What bothered me about the set up for this movie was the idea that former Sergeant Joseph Smith (Jason Statham), AWOL from the military because of his wartime experience, allowed himself to deteriorate to the point of living as a homeless person, and even more so, to allow himself to be beat up by street thugs rousting the rest of the homeless for money and drugs. That just didn't seem to fit the profile I would have expected for someone with his background and experience. Now I know a lot of ex-military wind up on drugs and homeless, but I wouldn't have expected that with Joey's skill set, which he wound up putting to good use once he left the alley on a mission of revenge for his murdered friend. The rest of the story plays out along the lines of a somewhat typical Statham flick, a bit light on the violence one might expect, and with an atypical romantic angle thrown in. Not to be prudish, but it seems like some film makers will take any means available to break down the bond people of faith may have by resorting to moral relativism and making it look acceptable to break vows. The finale as well seemed to take a disjointed turn when after throwing Max Forrester (Christian Brassington) off the roof, a city wide manhunt failed to locate Smith sleeping one off in the gutter, but Cristina (Agata Buzek) found him with no effort at all, right about the time needed to close out the story. With surveillance choppers and an army of police in hot pursuit, one could surmise that Smith's freedom would remain short lived, unless of course, a sequel takes up the chase to find him on the run and defying common sense once again.
Review of Redemption
