[Locke]

Alright, I've got my bud at the ready, time for a Stone Cold Steve Austin MAN MOVIE. All jokes aside, if this wasn't the year Pacific Rim happened, I'd tell you you've got the best piece of entertainment this year has produced.

The throwback feel to The Package is wonderful, the 80s was pretty much the best decade for cinema, and that is no different for action. The action may feel sluggish when you compare it to the more martial arts focused action of modern action cinema, but seeing Steve Austin smash people through tables and glass never gets old. Especially later in the film where he gets to punctuate all his badassery with sassy one liners.

Starring alongside him is Dolph Lundgren as 'The German' who steals the show, and really this should have been his movie, in many ways it kinda is. He may be showing his age a bit, but somehow the lines of age seem to only add to his presence. He's never been a good actor, but he is clearly enjoying the role he plays here. The German mixes up his usual on screen characterisation just enough to be as refreshing as it is familiar, while still being all awesome. Seeing him nonchalantly take down entire rooms of guys with a kitchen knife and THEIR guns, without taking a single scratch is AWESOME but it's equally awesome that later he prepares a smoothie, while listing off the benefits of each fruit while a man bleeds to death in a chair.

Impressively though, there aren't any weak characters in this, not really. Films like this usually seem to try and ride the wheel of their biggest stars (well I dunno whether you'd call them that...) but for once it isn't like every side character is just a thug for Austin to knock over. Everyone gets to have a character, and a personality and gets to have a lot of fun wearing those shoes, even if it's only for a single scene. And for once scenery chewing actually kinda works in context. All the big personalities, and skills for violence, sometimes make this feel more like some kind of comic book film than your straight actioner. And I love that.

The film makes lots of fun uses of its characters as well, constantly tipping the balance of power as characters weave in and out of the frame as threats or non threats which creates for a surprisingly twisty ride, if not a particularly cerebral one.

Most importantly though, it doesn't detract from what we came here to see, Lundgren VS Austin! And MAN is it worth the wait, if you aren't a classic action fan you might be disappointed (but then why'd you care about this movie?) but just seeing these two pure powerhouses pummel the living shit out of one another until one goes down, just YES. There are no rules!

As you can gather, on terms of pure entertainment, The Package is pretty much perfect. Every set piece is stunning, thrilling and just downright awesome. Bloody, visceral fist fights, explosive gun fights, intense claustrophobic brawls, cars flipping, sets levelled. So much win.

What is most surprising though is The Package is actually really well made. It isn't exactly a stylish movie, but the cinematography and editing at least tries to give the film some kind of visual identity and doesn't trying to do it all by the numbers.