Final Score (2018)

Director: Scott Mann

Writer: Jonathan Frank, David T Lynch, Keith Lynch (Screenplay)

Starring: Dave Bautista, Pierce Brosnan, Ray Stevenson, Martyn Ford, Ralph Brown, Victoria Broom, Lucy Gaskell, Lara Peake

 

Plot: After deadly terrorists abduct his niece at a soccer match, an ex-soldier with lethal fighting skills wages a one-man war to save her and prevent mass destruction.

Tagline – 35,000 lives. 90 minutes. No extra time

Runtime: 1 Hour 44 Minutes

 

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

 

Verdict: Late Night Action Delight

 

Story: Final Score starts when Michael Knox (Bautista) visits his niece Danni (Peake) in London to take her to the last ever game at the Boelyn Stadium for West Ham in a European Semi Final (This is hilarious because West Ham haven’t been near one in decades) against a Russian team called Dynamo FC.

With his niece going to be with her boyfriend, Michael must search for her, which just so happens to become locked down by terrorist Arkady (Stevenson) who wants to use the game to kill his brother Dimitri (Brosnan), when Michael learns of the problem, he must become a one man fight to save the stadium.

 

Thoughts on Final Score

 

Characters – Michael Knox is a soldier that has travelled the globe fighting the good cause, his brother was lost in battle and he watches over his niece taking her to football matches. He sees that there is a big problem and uses his training to save his niece and the people in the stadium. Arkady is the terrorist that has taken over the stadium, the former war criminal will do anything to get his hands on his brother even if it means killing everyone in the stadium. Dimitri is the brother that recreated his life after leaving his brother to be destroyed and bring peace to their home country, he is now the target for the nights terrorist actions. In the rest of the characters we get the typical men working for Arkady, the one that is bigger than Michael, the bad ass woman and the tech heavy one etc, we also have the rebellious teenager and the quick talking steward.

Performances – Dave Bautista has been steadily getting on with the action genre, he does a good job once again as the reluctant hero of the situation, handling the combat scenes well and looking like the uncle that would only scare boys away from the niece. Ray Stevenson in the villainous role is good to never letting his accent drop through the film. Pierce Brosnan is good even though he doesn’t really do too much in the film, as are the rest of the cast working well through the film.

Story – The story here follows one man that must stop a terrorist attack within a certain amount of time, 90 minutes well 105 minutes if you include half time. This is simple enough for a story and by having the countdown helps us feel like part of the action. This does follow the trend of any action film which can be compared to Die Hard, only this time in a football stadium. When we look at the villains motives we get mixed feelings as it seems simple to start with only to become overly complicated when we get the mass numbers outside the stadium trying to stop anything happening. Overall the story isn’t challenging, it is watchable and enjoyed which is all we want to see.

Action – The action in the film comes from the fights, which all play into Dave Bautista’s strengths, with the highlight of the film being the motorcycle chase through the stadium, which shouldn’t work only to be brilliant.

Settings – The film is set inside Upton Park, now this could be easy to say this is Die Hard in a football stadium and it is, but having the match going on at the same time gives us a true look at the time rolling by and just how difficult it would be to stop people from knowing what is going on.

Special Effects – The effects in the film don’t always look good, but strangely enough fit the movie well.

Scene of the Movie – Motorbike chase.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – It is too hard to believe West Ham would be in a semi-final in European football.

Final Thoughts – This is an enjoyable action film that gets most things right to make us enjoy what we are seeing, easy to watch and shows Bautista to be a good action star.

 

Overall: Action packed fun.

Rating