Accident Man originated as a series of comic strips published in 1990. In an interview with Viking Samurai, Scott Adkins talks about reading it when he was about 14 years old, loving it, and dreaming that someday it would be made into a movie. Well, with 2018’s Accident Man his dream blossomed into reality, and years later he got to live the dream again with Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday, a sequel which I dare say supersizes the first one in all the right ways.
Mike Fallon (Scott Adkins) returns in Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday. He’s living in Malta and resumes the hitman activities just as he would any other career. He’s carrying a lot of guilt around for the events of the first movie- a smart story move, as it makes him easier to empathize with this time around. Ol’ Finicky Fred (Perry Benson) shows up, squirming his way into Mike’s heart (and mine) and helps him realize that people need friends. When Mrs. Zuuzer (Flaminia Cinque) takes Fred hostage, she offers Mike Fred’s safety in exchange for Mike keeping her son, Dante (George Fouracres), safe from the army of assassins after him. Again, Mike must fend off some of the world’s greatest hitmen, only this time he’s doing it with the power… of friendship!
Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday pours a welcome dose of comedy into the fertile soil of its action, growing an oasis for action lovers. Much like the sun allows verdant leaves to bloom, the fight sequences illuminate the experienced cast’s skills in martial arts and stunt work. Most everyone is doing their own stunt work, here, and it comes at you fast, furious, and wild. Knives, chains, fists, feet, and cinder block mallets are all fair game.
Scott Adkins, doing double duty as a writer here, and his writing partner Stu Small, serve up many character and story improvements over the first Accident Man. Mike is much more likable and empathetic, the pacing is tighter, and the undertones of misogyny and homophobia are absent. In the aforementioned interview, Adkins recognized that Mike can be difficult to like in the first film saying, “I think we corrected that in the second and made him a bit more likable.” Adkins explains that the first film captures the comic book, portraying Mike and company as written. However, the story of the sequel was created from scratch and doesn’t follow any laid out story in the comic so they had more creative freedom- which ended up working out for the best.
Hitman’s Holiday boasts a stronger supporting cast surrounding Mike, too. Of particular note is Poco the Killer Clown. While Killer/scary clowns have been done before, Poco’s congenital insensitivity to pain means that this clown keeps laughing and keeps coming no matter how hard he’s hit. Brilliant! And Beau Fowler brings the perfect bizarre menace to this clown through his physicality, line reading, and spine-chilling laugh. I hate clowns, but I REALLY HATED THIS FUCKING CLOWN (in a good way)!
Another character that tingles the spine in a good way is non-hitman Wong Siu-Ling (Sarah Chang). She’s as ruthless as she is skilled in martial arts. Chang brings a humor and charm to the character, and she and Adkins have great on-screen chemistry, so I hope to see more of her in future installments.
Speaking of things I want to see in future installments: It seems an Accident Man film isn’t complete without some farting. While the farts don’t come from somewhere as surprising as a decapitated body this time around, they’re still a welcome addition and now I expect to see many more farts in any subsequent sequels. Don’t let me down, Scott!
“A problem shared is a problem halved.” Hitman’s Holiday shows us the power of friendship (and the power of incredible ass-kicking skills), so learn from its example by sharing your problems (and this movie) with your friends and asking for help next time a job overwhelms you. And if a friend comes to you with a problem, be like Fred. Be a helper.
Action Rating: 5 Friendly Assassins, out of 5
Disclaimer: Just because I am the Action Flick Chick and love action movies does not mean I condone real life violence in any way. Everyone has their own shit to deal with, be nice to each other.
