Damage – DVD Review

Film, Reviews, Top Story



For several obvious reasons, it would be easy to write off Damage as just another terrible DTV fighting movie. First off, the movie stars “Stone Cold” Steven Austin, who doesn’t really have a great track record as an action star, especially after the deplorably preachy The Condemned for WWE films. In fact, the entire recent slate of movies starring WWE wrestlers has been kind of deplorable, not even able to hit the mark, despite the fact that they’re usually aiming pretty low to begin with. Next up, the movie is an underground fighting flick, which isn’t usually a subject that gives a lot of classic films either. From Never Back Down to Fighting to a recent slate of awful vehicles for UFC fighters, the movies usually end up pretty lame, although there is at least a small amount of successes from this subgenre, with action stars such as Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michael Jai White making some decent entries over the years.

Thankfully, Damage falls somewhere near the second category, making this a solid but unspectacular DTV effort that plays to Austin’s strengths and fills the running time with just enough fisticuffs to keep you interested. Bolstered by a supporting cast of veteran TV actors, the movie is fairly enjoyable from top to bottom, and the story is formulaic but ends up effective when all is said and done. If you’re watching this movie, you pretty much know what you’re getting into, and if nothing else the movie delivers on that premise. Just don’t expect much more.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the picture is that Steve Austin ends up distinguishing himself here. The movie isn’t nonstop fighting, and in the film’s lighter or dramatic moments Austin shows what screen charisma he has and ends up making a really likeable hero. In the movie he plays John Brickner, a parolee trying to make up for his past, but not doing so well when it comes to rebuilding your life through the usual means. When he needs to come up with a bunch of money fast in order to pay back a huge life debt, he has to enter an underground fighting ring and punch his way to the top in order to find redemption.

As I said before though, it isn’t just the action in this movie where Austin manages to excel. No stranger to the camera, Austin’s comic timing is well honed and what shortcomings he may have as a dramatic actor are helped by the performers around him, most of which do pretty good work. I especially like a running gag in which Brickner has to keep meeting with his parole officer, who keeps ignoring what he has to say no matter how outlandish the man’s stories become. Not as surprising is that Austin manages to hold his own in the action scenes as well. Director Jeff King, who has worked on some of Steven Seagal’s lesser DTV efforts, puts together appropriately brutal fights, even if none of them end up terribly memorable. Fortunately, Austin still manages to make them work and we end up rooting for him each time.

Fans of Walton Goggins on The Shield and Justified will be happy to learn that he’s pretty good here also, somehow turning a sleazy manager role into a sympathetic character. Just as good is Smallville’s Laura Vandervoort as sidekick character Frankie, whose loyalty to both men ends up giving us the movie’s best dramatic moments. Fans of The X-Files and Battlestar Gallactica will also notice familiar faces throughout the movie, with a lot of cameos lending a helping hand to each of Austin’s scenes.

In the end, Damage ends up an enjoyable DTV for what it is. It won’t blow you away like the best genre examples like Universal Soldier: Regeneration or Isaac Florentine’s Ninja, but it’s a fairly successful flick all on its own. This is good start for Austin if he’s going this route with his movie career, and hopefully he’ll be able to hook up with a really great director in this field in the future and really be able to turn in something memorable. Damage doesn’t end up being amazing, but does end up getting the job done.

The movie looks pretty good on this disc. I’m guessing this was shot on digital, but doesn’t look too cheap either. The print is solid and the audio is also good throughout.

Just trailers for other Fox Home Entertainment releases.

Damage is exactly the movie you’re expecting and nothing more. It’s probably on the level of Lionheart, but not as good as some of the better DTVs that have come out lately. The disc itself has a decent print, but next to no extras. If you’re a big Austin fan, you may want to check this out.


20th Century Fox presents Damage. Directed by: Jeff King. Starring: Steve Austin, Walton Goggins, and Laura Vandervoort. Written by: Frank Hannah. Running time: 102 min. Rating: R. Released on DVD: Mar. 23, 2010. Available at Amazon.com
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Robert Sutton feels the most at home when he's watching some movie scumbag getting blown up, punched in the face, or kung fu'd to death, especially in that order. He's a founding writer for the movies section of Insidepulse.com, featured in his weekly column R0BTRAIN's Badass Cinema as well as a frequent reviewer of DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, he's a proud Sony fanboy, loves everything Star Wars and Superman related and hopes to someday be taken seriously by his friends and family.