The Shepherd Code: The Road Back (2025)

This is one that I got a screener for from the publicity company hired to get the word out, and having spoken with the star, director, and writer Alan Delabie after the first film, I was excited to make this one happen, especially when he told me this had more Don "The Dragon" Wilson, plus he got Shaina West. In addition to our review, Ty and I discussed this on the pod in episode 237.

Shepherd Code: Road Back picks up where the first one left off. Alex Lapierre (Delabie) is trying to move on and retire in Portugal. But as much as he's trying to get out, his old life keeps pulling him back in. First his mentor Lewis (Wilson) is kidnapped by evil, once thought dead former rival Dumont (Michael McKell). As Lapierre and his buddy Matt (Michael Morris, who also co-wrote and co-directed), try to track down Dumont, Dumont's hatchetman Sanders (Mark Strange) is out there killing anyone connected with Lapierre, making the situation that much direr. Fortunately he's not alone, as Matt has hooked him up with old pal Jessica (West), and with her skills, she can help Lapierre in his final showdown with Dumont and Sanders. Will he be victorious?

This one improved on the first one, and gave us a more polished film overall. Also the strength of the previous one, the fights, is even better here, especially with the talented names Delabie was able to add. Where we run into a problem is we don't get as many fight scenes as we'd want, and Delabie said that had to do with budgetary restraints, which I understand. On the other hand, what does that mean if you're going in expecting a lot of fight scenes and action scenes, and you have more dramatic scenes, how are you going to feel about that? For me, I think the decider is the fact that this is an indie film, and the people involved, Delabie and company, aren't just putting something out with some names on the tin that they hope will get some streams, they're really trying to make the best movie they can, and I not only respect that, that's filmmaking I want to support. And in the process of that support, we get some really inspired fight scenes, which is great to see as well.

As always, we need to start with our 40 Club member, Don "The Dragon" Wilson. This is 43 on the site for him, and he's in this more than the first film, which was good, including a boxing sparring scene that was a fun moment as a fan of his work. I was looking at his bio, and of the films that have actually been released, we've reviewed each of the last six, and then in between the earliest of those, Fury of the Fist and the Golden Fleece and Diamond Cartel and Scorpion King IV, the two he made in 2015, the year he came back from hiatus, there are about six movies that look like they were actually released that could potentially be reviewed, plus a couple before Bloodfist, which all total will get us to 50 for him. Whether we get to them all or not, no matter what, Wilson is one of the greatest to do it, and it was great to see him here in the role he had. He's slated to be in the next film in this series, which will be a prequel, and looks like a lot of fun, so I can't wait to see him there too.

Going from the old school to the new school, we have one of the top rising stars in the action/martial arts world, Shaina West. I'd seen her before this in Jade, which Ty and I covered on episode 232 of the pod, and even though I wasn't a fan of the editorial choices that were taken in the end product, with all the long takes and faux grindhouse-y things, I thought she was great in it, and couldn't wait to see what she did next. Here she comes in toward the end, and has one really great fight scene, which just furthers that desire to see her in more stuff. She has two other films out, one is The Last Gunfight, which is on Paramount+, and the other is The Killer's Game, which is currently in Starz Purgatory, so I may not be able to see it for a while. What her part in this film showed me is she needs a big moment with an Isaac Florentine, Jesse V. Johnson, or James Nunn. And I don't mean co-starring with a Scott Adkins either, center the thing around her. 90 minutes of her taking down a bunch of stunt performers. Former special forces or whatever, I don't care, just put her on a revenge trail and set the whole thing on fire. No more "who's the next big action star," we found her, it's time to start making the movies.

The star of this film, Alan Delabie, is no slouch when it comes to martial arts either, and while he gives the spotlight to his co-stars, in particular West and Mark Strange, he was able to show his stuff plenty as well. I'm excited to see what he has in store for us with the next installment of this franchise. He said it'll be more drama, but if we get a few nice fights here and there I'll be happy. You may have noticed that we tagged Mark Strange as well. We've seen him before, in Avengement, one of the best DTV films of the last 20 years or so. Here he only gets a fight scene or two more than West, but like West, they were fantastic. In particular, his one against Wayne Gordon where he whips his long coat around before he fights, was next level. Add him to the list of names we want to see more of. A couple other names to round things out, we had Lee Arenberg, who played Mike Moffitt in a couple Seinfeld episodes--among other things, but that's what I'll always remember him from; and Louis DeStefano, who shows up in a lot of Cinema Epoch/CineRidge Entertainment films, some of which we've covered here on the site, so it was cool to see him here too. Also, I didn't forget Natasha Killip, Rachel the Waitress from the previous film, and one of my favorite characters in that one. It was great to see her get a cameo in the sequel.

