

£10.00 on Amazon right now, just ordered.
 
I was genuinely surprised by this! I was expecting 90 minutes of low-rent and low expectation tomfoolery but thought it was pretty entertaining! Obviously low in budget and resources but the director really tried to use it to his advantage and echoing what Cas says, was smart to rely on the physicality of the performers especially in the final stretch.

As much as it is a showcase for Adkins, I think it’s a solid calling card for James Nunn as well… and even though this likely an acquisition title for Sky, I think in their push for original films they could do far worse than give this pairing a decent amount of money and a bigger platform to do something to build on this - I think there’s a real opportunity there to really go all in on original British genre titles and I think I’d be happy to see these guys attempt something a little more ambitious.
 
or the recent, excellent and vastly underrated The Outpost - (which, if you haven't seen, should definitely take priority, it's up on Amazon right now)

£10.00 on Amazon right now, just ordered.
Its free with prime
 
Apart from the ending it was a solid 6 for me. UHD was typical Sky as in nothing to shout about.
 
The budget for this for ridiculously small. I can’t remember the exact amount, but well under a million.
 
Not sure why the reviewer is ragging on red notice, I though it was a decent film, very solid fire fight scenes in particular.
 
Not sure why the reviewer is ragging on red notice, I though it was a decent film, very solid fire fight scenes in particular.

I mean, on the plus side, you'll love this then. One Shot actually appears to feature people who know how to tactically shoot.

TBF I DNF Red Notice (well, I did, but not that Red Notice, the other one that was almost as bad but cost more)

@Tom Davies did though, and he LOVED it:

Andy McNab's SAS: Red Notice (Sky / NowTV) Movie Review
 
The budget for this for ridiculously small. I can’t remember the exact amount, but well under a million.

Wow. I think if I'd known that up front I might have even pushed for a 7/10, as per Run Hide Fight. I'm always impressed with indie filmmakers who can actually pull off an action flick miracle on a budget, considering the amount that gets wasted on the average $10mil Bruce Willis DTV effort. I'd trade one of those for a HUNDRED One Shots, let alone the 10 that you could make for the same amount.

Run Hide Fight (Sky / NOW) Movie Review
 
Wow. I think if I'd known that up front I might have even pushed for a 7/10, as per Run Hide Fight. I'm always impressed with indie filmmakers who can actually pull off an action flick miracle on a budget, considering the amount that gets wasted on the average $10mil Bruce Willis DTV effort. I'd trade one of those for a HUNDRED One Shots, let alone the 10 that you could make for the same amount.

Run Hide Fight (Sky / NOW) Movie Review
I can't remember where i read / heard it, but i watched all of his ArtOfAction series on Youtube, so could have been mentioned on those. Or possibly Instagram when he was promoting it.
 
Watched this last night and thought it was pretty good for a low budget flick I think 6 is about right, apart from the ending the thing that bugged me most was:

The general use of ammo. Even through they weren't shooting with unlimited ammo it seemed they were getting more shots out of a mag than it contains.

The bit that was really grinding me was after killing a dozen guys with AK's and running low on ammo why he wasn't just picking up a dropped AK and all those spare weapons and mags all over the place.
 
Wow. I think if I'd known that up front I might have even pushed for a 7/10, as per Run Hide Fight. I'm always impressed with indie filmmakers who can actually pull off an action flick miracle on a budget, considering the amount that gets wasted on the average $10mil Bruce Willis DTV effort. I'd trade one of those for a HUNDRED One Shots, let alone the 10 that you could make for the same amount.

Run Hide Fight (Sky / NOW) Movie Review
I would rate the film an 8 in its scope of a straight-to-TV movie. It was filmed entirely at former RAF base Bentwaters, but never feels constricted by this or the 'one shot' real time filming technique. I thought they made the most of the single location and the pacing of the film was well done.

As you mention I thought the combat scenes were really well done, and put SAS Red Notice to shame, I still can't believe Andy McNab had a hand in that film, I think he must have just agreed to the use of his pseudonym and picked up the pay-cheques it was so bad :)

Unlike SAS Red notice, the movie made me care about the main characters and kept me interested until the end. Other than the filming techniques I thought it was a pretty run of the mill standard action film, but well acted, well paced and well filmed on a small budget.
 
Watched this tonight with my son and father and all enjoyed it. A solid 7 because it remained quite tense throughout even if your man (you know who I mean) was a bit like a poor man's Ben Kingsley
 
Thing is, One Shot is far from Adkins’ best film!!

Debt Collectors is better, as is Avengement.
 
