Hooligans are up to all sorts of impish mayhem in this rote action flick apparently modelled on The Raid
Russia’s hooligan set will have a new Friday-night post-pub favourite with this martial arts film, modelled on Gareth Evans’s The Raid. In a literal hostile takeover, former Spetsnaz sniper Nikita (Ivan Kotik) leads a squad of tracksuited casuals into a vodka factory/mafia front on behalf of a shady businessmen (Ilya Antonenko) looking to seize it – but he also has a personal beef with the owner.
For reasons half-explained, the squad are forbidden from carrying guns, and the chief heavy (played by real-life MMA fighter Vladimir Mineev) chafes against Nikita’s command from the off. They work their way up through the factory’s security to the C-suite, with much fisticuffs, mostly in the fashionable MMA style – with heavy emphasis on grappling and backhanded slaps that look prissy but probably aren’t. The standout is a corridor-hemmed brawl against three juggernauts wielding a host of medieval weaponry, with director Denis Kryuchkov often keeping us locked in with the combatants with swaying, reeling Steadicam.