Finally, I wanted to get back to what Alan told me about how he needed to be heavier on the drama aspect than the action because the budget required it. In other cases, it's not a question of the budget, instead the filmmaker relies on more drama because that's the film they want to make. In either case, it gets back to a question that I've always been interested in: do you make art for your audience, or make it for yourself, or even for no audience at all, including yourself? There was an author who said in an interview that you should never write for an audience--even yourself--because that's not the point of creative writing. He said the electric company writes for an audience--if they send you a letter warning you about possible scams, their customer is the audience, and they have a specific purpose in their communication. Creative writing, he said, shouldn't have that same purpose. I can't find the article or remember the name of the author, but it is how I approach writing. For example, the trend now is for short chapters, that that's what audiences want, while my novel Don't House in the Mountains is over 150,000 words and has five chapters. Can the same thing be applied to movies? The audience is expecting a lot of action, and whether it's not there due to budgetary reasons, or the filmmakers wanted to focus on the story, is that okay? I don't have the answer, but for me, if you're earnest enough in what you're doing, and you're putting out good work, the audience should come to you.

And with that, let's wrap this up. You can currently get this on Tubi here in the States, or rent it on Amazon for $2.99. Either way, I think supporting indie creatives is a positive, and something worth doing, and in the process you get to see some really inspired fight scenes. Also, if you haven't yet, check out the podcast episode Ty and I did on this one, 237 in the archives.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32915549

And check out my newest novel, Mark in Sales, on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Avengement (2019)

This was actually my nominee for the 1000th post, but when I put it out there for suggestions and saw some other great candidates--and also decided based on one that I would be going in another direction--I chose to spotlight the movies people nominated, and left this one out to do on my own. In addition to my review, you can see what our friend Mitch at the Video Vacuum thought; and we featured this on a podcast episode some months back with our friend Simon from Explosive Action.

Avengement has DTVC favorite Scott Adkins as a guy who escapes from prison after he's let out to see his dead mother before she passes. His plan is to get revenge on the people he puts there, so he holds a pub hostage and waits for the guy he wants to show. While he's waiting, we learn his story through a series of action-packed flashbacks, featuring some intense fight scenes by Adkins. All this leads to one big fight at the end. Has his time in prison prepared him to take on this many crazy English gangsters at once?

I have this as one of the best DTV flicks in recent memory. I can't remember something that's generated this much buzz and delivered in such a strong way--Black Dynamite is the only one that comes to mind, and that was almost ten years ago. First and foremost, they take the fight scene to this level of extreme, brutal art, that is fantastic to witness. Adkins underpins all of it with his combination of skills and extreme get-after-it-ness (I couldn't think of another word to describe it) that he throws into the role. Decisions on things like telling the movie in flashbacks, which usually feel gimmicky and contrived, worked here for me to keep it from feeling like every other prison flick. This is the Adkins you came for, and hopefully it'll only get better from here.

I recently gave my list of top DTV stars when I was on Cam Sully's Jacked Up Reviews podcast, and I put Adkins at 9. One could make the case that that's too soon for him to be in the top ten; others may say why only 9? I think he still has some work to do--and you wonder how much of it will continue to be in DTV with flicks like this, though I would put something like Recoil ahead of it, and unfortunately Daniels never made the jump to the big screen, so we'll see. Either way, Adkins is generating a lot of heat, and I feel like this is that movie where you say "this guy gets it," and as a fan of the genre, that's really all we can ask for.

This is another collaboration Adkins did with Jesse V. Johnson--and the third we've covered here, along with Triple Threat and The Debt Collector. As someone who started out in the stunt world, he's come over to directing with varying degrees of success, but I think this film allowed him to showcase exactly what he can do with the DTV action film, especially when paired with a talent like Adkins. Another former member of the stunt world who directs is Art Camacho, and all of his aren't perfect either, but if Johnson can approach Camacho's career, I think for us as fans, we couldn't ask for anything more.

In addition to Adkins, we had Craig Fairbrass as his brother. I think he's always great as the English heavy who adds a little bit more to the role. Whereas like a Vinnie Jones character might slam a guy's head in a car door, and you're waiting for that payoff of him doing it; with Fairbrass, you know his character would do it too, but we're satisfied with just the fact that we know he'd do it, if that makes sense--we don't need him to actually do it for that same Vinnie Jones payoff. I also liked Nick Moran for the same reason, and the two together form a combination that really works in offsetting Adkins's brutality without us feeling like they're any less sinister. Finally, we had Louis Mandylor again, who has become something of a Jesse V. Johnson mainstay. What I like about that is when a director can pull someone in they've worked with for a small role, they tend to nail it better. Ask Albert Pyun about all his mainstays. It's little things like that that can make or break a DTV film, especially when the margin for error is smaller.

Finally, because Adkins is all scarred up in this, I wanted to post a picture of him not scarred and with his hair intact for my former pod co-host Jamie, and everyone else out there that finds Adkins the dreamiest. It would be interesting to know which is worse for people when it comes to Adkins: making him affect an American accent for a role, or scarring his face. For me, it's just slightly the former, so scars over American accent.

Right now this is on Netflix, along with a lot of the Adkins/Johnson catalog. Get after it and make it happen. As Simon said when he was on the podcast, this is one of those that you show your friends who aren't into DTV, and they're like "I had no idea a DTV flick could be this good." I don't know where I'd put it on my best ever list, but it's definitely my favorite DTV flick since Black Dynamite. For the podcast episode, you can follow the link on the left-hand side to choose which platform you want to get it from, then look for episode 64, Avengement.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8836988