Acceleration is a 2019 thriller about a crime lord who forces one of his own to work against their will when he is double-crossed.
In LA, Vladik Zorich (Dolph Lundgren) sits atop a small kingdom of crime, including guns, gambling, drugs and sex trafficking with a cadre of henchmen (and women) at his disposal. However, one day, he’s double crossed by his own top enforcer, Rhona Zyocki (Natalie Burn), but not to be outdone, he kidnaps her young son and promptly tells her she’s got 24 hours to pay off her debt by taking care of all his own outstanding business. That leaves her in a time crunch, loaded with a series of envelopes, each with a specific job to do as Zorich watches from on high.
Let’s not quibble. Directors Michael Merino and Daniel Zirilli‘s low budget action film Acceleration is an irrefutable silly caper though at least acted by a cast that jumps head first into the abyss. Seriously, this is a collection of performances from actors who dial it all up as high as they can, never a one all that convincing, but at least committed to the stale plot. That includes Burn and Lundgren, who have the most presence but are wedged so compactly into their thinly-developed character molds they barely move. In fact, Lundgren spends most of the movie in a chair.
Soaked in eye-wincing neon lights, doing everything it can to remind us that yes, John Wick is a thing, Acceleration putters along at half speed, lacking the momentum and charisma of what it tries to emulate. There’s genuine effort in trying to make this its own, mostly in what Burn tries to do, but this is a movie hopelessly stuck in ruts long worn down by others from decades before. From a lone assassin, to a nasty one-dimensional villain, to a kidnapped child, to a time limit in getting a job done, to contrived moments in orchestrating slow moving choreographed fights, this is an assembly line of has beens that yes, tick off all the boxes, but do so with nary a hint of inspiration or creativity.
There’s a market for this of course, and the filmmakers dutifully package the parts they have in producing what’s intended. However, Acceleration is barely worth a look, a movie with hardly any energy behind it and worse, no joy in seeing where it goes.