Damage

Damage (2009)

Former wrestler Steve Austin plays a recently released convict John Brickner. He has just done some time for killing a man with his bare hands, which we get to find out in a monologue early on in the movie. Brickner feels really bad about his crime and wants to make amends. So when the wife of the man he killed shows up telling him he needs to pay for her daughter’s heart transplant he struggles where he can come up with the 250k. Luckily he falls in with a crowd that participates in illegal fighting. So Brickner starts to fight so that he can pay for the girl’s heart surgery. Throw in a subplot about a beautiful woman and the hustler with the heart of gold that is trying to save her and you have a movie.

So I really don’t ask for much in my action movies. But the little girl and the heart transplant is the best you can do? Seriously at times I was simultaneously groaning at the hackneyed plot and laughing at it’s cheesiness. Oh god when the movie tries to get all dramatic with the mother attempting suicide so they can give her heart to her daughter my head almost exploded. I mean they are paying for the heart they are paying for the surgery. So without the money it doesn’t matter if she is a match! Unless they were buying a black-market heart, which would have made this a much different and cooler flick. This movie telegraphs every “dramatic” moment with such obvious foreboding that it feels rather pointless. Brickner is close to getting the money they need, but has spent the whole movie saying he won’t ever kill anyone again. So of course the “bad” guy sends a fighter up against him that won’t quit until the death! Oh and Brickner chooses to save his friend instead of the little girl, you know that one particular character is going to pony the cash up for his big fight so he can save her. Though if he really liked Brickner he could have just paid for the surgery instead. Damn it I have to stop thinking about the logic holes in this movie before my head explodes.

I will give this movie some credit. I loved the fight sequences, and there are a lot of them. Austin has the physical skills to pull off the action and the rest of the stunt men involved are equally up to the task. The fights are exciting, well choreographed, and exciting. There are a few gruesome bits as well that had me cringing a bit. Fans of this sort of stuff are going to get a kick out of it. The rest of the movie is also shot pretty well and the guys behind the camera knew what they were doing. Though I did find the music to be kind of intrusive at times. Not only is it way too loud, but also it just doesn’t fit the scenes at all. Other than that the movie is solidly made.

Truth is I just can’t recommend this flick. There are way too many things wrong with it and to be honest I was really bored. I’d much rather go watch something cheesy like Over the Top before wasting another 90 minutes of my life on Damage.

1 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer