The
world’s superpowers have finally come together in space, but not in a Star Trek kind of way. They have joined
forces to rendition the Hell out of six utterly savage terrorists. Of course, no
good ever comes from bad guys in space. Scott Adkins wanted to use his inspection
to close down the project, but he will have to act more proactively when the terrorists
take over the station in Eric Zaragoza’s Incoming
(trailer
here),
which has a special one-night only screening at the Sunset Arena CineLounge
this Friday.
The
former International Space Station has been retrofitted into a prison, with the
British Kingsley serving as the interrogator, warden, and one-man crew. He has
nothing to show for the last five years, so the hard-nosed American Reiser is
determined to shut him down. To further his cause, he has brought along Dr.
Stone, a gullible liberal do-gooder. Unfortunately, she is so appalled by
Kingsley’s operation, she allows Argun, the leader of the notorious “Wolf Pack”
to escape through a misguided show of pity.
Soon,
the terrorists have control of the station and the shuttle, which they intend
to use to crash their former prison into Mother Russia, thereby igniting global
nuclear war. The only people who can stop them are Reiser, Stone, and their
shuttle pilot Bridges, who are all still loose in the station, like John
McClane in Nakatomi Plaza.
To
an extent, Incoming seems to indict
practices of extra-territorial rendition as anti-terrorist practices that
violate the core principles of constitutional democracy. On the other hand, it
also suggests terrorists will always be terrorists, so any attempt to reason
with them will end in tears. Of course, it is probably just a fool’s errand
trying to fashion a coherent political statement out of Jorge Saralegui’s
threadbare screenplay.
Alas,
this is definitely a minor film in the Scott Adkins canon. He chops are as
razor sharp as ever, but the film can’t seem to make up its mind whether he
should be the sinister villain of Wolf
Warrior and Expendables 2 or the
brooding hero of Savage Dog and Close Range. Michelle Lehane turns
out to be a pleasant surprise, displaying a forceful presence, even though she
is working with a lame script and standing next to Adkins most of the time. As
Argun, Vahidin Prelic certainly looks the part, but his facility for scenery
chewing is so-so at best.
There
are a number of entertaining fight sequences, because Adkins is Adkins. Yet, when
Dr. Stone explains early on the malnutrition endured by the prisoners lowered
their bone density, the inconsistent screenplay primes us for a feast of
bone-snapping that never happens. You can find plenty of better Adkins movies
available on VOD and DVD, like the free-wheeling Accident Man, but this is the latest. Only for hardcore fans
viewing in the comfort of their own homes, Incoming
is now available on VOD platforms (including iTunes) and screens this
Friday (5/18) in LA, at the Arena CineLounge.
