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Beckman Aims John Wick at Christian Audience
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Submitted by RJ Carter on Mon, 09/21/2020 - 13:18
Aaron Beckman (David A.R. White) is an assassin for hire who wants out of the game. Injured during an encounter in Los Angeles, he takes refuge in a church, giving a satchel of money to the pastor, Philip (JUSTIFIED's Jeff Fahey). The pastor is at his own crossroads of faith over his failing health, and we quickly forward two years later to Philip's own death. Beckman takes over as the church's shepherd, until he comes to a crossroads of his own, preparing to leave everything behind when history repeats itself and another lost soul comes to the door needing sanctuary: a young woman named Tabitha (Brighton Sharbino, THE WALKING DEAD).
Another year passes and Tabitha has gotten clean, been adopted by Beckman, and looking to start a new life in college. But Tabitha's old life comes calling: Reese (William Baldwin) is the leader of the cult Tabitha escaped, and now that he's found her, he wants her back, taking her from the church by force and killing one of the parishioners on the way out. Beckman has no choice but to turn to The Network for help, with the deal that he will once again be a contract killer for their next job.
The rest of the film is Beckman fighting his way through Reese's hired guns and thugs, initially to find Tabitha. But when he's told that Tabitha is dead, his mission becomes one of revenge. It's a mission that's complicated when Reese, a man of means himself, goes through The Network to put a bounty on Beckman's own head, pitting many of Beckman's former associates against him.
There's a lot of action here, and a good amount of blood. The shooting and stabbing effects are well done, but the physical fight scenes are lacking a certain something. They're well-executed, but you can almost tell that the camera angle is such to give the illusion of contact, like the kicks and punches are being pulled. That's a tehnical issue that falls more on the film editor than the actors or the fight choreographers.
When Beckman finally meets up with Reese, he has to decide whether vengeance is still what he's after, or if he needs to show mercy and walk away from his life of violence for good.
BECKMAN also features appearances by ROCKY's Burt Young as a storage unit owner who works with all the contract players, and Danielle Moinet (WWE's Summer Rae) as one of the quirky assassins thrown into Beckman's path.
Grade:
3.5 / 5.0
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