For years, Scott Adkins has built his action-hero persona around control. Precision. Physical dominance. Whether delivering blistering martial arts choreography or anchoring hard-edged action thrillers, Adkins typically operates with the confidence of a man who knows exactly how every punch, kick, and movement will land. In RECKLESS, however, control is overrated.
Directed by Elliott Montello, this wildly entertaining London crime caper gleefully dismantles Adkins’ polished screen image, replacing it with panic, impulsiveness, bad decisions, and an almost childlike optimism that somehow survives amid mounting chaos, bloodshed, and betrayal. And that’s precisely why the film works so well.
Fresh out of prison after taking the fall for a heist pulled with his so-called friends, Devon (Adkins) wants only one thing: the money owed to him. Unfortunately, Day One of freedom spirals spectacularly off the rails when Devon discovers former cohort George (Jordan Long) dead in his office after accountant Kimber (Nicole Dean) defends herself from George’s attempted sexual assault. Suddenly saddled with Kimber and pursued by gangsters, police, and increasingly disastrous circumstances, Devon embarks on a desperate, frequently hilarious journey across London trying to collect what he believes he is owed.
This is just how Day One of release from prison is going for Devon.
What follows is a high-energy collision of comic-book criminality, kinetic action, witty dialogue, impulsive violence, and surprisingly sweet emotional sincerity.
Montello leans heavily into a heightened Guy Ritchie-style sensibility, but RECKLESS finds its own identity through visual playfulness and tonal commitment. Bright Crayola-primary colors splash across the screen in vibrant yellows, reds, greens, and blues. Character introductions arrive through graphic yellow montage cards that feel ripped from the pages of a pulpy crime comic. The visual language often resembles the fantasy world of a young boy imagining what criminal adulthood might look like. That arrested-adolescence quality becomes one of the film’s smartest underlying themes.
Everyone in RECKLESS feels trapped in varying stages of boyhood. Devon clings to fantasies of a Route 66 road trip and the Santa Monica Pier carousel. Crime boss Trent, played with gloriously snarling swagger by Vinnie Jones, operates like a schoolyard bully who simply grew older and gained political connections. George and Toby bumble through criminality with reckless immaturity. Even the violence often feels emotionally impulsive rather than methodically calculated.
Most importantly, Devon himself never feels like the cool, hyper-capable action hero audiences expect from Adkins.
His hair is perpetually tousled. His wardrobe looks assembled from ill-fitting childhood leftovers. Converse sneakers replace tactical boots. And while Adkins remains one of modern action cinema’s premier martial artists, Devon’s fighting skills intentionally lack polish and precision. The film establishes early on — through one of its funniest visual gags — that Devon has essentially taught himself combat from books while in prison. As a result, the action sequences become scrappier, messier, and considerably more entertaining.
Rather than dominating every encounter with effortless expertise, Devon panics, improvises, flails, survives by instinct, and occasionally stumbles backward into success. Adkins smartly adjusts his physicality to reflect that lack of refinement, allowing Devon’s fights to feel desperate instead of choreographed to perfection.
That looseness gives RECKLESS much of its charm.
The action itself remains impressively staged, particularly given the film’s modest scale and compressed shooting schedule. Fight choreographer Jude Poyer, known for his work on GANGS OF LONDON and HAVOC, injects the combat with grounded brutality while never losing sight of the film’s playful tone. The confined locations force the action inward, creating frantic, claustrophobic bursts of violence that fit Devon’s escalating desperation.
But RECKLESS is never solely about action.
The film’s real heartbeat emerges through Devon and Kimber’s relationship. Nicole Dean is excellent as Kimber, grounding the increasingly manic narrative with warmth, intelligence, and emotional honesty. The chemistry between Dean and Adkins develops organically, giving the film an unexpectedly sweet emotional core beneath all the gunfire and mayhem.
Even when the plot veers toward absurdity — including one wonderfully bizarre sequence involving a gutted teddy bear and a shotgun — the emotional connection between Devon and Kimber keeps the film anchored.
Visually, cinematographer Stuart White delivers a polished, energetic look that consistently elevates the material. London glows through slick nighttime time-lapse photography, neon-infused street lighting, and vibrant color contrasts. Some of the film’s strongest imagery arrives in the third act during a beautifully staged carousel showdown unfolding against blue-and-pink twilight skies. That climactic carousel sequence perfectly encapsulates everything RECKLESS does right.
As the carousel spins, lights flashing and mirrored reflections flickering across the frame, the film suddenly transforms into something resembling a spaghetti western fever dream. Jonathan Bartz’s score leans fully into Ennio Morricone territory while Detective Jackson (Kris Johnson), Trent, Devon, Kimber, and assorted henchmen converge for a chaotic standoff that feels equal parts OK Corral and comic-book fantasy.
It is gloriously over-the-top.
Thomas Affolter’s editing keeps the entire film moving at breakneck speed, fueled by rapid-fire montage work, sharp comedic timing, punk-flavored needle drops, and an almost relentless forward propulsion. At barely over ninety minutes including credits, RECKLESS wastes little time catching its breath.
Fortunately, neither does the audience.
Most impressive, however, is how fully Adkins commits to vulnerability and foolishness. There is no vanity to the performance. Devon is reckless emotionally as much as physically — clinging to dreams, trusting the wrong people, making terrible decisions, and refusing to let cynicism completely consume him.
In lesser hands, Devon could easily become exhausting or pathetic.
Instead, Adkins makes him lovable.
That willingness to look foolish may be the boldest thing Scott Adkins does in RECKLESS. And in trading precision for panic, polish for desperation, and cool confidence for comic chaos, he reveals an entirely different side of himself as a performer.
Turns out, it suits him remarkably well.
Directed by Elliott Montello
Written by Stu Small & Matthew Robert Kelly
Cast: Scott Adkins, Vinnie Jones, Nicole Dean, Jordan Long, Gavin Fisher. Dean Gaffney, Adam Deacon, and Kris Johnson
by debbie elias, 05/21/2026
RECKLESS is now available On Digital and On Demand.
