I would have given this a 1 star if I hadn't laughed out loud a few times. Banderas slept walked through this, or is on heavy medication. The producer and director must have felt sorry for him because part way through the movie they turned him mute....I missed how and why, but who cares. He's better mute. It would have been even better if they spared us his voice over narration. The best part of the movie - where he is undercover in his '67 baby blue Mustang parked directly in line of sight of the bad guy's house, whom he knows, in daylight of course. But he was wearing sunglasses so he's invisible. To think people are paid to make this crap.

I think with a few tweaks, this could've been a decent movie. There was way too much cheese and too many unrealistic scenes. The plot was overdone and predictable, but could've been saved with better writing.

Thanks to Liam Neeson, stars from 20 plus years ago are having a little resurgence amongst the direct to Blu Ray action films.Here, Banderas has 'Taken' the geriaction route, and has followed suit.Security wasn't a bad little 'Die Hard in a...' homage, and now the Death Wish routine is recycled once more.But the maguffin here is that special guest star Robert Forster basically tells Banderas that he doesn't want to hear him talk again, so he takes a vow of silence, but before all that, he gets drunk a lot, gets beaten up even more, takes some advice from Urban, and learns karate.The main plot device is rehashed from Jingle All The Way of all places, Banderas is a hardworking lawyer, whom is late for his daughters talent show, but instead of going on a hilarious journey trying to get a toy, his family are merdered.Then the film is split into chapters, the Russian mafia are involved, as is Paz Vega, and we are treated to some decent action scenes, that are reminiscent of Florentines other action vehicles.Obviously in films like this, there has to be an ulterior motive by another cast member, and although it's nothing special, or unsurprising, it makes for a decent finale.Banderas is fine in his role, but it's nothing more than your run of the mill revenge thriller that has been done to death, and will continue to because they are by the numbers stuff that satisfy that eighties action nostalgia we all yearn for.

ACTS OF VENGEANCE is another sterling B-movie thriller from director Isaac Florentine, who is one of my favourites working in today's cinema. Given that this was made on a strict budget in Bulgaria standing in for New York, it's actually very good. Florentine cut his teeth making fine action flicks with the great Scott Adkins, and he retains the action template here while casting Antonio Banderas as the lead instead. The story is nothing special and about a guy hunting for his family's killer, but I liked the mystery aspects of the narrative and the protagonist's character arc from ruthless lawyer to crime-fighting vigilante. Banderas gives a very good performance, he's better than he was in SECURITY, and he convinces in the action too. There aren't quite as many fights as I was hoping for, but those that do take place are excellent and have splendid choreography, as you'd expect. Karl Urban is a welcome presence in the cast to boot. Think of this as a poor man's JOHN WICK if you will, but that doesn't make it any the less entertaining.