Good gun fight scenes but will directors please realise that hiding behind an empty oil drum will not stop a bullet :-(
 
The film I actually had in mind as "All the devils men" worth checking out if you havnt seen it.

Oooh William Fichtner and Sylvia Hoeks, vaguely remember hearing about this one. Available for free on Amazon Prime, might have to check it out. Cheers for the heads up!
 
Thing is, One Shot is far from Adkins’ best film!!

Debt Collectors is better, as is Avengement.

I'd agree with that, although One Shot's still a higher profile lead for him IMO. Mandylor stole the show in the Debt Collector flicks (and it's a bit more of a two-hander either way) and Avengement was brutal AF but just too low rent to be on many people's radars (reviewed it a while back here Avengement Blu-ray Review and rated it higher than One Shot too).

I'd also shout out UniSol Day of Reckoning as a superb 'lead' for him, the martial arts Martin Sheen to Van Damme's Marlon Brando role.

Either way though, the guy needs more high profile stuff. Compared to his predecessors (most immediately Statham) he's just never been given a major break. One Shot isn't quite it, but maybe if its pittance budget yields a bounty in revenue it'll lead good places. Fingers crossed!
 
Yes, he stole Universal Solider. I’m looking forward to Accident Man 2 as well.

And of course, the films which brought him to most people’s attention, the Undisputed sequels.
 
One Shot

An elite squad of Navy SEAL's, on a covert mission to transport a prisoner off a CIA black site island prison, are trapped when insurgents attack while trying to extract the same prisoner.

Like its infinitely more illustrious predecessors - Alejandro G. Iñárritu‘s Birdman and Sam Mendes’ 1917 - British director Nunn’s action thriller was purportedly shot in one continuous take (although some reviews have cast doubt over how true this is and whether or not some subtle editing has been applied here and there). In the past films like this would have starred Chuck Norris - think Delta Force and its sequel - and be a big attraction on the DTV scene but they’re now known as VOD specials in the age of instant streaming services. In the spirit of DTV, One Shot features a cast line up that is headlined by a B movie icon and co-starring fallen on hard times Hollywood types.

As Navy Seal commando Lieutenant Jake Harris, the main draw is undoubtedly amiable Brummie action star Scott Adkins closely followed by his perfectly unruffled, luxuriant head of hair (you’ll know what I mean if you watch the film). In support, former Twilight star Ashley Greene Khoury plays a rookie junior CIA analyst reluctantly tasked with gleaning integral intelligence - she’s akin to Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty from Wish. Finally, we have Hollywood’s answer to Dorian Gray - Ryan Phillippe as perma angry black site boss Jack Yorke. The main protagonists are played by the very cool looking former MMA fighter turned actor Jess Liaudin (French Algerian mercenary Hakim Cheref) and regular Adkins martial arts/stunt collaborator Lee Charles - a former 6 times kickboxing champion who trained under Benny “The Jet” Urquidez - as Liaudin’s imposing 2nd in command Dhelkor.

The plot is the stuff of military action film tropes, the politics on terrorism and US government foreign policy might be clunky, and it was actually filmed in Suffolk. But all this doesn’t really matter when you have Scott Adkins doing Scott Adkins things. And do them with aplomb he does. The action set pieces are actually rather perfunctory until around the forty five minute mark - when the physical prowess of Adkins married with the nifty camerawork really kicks things into motion. In the film’s standout sequence, utilising only his combat knife, Adkins’ Harris has to undertake a stealth mission to locate the site’s radio comms room to request for military back-up. Like an action version of the famous Goodfellas restaurant tracking scene, the camera follows Adkins in a third person POV - in what could be a live action version of the videogame Call of Duty - as he stealthily and brutally dispatches a series of foot soldiers without a single gunshot being fired.

Elsewhere, the impressive action choreography of Tim Man (another of Adkins’ regular stunt crew) comes to the fore. For the finale, One Shot culminates with Adkins facing brutal encounters with first Dhelkor, and then Liaudin’s Cheref. In keeping with the film’s raw “in the moment” style, these MMA influenced set pieces are bruising and violent affairs that are more reminiscent of the pain inflicted in Gareth Evans’ The Raid rather than the classic 80s/90s DTV action films of Norris, Kosugi, Dudikoff et al that we grew up with. Whatever his shortcomings as an actor, Adkins is undoubtedly currently the best in the business at offering this type of B-movie action thrills. In a world of egotistical Hollywood stars, it is refreshing that someone like Adkins - who appears to be a genuinely nice guy from his YouTube Art of Action series - is living the dream by being involved in the type of films that he himself was inspired by in his youth.
 

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