RECKLESS Review: Maniac Magnet Scott Adkins Tears Up London

Like Lee Marvin in Point Blank, Scott Adkins just wants his money. Unlike Lee Marvin, however, Scott Adkins spent five years in prison, learning a few martial-arts skills.

Reckless
The film releases today (Friday, May 22, 2026) on a variety of Video On Demand and Digital platforms, via Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Obviously, Scott Adkins can kick anyone's butt, no matter their size. In Reckless, though, he plays Devon, a character who doesn't take the offensive in physical encounters.

Instead, Devon meets up with his mates, the ones who shared with him in robbing a large amount of cash five years before, intending to receive his fair share. After all, Devon reasons, he kept his mouth shut in prison, and deserves his reward.

The problem is: They keep dying.

The first (former) mate on Devon's list is the burly George (Jordan Long), who he finds in an office bleeding from a fatal wound, inflicted upon him by his accountant, who resisted his sexual assault. Devon uses his newly-learned martial arts fighting skills to pound George's minions into submission before fleeing, with the shell-shocked accountant, Kimber (Nicole Deon), attaching herself to him.

All this takes place on the day that Devon is released from prison after five years, which leaves him no choice but to continue contacting the other members of his former gang, in the naive hope that they will do the right thing and give him his share of the cash that they all stole together.

Director Elliott Montello, who was born in South East London and thus, presumably, knows the territory well, makes his feature debut with Reckless, which can be summed up with Kimber's description of Devon when they finally pause, calling him a "maniac magnet."

That scene is marvelously framed in a one-shot by director of photography Stuart White under Montello's direction: Kimber in the foreground, amped up and striding back and forth rambling, while Devon sits calmly and quietly in the background, perched on the back lid of a pickup truck, eating a fast-food meal.

What's marvelous about Scott Adkins' performance this time is that he portrays Devon as a reluctant fighting newbie, who doesn't execute dazzling flips and swirls to impress anyone, but as an instinct to survive. He'd rather not do any of this, but the people he encounters keep letting him down and keep trying to withhold his rightful payment.

Rather than bellow like Mel Gibson in Brian Helgeland's Payback (1999), based on the same source material for John Boorman's Point Blank (1967), namely Donald E. Westlake's The Hunter, published under his pen name Richard Stark, Scott Adkins embodies the new film's title, Reckless, in that he doesn't care anymore about past loyalties and doesn't take any precautions before taking action.

A better title might have been Relentless, because Scott Adkins' Devon will not give up until he gets what's coming to him, no matter the consequences. He's well-matched with Nicole Deon's Kimber, who will not stand for anyone's improper behavior, and certainly will not hesitate to defend herself with every weapon left carelessly near her, if needed.

And it's needed. A lot.

Watching Scott Adkins in Reckless reminds me of what I wrote about him in my review of Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday back in 2022: "His character here also stands apart from other action lead players because he is so, so British, which gives his lines a deliciously different reading. Obviously, it's difficult not to think of him as superior to James Bond -- dismissed as a muppet about midway through -- but I like to think of him as just a superior action star who easily carries the film, without making too much fuss about it."

In Reckless, Scott Adkins is a blue-collar hero, a workingman's James Bond who always gets the job done with, yes, reckless abandon, but also a touching poignance when he realizes the consequences of his five-year imprisonment. The film delivers great value for a home-video purchase or rental, but goes beyond the action to add a soupcon of bitter regrets by more than one character.