‘One More Shot’ Review
Stars: Scott Adkins, Waleed Elgadi, Tom Berenger, Meena Rayann, Michael Jai White, Aaron Toney | Written by Jamie Russell | Directed by James Nunn
Not only is One More Shot filmed with the illusion of being one long take like its predecessor 2021’s One Shot, it does something more important. It reunites director James Nunn (Eliminators, Shark Bait) and writer Jamie Russell (Lock In, Ghosted) with the previous film’s leads, Scott Adkins (Section 8, Legacy of Lies) as Navy SEAL Jake Harris and Waleed Elgadi (The Curse of Hobbes House, Julius Caesar) as terrorist Amin Mansur.
Following the events of the first film, Harris is escorting Mansur back to the US where they plan to get him to reveal the whereabouts of a dirty bomb set to explode during the State of the Union Address, which the President, of course, refuses to postpone. For leverage, CIA Agent Marshall (Tom Berenger; The Desperate Riders, Inception) has brought Mansur’s pregnant wife Niesha (Meena Rayann; The Mauritanian, Kill Ben Lyk) to meet his plane. But they’re not the only ones there to meet the flight. Robert Jackson (Michael Jai White; Batman: Soul of the Dragon, The Island) and a small army of mercenaries are there looking for Mansur as well.
One More Shot pushes its credibility almost from the start, with the flight being rerouted from Andrews Air Force base to a closed off civilian airport for “security reasons”. Not long after, a group of supposedly elite mercenaries obliviously walk past Harris as he sits talking on the phone in the supposedly empty terminal. Thankfully, moments after that, the shooting starts and details like that cease to matter.
If running around an airport in Washington, DC fighting against both the clock and a large number of armed men sounds familiar, you’re right, and that’s not the only similarity between One More Shot and Die Hard 2. Something that becomes more and more apparent as the story plays out. Despite a couple of issues with the script, most of the plot works nicely, with the scope of what Harris is up against expanding in a convincing manner.
For a lower-budget film intruding on the turf of a highly successful mega-budget action blockbuster, One More Shot does an impressive job. Adkins makes a more convincing action hero than Willis, and fight choreographer Tim Man (Attack on Finland, Boyka: Undisputed) gives him plenty to do. That includes a pair of excellent battles between Harris and one of Jackson’s lieutenants, Dunbar (Aaron Toney; Wolf Warrior 2, Battle Drone).
Nunn, along with cinematographer Job Reineke (Little Bone Lodge, Dust to Dust) capture it all for maximum impact while keeping things constantly moving. Being able to film at an actual airport, Stansted Airport in London, gave them a good variety of locations to stage the action, which helps to keep the fights against the near endless horde of tactical masked enemies things from getting stale.
When not beating the hell out of each other, the cast does decent work in roles that, apart from Mansur and his wife, don’t call for a lot of emoting beyond being scared or angry. Berenger makes the most of the few minutes he’s on the screen, but very disappointingly, Michael Jai White has even less screen time with only a couple of short scenes before a solid, if short, fight with Adkins. One More Shot is the best film he’s been in for years, unfortunately he’s barely in it.
Overall, One More Shot is a superior action film, both in terms of the quality and quantity of the mayhem it delivers. The slightly too open ending makes it clear the filmmakers are planning a third film, and it will be interesting to see how they resolve the story arc, and how many bullets they fire in the process.
**** 4/5
One More Shot is available on Sky Cinema in the UK and on Digital Platforms in Australia. Sony Pictures will release it in the US tomorrow, January 16th.
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