The Workout enjoyed a limited theatrical U.S. release on August 27 from Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film will release on Blu-Ray, and through Insurgence on VoD in October.
Fabien Garcia’s Die Fighting is my instant default on all matters pertaining to the advent of the martial arts found footage subgenre. It’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen and only a few films have tried to capture a similar mien, the latest coming from writer/director James Cullen Bressack with upcoming revenge thriller, The Workout.
The movie begins as Levi (Josh Kelly) joins Wyatt (Peter Jae) and pregnant wife Becca (Galadriel Stineman) hit record for a workout video at their work-in-progress gym, only to be paid a visit by the gun-toting son of a mobster with two masked men in toe. The situation quickly escalates before anyone has a clue, resulting in a scuffle that leaves Becca dead, Wyatt comatose before waking up a month later and learning the severity of his injuries, and their infant child hanging by a thread after an emergency birth.
Short-tempered and eager to seek vengeance before his memory slips forever, Wyatt commits to a violent quest of retribution, documenting anything and everything for posterity to share with his daughter when she gets older. Along with the aegis of an amenable detective (co-star/writer David Josh Lawrence) and a few old friends in their corner from their Army Ranger heyday including Tank (Ashlee Evans-Smith), Wyatt and Levi scour the criminal underworld only to tread between the rivalry of two warring crime families, with each scrimmage inching them closer to a deep, dark truth.
I will say that there are select moments throughout the film’s runtime that kind of make it almost clear as to what exactly the twist is. The Workout, otherwise, does an ample job of keeping the viewers stimulated enough to languish too much on these areas. The story stays moving for the most part, and much of the drama and intensity is focused on Jae’s performance as a father fixated on revenge while struggling to keep up with his own mind before he loses it.
The film’s found footage applications extend to our protagonists’ use of high-end spec tech between body cams, mini cams, and a device that collects footage from any camera within a mile. To this end, you’re watching a film that you can easily perceive as the culmination of footage edited together in the aftermath of the film’s events, even in some scenes and locations where there typically wouldn’t be cameras.
It’s a pretty limber approach to the story structure and overall formula, and makes for an inviting preamble to the film’s framework in action design, with Luke LaFontaine coordinating a steady balance of gun battles and hand-to-hand. Exchanges in the latter are a hit-or-miss with a quite a few moments where the action looks a little too rehearsed and undercuts the pace to a degree. The most gory moment of the film happens near the final act during an explosive gunfight where a character gets half their face blown off, lending to a well-staged reaction and excellent practical effects and make-up.
The Workout also plays out with a healthy runtime of about eighty minutes, indicative of a lean, mean action thriller that plays on as many of its strengths as possible. I’m especially a fan of stunt coordinator LaFontaine who last collaborated with Bressack on Darkness Of Man, and who is also on track for his own feature debut in the new year.
While The Workout isn’t without its hangups, Bressack’s latest lends a serviceable action thriller that’s enough to warrant a rental. It’s got a fine script and a great format for action that hopefully doesn’t become too gimmicky long after films like Die Fighting, or even End Of Watch or Searching, and solid cast performances that compliment Bressack’s efforts.
