Final Score Review - Dave Bautista Flourishes In Absurdly Fun British Action Revival

The premise of the story is simultaneously strikingly original, whilst wearing all of its influences very firmly on its sleeve. If West Ham have added a new sponsor to that part of the kit this year; Final Score has them written from cuff to shoulder.

After the now traditional cold intro where some unspecified information is violently obtained from an unnamed character, we drop in with Michael Knox (Bautista) arriving in the UK. The weather is bad, he isn't overly happy, and objects to "f***ing soccer" being on the radio.

We quickly learn that he's in the country visiting the family of a former war buddy for whose death Knox feels some sense of responsibility for. Widow Rachel (Lucy Gaskell) and rebellious daughter Danni (Lauren Peake) live in, of all places, the local boozer and provide about as jarring a Cockney offset to Knox's sir-yes-sir American presence as is possible.

Having established that he hates football, and referring to the local refreshments as "warm piss", Knox then whips out two tickets to tonight's massive European cup semi-final, and from there the rest of the film stretches out reassuringly ahead of us. The game will be attended, things will go spectacularly awry, the soldier will be torn between saving the day and saving the daughter of his dead friend.

That isn't a criticism though. The aforementioned franchise conundrum that has loomed large over Bautista's three biggest cinema outings to date (and seemingly everything else that's hit cinemas over the last decade) leaves audiences constantly distracted from the tale being told and, instead, looking for clues from another one. But when the shutters go down on Upton Park, locking all in attendance within, you do realise immediately that the film itself is going to be as self-contained as the hostages.

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