Starring Scot Adkins, Honor Kneafsey and Yuliia Sobol. Legacy of Lies stars Scott Adkins as an ex MI6 agent whos past catches up with him and he’s dragged back into the world of espionage and murder.
The movie-making machine Scott Adkins releases his inner Jason Bourne in Legacy of Lies as an ex MI6 agent who leaves his past behind after a mission goes tragically wrong, killing his wife and leaving him to bring up their daughter alone.
The movie starts with MI6 agent Martin Baxter (Adkins) providing backup for a deal going down in an abandoned garage. A car is parked and some papers get handed to the driver before things go bad and shots are fired. Baxter manages to take out the gunmen but not before they kill everyone at the deal, one of them being his wife.
Cut to present 12 years later. Baxter now a single dad to his daughter Lisa (Honor Kneafsey), a precocious 12-year-old with an eye for fighting tactics and healthy eating. Baxter now does whatever it takes to make ends meet from Cage fighting to being a bouncer in a night club. Terrified his past will catch up with him, Baxter and his daughter don’t stay put in one place for long. He teaches his daughter how to fire a gun, she understands why and why they have to keep moving.
The inevitable happens. While working in a night club. Baxter is approached by Sacha (Yuliia Sobol). A reporter who believes Baxter is an ex-reporter who worked with her now-deceased father. Not knowing he was ex-MI6 undercover she wants his help to get the very files from the mission that went wrong 12 years ago. Sacha also happens to be on the radar of nefarious Russian business-woman Suzanne (Andrea Vasiliou) who also wants the files. Before Baxter even gets a chance to tell her to get lost, men in suits try to gun Sacha down in the middle of the club. They escape and Sacha disappears. Baxter heads home where his old MI6 colleagues are waiting for him and you guessed it, they want the files too. Once again Baxter tells them he’s out and wants no part of it.
Having his past well and truly caught up with him, it’s time to move on again much to his daughters’ displeasure as she thought they were finally settled. While loading his car, he gets knocked out from behind and wakes up tied to a chair with Suzanne sat in front of him. She knows about his past and Sacha and wants the files. Naturally, they also have his daughter. Baxter tells them he can get the files.
So now Baxter sets out to find Sacha with the pretence of helping her find the files which he plans on giving to the Russians all the while being on the run from MI6 who have been monitoring his movements.
Being fairly low budget, Legacy of Lies doesn’t feel that way at all, with well-shot action sequences, fights and shootouts. It looks every inch the Jason Bourne movie with elements of Taken and James Bond.
The fight scenes are a notch down from Adkins usual flashy stuff and spectacular kicks focusing more on effective offence techniques used to dispatch opponents and quickly as possible. Naturally this suits this type of movie to a tee. Could you imagine Jason Bourne or James Bond performing a Van Damme helicopter kick mid-fight? Just wouldn’t be appropriate.
The plot is fairly straight forward and easy to follow. You know exactly why Baxter is doing what he’s doing and why he’s heading to this location next. The guy barely gets a moments peace as soon as he stops for a bit the MI6 are on him. The only real mystery in the movie is what exactly is in these files that everyone wants.
In conclusion, Legacy of Lies is fast-paced action with plenty of fights scenes and shootouts. It has a couple of twists down the road and some great locations and some gorgeous photography. For Adkins fans. It’s doesn’t quite have the cult potential of the Undisputed movies and Avengement. But once again Adkins delivers and looks right at home as a Jason Bourne, James Bond type super spy.
Rating 3.5/5 belts
