Ross Boyask’s sequel John Gold
MILITARY payback movie is post-pub fare that displays a pure-hearted passion for movie-making
John Gold is back – all 6ft 7in of him. After making his debut in 2018’s I Am Vengeance, the mild-mannered ex-forces hardman played by former
WWE wrestler and bare-knuckle boxer Stu Bennett gets a sequel. The first of many, no doubt. This time, Gold is heading up the crew tasked with bringing in a traitor and former comrade in arms (Vinnie Jones). In exchange, Gold will receive an unofficial government pardon for all the military rule-bending he got up to in the first film.
The script efficiently dispenses with such necessary exposition in a few lines of dialogue: “Elite operative gone rogue” … something something … “black site facility” … something something. Then they’re off, bouncing from punch-up to car crash to punch-up, then another punch-up, with some barracks banter in between. (The budgets of
British action flicks rarely stretch to Die Hard-style explosions.)