Apparently, I’m very late to the Scott Adkins party. Scrolling through Twitter, I’ve seen mutuals sing the actor’s praises, but until this follow-up to 2018’s Accident Man, I’d never seen anything starring Adkins. Look, I don’t think anyone is going to claim that Adkins is a great actor. He just isn’t. What he is, though, is one hell of an action star. I’m sold!
Mike Fallon (Adkins) is, well, the Accident Man. He’s an assassin. He’s not your garden-variety assassin, though. No, Fallon makes his kills look like an accident. What a clever clogs. He’s fled London after decimating his fellow assassins at his previous place of employment with Big Ray (Stevenson). Fallon sets up shop in Malta and starts picking up jobs. He employs Siu-ling (Chang) to keep him on his toes by popping up in unexpected places and basically kicking the shit out of him. One night, Fallon happens to run into an old co-worker (one that he didn’t kill) named Finicky Fred (Benson), which starts him on a path leading straight to a mafia boss named Mrs. Zuuzer (Cinque) and her good-for-nothing-but-karaoke-and-onesies son, Dante (Fouracres). All the while, Fallon tries to live by Big Ray’s rules – 1) Never get angry, 2) never get involved, and 3) never get caught – and work through his guilt issues while trying not to get killed.
Directed by George and Harry Kirby, Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday doesn’t appear to have the budget of Accident Man. The CGI and special effects aren’t great, but I don’t think that really matters with this movie. The action sequences are top notch: Adkins and company fight their asses off, and you don’t have to wait long between fights, either. There are some terrific kills – like over-the-top ridiculous – but, boy, they’re a treat to watch. Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday is funny, too. There’s a line about Adkins looking like a “melting Ben Affleck” that had me cackling. I quite enjoyed myself with this one.
If you want a movie filled with kills, blood, fights galore, and more than a little Scott Adkins, Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday is for you.
This article appears in The Drinks Issue (2022).