Damage (2009)

"Do you mind if we finish this?"...is the line Steve Austin uses before he knocks out his last opponent in Damage. Steve Austin wasted too many good years in the wrestling ring when he could have been honing his acting chops in action films like this one. Austin plays an ex-con named John Brickner, who is enticed in to the underground fight world with the promise of a six figure pay cheque by a bar maid named Frankie played by Laura Vandervoort and her questionable crony friend Reno Paulsaint played by Walton Goggins.

Okay, so the story line has been done hundreds of times before. In this action film John Brickner agrees to enter the underground cage fight scene in an effort to raise $250K to pay for a new heart for the pre- teen daughter of the man Brickner strangled to death years earlier. I like Steve Austin as the ass kicking hero with a big heart in Damage. His fight scenes are better than most action stars, and his acting character that he portrays is humble and realistic.

If you like the action and fight scene genre than you should enjoy this film better than the other average cage fight movies. Steve Austin should go on to make many more action movies based on the quality of his acting skills, large physique, calm cool collected mannerisms, and his natural All American hero image.

Fmovies: I watched the trailer for this movie and had high expectations going into this movie.... being a fan of stone cold in his wrestling days I thought I would enjoy this action movie... I was wrong. This movie doesn't know if it wants to be a drama or an action movie. The actions scenes are repetitive and theirs too much talk in between the fight scenes. If you like steve austin kickin a$$ than I recommend another B action movie and that is "hunt to kill". At least that movie knows what it wants to be.However I did buy this movie for $1 at a local movie store that was closing down, so for that much it's worth it. overall I give it a 4/10.

There's a workable story hiding in there somewhere, but it's mostly obscured by mind-numbingly cheap fights, a clichéd soundtrack and general DTV feel.

Stone Cold Steve Austin is John Brickner, a recently paroled ex-con. He is aided by Veronica (Lynda Boyd), the widow of the man John was imprisoned for killing. However, Veronica's help is not motivated by forgiveness or understanding, but rather by a need to have John help her with her own desperate agenda.

Needing money and fast, John befriends underground fight agent Reno (Walton Goggins) and his girlfriend Frankie (Laura Vandervoort). Together they enter a fight circuit hoping that the rewards of victory will solve their respective dilemmas.

The acting in "Damage" is sub-par. Here I don't evaluate Steve Austin because you aren't expecting much. Laura Vandervoort is a little bit of eye candy, but her character seems more interested in appearing scene than actually helping her man out. Walton Goggins is too old for his role and is very inconsistent. Sometimes he's convincing, sometimes very dry --- but you can never put a finger on what his character really values. Instead of helping his woman, his character seems to gamble all his spare dollars away.

Thematically the film is a Christian tract with an "original sin" subtext. Necessarily, this leads to a class warfare view of social relationships whereby everyone is either portrayed as a "master" or a "slave" due to their debts --- moral, economic or otherwise. By consequence this perpetuates the bromides that money = root of all evil, and happiness consists of a duty ethic.

And oh yeah, rich whitey is behind it all.

Many action film fans are willing to overlook genre clichés if the film has exciting fights, like in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine". But the fights in "Damage" consist of unrealistic blood splatter and mindless repetition, so it's doubtful that even the action buffs will be satisfied. Steve Austin only throws hay-makers (which rarely appear to connect),and his primary fighting attribute seems to be that he is "Stone Cold", i.e., takes a beating without getting knocked out.

The "final fight" of the film hearkens back to the cheese of mid-80's action flicks, but without the enjoyable payoff. Captive audiences should not be made to endure such a ruthless conglomeration of "YOU CAN DO IT!" aerobic workout music and extreme body greasing. It's not 1986 anymore, and there's just no excuse for direction of this kind.

The whole film is summed up by the homophobic hug given at the end:

Weak.

Damage fmovies. "Damage" is a remake of a Charles Bronson flick, "Hard Times," which in turn was remade some years later with J.C. Van Damme. Steve Austin plays an ex-con who gets involved in the murky and illegal world of bare knuckle fighting. A hokey subplot has our hero trying to raise enough money to obtain a new heart for the daughter of a late acquaintance. Walter Goggins plays Austin's sleazy but likable manager and the very pretty Laura Van DerVoot is Goggins' partner. Several veteran actors were cast as well, including Donnelly Rhodes, to support Austin, who in fact isn't all that bad as the soft-spoken, hard-hitting tough guy. Casting several veterans in a film like this is nothing new; it has been used with folks like Chuck Norris, Ah-nuld and Steven Segal, none of whom started out as actors. The fights are clumsily staged, which in a strange way befits an ex-pro wrestler. "Damage" doesn't begin to touch the Bronson version, but it is watchable, especially for Goggins, who reminds me of a young Tom Cruise.

In his second leading movie role, former WWE legend Stone Cold Steve Austin plays John Brickner, an ex-convict whose attempts to live a quiet life on the outside are thrown into jeopardy when he is forced into the shadowy world of illegal fighting. Though his acting skills are somewhat limited, Austin is perfectly adequate as the star of this low-key action drama; just don't expect anything groundbreaking from the execution or basic set-up. Like Austin's previous vehicle (WWE Films' The Condemned), this basically just adheres to an established action movie template (this time the 'inspiration' is the old Jean-Claude Van Damme effort AWOL), and goes through the motions of its familiar plot in an unfussy and unsurprising way. The direction is unspectacular, the fight scenes efficient but not particularly brutal, and the final result is a film that is nowhere near bad enough to despise, but nowhere near good enough to be memorable. The supporting performances are largely anonymous, though Walton Goggins (sporting the same ghastly brown leather jacket he wore as Shane Vendrell across all seven seasons of The Shield) makes the best of a badly-written part as Brickner's debt-ridden manager.

this is not just another brainless action movie.not that there's anything wrong with that.there's actually a story here,and a good one. there are some tender sensitive moments in which Steve Austin shows he has some real acting ability.yes there are some brutal fighting sequences,but that is not the core of the story.the core of the story is about doing the right thing,about morality,forgiveness and redemption.and that's what moves the film along.the dramatic scenes work very well here.partial credit must go to the cast,not just Austin but the supporting players as well.Walton Goggins and Laura Vandervoort are very good as well.for me,Damage is a 6/10