You wouldn't expect a lunkheaded beat 'em up starring hulking wrestler Steve Austin to go for the heart, but this virtual remake of the Van Damme vehicle A.W.O.L. (aka LIONHEART) is all feeling. Austin plays a guy fresh out of prison who finds himself engaging in a brutal gambling ring where he battles opponents to the death. His motive? To pay for an operation for an ailing girl.For the most part, the film is all about the violence, featuring a string of well-choreographed and exciting bouts between Austin and various, even more fearsome fighters. Such bouts are satisfyingly hard-hitting and unflinching, and Austin holds his own against even the toughest brawlers.What surprises is that the story outside of the violence is also engaging, with Austin delivering a realistic turn as a guy forced down a dark path in his bid to do good, and some heartfelt emotion dished out along the way with it. It's no classic, for sure, but it ably does what it sets out to do, which is entertain.

I watched the trailer for this movie and had high expectations going into this movie.... being a fan of stone cold in his wrestling days I thought I would enjoy this action movie... I was wrong. This movie doesn't know if it wants to be a drama or an action movie. The actions scenes are repetitive and theirs too much talk in between the fight scenes. If you like steve austin kickin a$$ than I recommend another B action movie and that is "hunt to kill". At least that movie knows what it wants to be.However I did buy this movie for $1 at a local movie store that was closing down, so for that much it's worth it. overall I give it a 4/10.

good film overall, plot was a little generic rather similar to "Fighting" the fight scenes can be enjoyable although they all seem to be somewhat similar.It's a shame there is no real training scene as in these sort of films they're really needed, the closest thing to one is a little bit of jogging which is obviously unrealistic if he actually wants to win a fight worth the amount of money he is gambling!.It's worth a watch, they're are better movies but i wouldn't disregard this one and would certainly watch it again. So i'm going to give this a 7/10, i think maybe a small minority are to quick to criticize when this isn't actually such a terrible movie.

Damage is surprisingly an entertaining no holds barred, old school Action film. What I admired a lot about Damage is it's tenacity. It's always straight up in your face with great fight scenes, that are unrelentingly brutal. I am a die hard "Stone Cold Steve Austin" fan. He is without a doubt the greatest WWE superstar of all time and now he's taken on the acting world. Like The Condemned|which I love| he has a certain presence that you can't take your eye off of. He's certainly not a great actor,but his potential to be one of Hollywood's biggest action stars is certainly there,he's loaded with charisma and could land similar success like other action stars who were soft spoken|Seagal,Van Damme,etc|. One of the main key's that made this one of the better direct to video Actioner's i've seen,is the relationships with the characters. Especially the trio of John,Reno,and Frankie. We are able to care about them all,even if Reno's a bit of a weasel,and I just think that helped a lot.I also approved of Steve's enthusiasm to this project. Any less of an effort would've resulted in your standard straight to DVD flick,but Steve put his all into the film,making sure to give us riveting fight sequences and a decent overall storyline,but mainly I give that credit to Frank Hannah. I have seen many straight to video Actioner's and i'll be pretty blunt,most of them flat out suck,so I was really pleased by the effort of this film. Damage is certainly not original by any means,it rips off Big Brawl,Lionheart,among others..but it managed to entertain me for a 100 minutes or so and that's really all I can ask for.The Performances. Steve Austin is a physically gifted performer. He is a marvel in the action sequences,with major charisma to boot. He certainly won't win any Oscars with his acting,but he won't stink up the screen either and for limited experience,I thought he did some pretty decent work. I must say though what was the point of having Steve try to be emotional?. Everyone knows Steve is a redneck with a good heart,but he's hard as nails,and well he came across as looking silly more then anything else. Nevertheless I thought Steve was fabulous and I look forward, to his future projects,he's got big time potential. Lynda Boyd got on my nerves more then once with her cold character. That was one of the script's biggest mistakes,she's supposed to make us care about with the situation with her daughter,but she came across as a selfish lady who is putting too much pressure on John. Her chemistry with Steve also felt forced. Walton Goggins is a weasel but a likable one at that. He's able to make us care for him,we feel sorry for the situations he gets into,even if he partially deserves it. Laura Vandervoort is cute as a button,and manages to be quite likable,I enjoyed her performance.Bottom Line. Damage is one of the better DTV Actioner's that seem to come out like crazy now a days. It certainly won't make you go wow,it's not anything original,but it's certainly pretty entertaining. I wholeheartedly recommend Damage for a good night of entertainment.7/10