The second I saw Scott Adkins appear on screen in Prisoner of War, I knew I was in for a good time. Widely recognised as one of the best martial arts actors in movies today, I believe that if he replaced certain A-list actors, he would make their films better, and vice versa, they would make his movies worse. 

This is the story of a British pilot shot down and imprisoned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, forced into fights for his life. This film feels as accurate as one of its kind can be. The uniforms feel authentic, and the way the prisoners are treated seems to match the little I do know about how brutal these camps were during the war. 

I think one of the most important things I need to say about this film is this…It legitimately had me cheering out loud multiple times. It gave me one of my favourite moments in all action films ever, within the first ten minutes. Scott Adkins does martial arts action better than any other actor currently making movies. It’s a bold statement, but if you watch his films, I don’t think you could disagree with me. 

His protagonist is very much the archetypal good guy forced into a difficult situation that has to make some tough choices, without allowing them to change who he really is. His turn in this film is really good, and it makes me wonder why Hollywood hasn’t made him a bigger star. The main antagonist of the film, Lt Col. Ito played by Peter Shinkoda, is a cold, calculating man who treats his soldiers and prisoners with equal disdain at times, executing either with impunity if they fail him or anger him. Shinkoda brings the intensity to life and makes you genuinely hate this man. It’s a solid performance. 

Louis Mandylor, the director, has taken a story that has been done similarly before, but made it just different enough to stand out. His choices of location and camera shots work well to highlight the intense situation the prisoners find themselves in. For the most part, the cinematography is well done, but one thing let it down a little. There is a scene with a couple of aeroplanes, and the effects for the planes look a little janky, like the CG used feels unreal. It’s not enough to take me out of the film, but it was noticeable. 

Overall, I loved this. It’s a great action film with some solid fight scenes and an intense but simple story. Is it perfect? No, but it is worth every penny you might have to pay to watch it. This is a film that slots wonderfully into the genre of “Don’t think about it too hard and you’ll enjoy it” films. I’m scoring this based on the way it made me feel, and I’m giving it 3.75/5. It kicks ass, literally!! 

Prisoner of War is out Oct 6th in the UK on TVOD/EST and DVD and BD on 10th November.

Adkins does martial arts action better than any other actor currently making movies

Movie title: Prisoner of War (2025)

Movie description: British RAF Wing Commander James Wright is captured by the Japanese during WWII and forced to fight in brutal hand-to-hand combat. The Japanese soldiers get more than they bargained for when Wright’s years of martial arts training in Hong Kong prove him to be a formidable opponent.

Country: UK

Duration: 1h 50m

Director(s): Louis Mandylor

Actor(s): Scott Adkins, Peter Shinkoda, Michael Copon

Genre: Martial Arts, Action, Thriller

3.8

Summary

Adkins does martial arts action better than any other actor currently making movies

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Simon Henderson

Simon Henderson began his journey with his podcast, Inspire Indie Radio, set up to promote independent, and unsigned, artists and help get their music out to other audiences. This is a big passion of his and something he is very proud to do.

One of his other big passions is movies and he followed up the podcast with movie reviews “from the mind of an average guy” on Tumblr. After a while he wanted to bring everything together under one name and so he chose Average Guy Entertainments because, as he is oft quoted as saying, “I’m just an Average Guy.”