One Shot (2021) Review
Directed by: James Nunn
Starring: Scott Adkins, Ashley Greene & Ryan Phillippe
Synopsis: 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 rescue the same prisoner.
Review: Scott Adkins returns in One Shot, a movie shot in one continuous take. This sounds like a formula that could either be very impressive or a complete and utter failure, it’s safe to say that it works. As you would expect with a movie shot like this, it’s contained to one location, it’s essentially Die Hard with a group of Seals, then eventually Die Hard with Adkins, and it’s one explosive action packed ride.
The whole one take sequence has been quite the thing for a while now from Daredevil to Extraction, even the revamped Kickboxer movies, everyone wants to so their own one take fight scene. One Shot, does the whole movie this way, Scott is the man to do a movie of this calibre and by the time the finale is upon us, you can see the exhaustion in Scott’s face, his work has paid off, you can see that blood, sweat and tears went into making this movie. Director James Nunn does an amazing job at navigating his way along with the actors and keeping everything tight, the fights, from hand to hand and knife, shootouts and explosions are all captured beautifully. This is hands down the best James Nunn movie.
What makes One Shot great is this isn’t a one man vs 100, in the sense, Adkins character, Jake Harris, is a great Seal, but he does face opponents and situations where he is simply lucky to get out alive, with this also being a James Nunn movie, we can expect anything as James isn’t afraid to kill off a leading man. So at points you genuinely feel like Jake Harris’s ticket will be punched.
Once the action starts it doesn’t stop and we get to witness some really cool action sequences, a highlight is a sequence where Adkins character Harris takes out numerous villains with a knife, quite brutally and stealthily. The other being the finale it’s fast paced and brutal with Adkins delivering the action in a frantic pace, from shootouts, hand to hand combat and dodging an explosion by leaping through a window and a fast paced knife battle that sees a worn down beat up Adkins fighting for his life. It’s amazing, breathtaking and by the end you will want to watch it again, just to appreciate the effort that was put into the movie.
Ryan Phillippe plays Jack Yorke, fans, need not worry, he does get to rack up a bodycount along with Adkins. Phillippe is making a name for himself in the action genre, his last movie was a ‘Die Hard Clone’ titled The 2nd, which was a whole load of fun. Ashley Greene who plays the strong female lead, Zoe Anderson, Greene was perfectly cast in this role and delivers a great performance, Greene is a great actress and very under rated, Hollywood needs to wake up cast her in bigger roles, she’s a badass.
Overall, One Shot is an action packed thrill ride that will have you mesmerised from the moment it starts. Adkins has excelled himself once again, as an actor and more so as one of the hardest working people in the business, It’s hard to imagine what he went through on this shoot and how he felt, but if he felt the way he looked in the finale, I am sure he was glad to have heard director, James Nunn, shout cut! One Shot summed up is like Die Hard meets Extraction – a solid 5 stars!
