One More Shot

 Only about half a day separates the events of One Shot from its sequel - just about enough time for Navy SEAL and lone survivor Jake Harris (Scott Adkins) to arrive at the Washington Baltimore airport from the massacre at the Polish black site, terrorist/critical asset Mansur (an again excellent Waleed Elgadi) in tow.

 Mansur remains the only person who knows the location of a dirty bomb he helped smuggle into Washington DC to be detonated during the State of the Nation address, so he's of high interest to Homeland Security and the CIA, who have evacuated and cordoned off the airport to take receipt of the prisoner.

 It's a neat transition and a good example of this series' commitment to being as close as possible to 'real time'. Presumably, the time missing was while Harris was sleeping.

 Jake is sidelined when a CIA bigwig (Tom Berenger) takes possession of Mansur. But as he's on his way out, he hears a bunch of mercenary types talking about killing everyone... so no R&R for poor lieutenant Harris; Soon he's in the thick of it again, shooting and stabbing fools as he tries to protect Mansur and his wife Niesha (Meena Rayann) from a shadowy PMO. In a simulated unbroken take.

 One More Shot is a little more ambitious than the first movie. The most noticeable upgrade is the location - a large chunk of London Stansted Airport, with a focus on the back rooms and utility passages. But it's also a more complex film, with more than a little bit of sub-Tom Clancy-esque intrigue, betrayals, etcetera.

 The always welcome Michael Jai White puts in an appearance as the main villain, but he's criminally underutilized. He does get a decent fight with Adkins, at least.

 I think I respected One Shot more than I actually liked it, but I do maintain it's a solid action B-movie. This sequel is every bit as impressive an achievement, but with the novelty gone, the more realistic but unexciting fights, the ineptitude of the enemy soldiers (seriously, they're about as effective as stormtroopers), a plot that gets bogged down with pointless scenes and lacks any resolution (yes, it pretty much ends on a cliffhanger)... I don't know, I'm just not feeling it at all.

 It's possible the movie's biggest get, the airport, might be its undoing; while the destruction in the first film's generic army base was modest, all the mayhem in this one barely leaves a dent on the airport's immaculate walls, except for one scene that's noteworthy for being an exception. There are shootouts in hallways with prominent, floor to ceiling windows, and not a single one collapses in a shower of safety glass diamonds. No walls are perforated by stray bullets, no rooms are brought down with explosions. It feels petty to complain about this on an indie action flick where such destruction might not be feasible, but it really robs the fairly generic firefights of any impact they may have had.

 (Also, I fucking hate London Stanstead, the most incompetently managed big airport I've ever had the misfortune to suffer, so it would have been cathartic to see it at least a little scuffed up; I may be biased on this).

 The filmmaking itself is pretty good - The constantly moving handheld cameras hang a little too close to their subjects at times during the fights, and there are a lot of whip pans (all the better to hide a cut) but there's an effort to keep the action legible; Must have been a nightmare to plan out. The choreographies remain understandably simple, but there are some good moves, one pretty impressive falling stunt, and the continuous take gimmick does add a lot of tension.

 Director James Nunn has a little fun with blocking, and my favorite scenes here creatively frame Harris as he skulks in the background while the guy the frame is centered on remains clueless. Living out his Sam Fisher fantasies.

 The videogame influence is huge - this is not something I normally like to bring up, as it's a lazy criticism (and near unavoidable on anything with extended takes), but it's incredibly obvious here: A little Splinter Cell, a recreation of an Arkham Asylum stealth takedown sequence... Oh well. Another unfortunate way it resembles videogames: dialog is still ropey, the plot is several shades of implausible, and the main character should have died several times over - yes, that's an action movie trope, but one that this supposedly more realistic film fails to make credible.

 At least the characters are likeable, with the Mansurs giving the film a little more humanity, and Adkins as always giving it his all; Incidentally, I got a chuckle out of how Mansur balks at the plot of the actual bad guys. He was going to kill thousands upon thousands of innocents, but he was going to do it for decent terrorist reasons, dammit!

  A sequel, whether it's One Last Shot or Carry On Shotting, is obviously planned; I do hope they get to make it, but hopefully they find a way to make it more exciting.