If you are browsing Netflix or walking around your local video store and you pause to consider renting the Steve Austin fighting flick "Damage," chances are you're not expecting it to change your world.
You'd be right, but as pedestrian as the flick is, as little it actually brings to the table stylistically, artistically, or narratively, it's still mildly diverting.
Let's put it this way: "The Condemned" was a much more complex, potentially interesting story, but I'd watch "Damage" three times all the way through before I'd even consider popping in "The Condemned" once.
The story is familiar: John Brickner (Austin) is an ex-con recently released from the slam after being wrongly convicted blahblahblah...anyway, he gets a job as a bouncer at a local watering hole and stands up for the hot waitress (Laura Vandervoort, of TV's "V" and "Smallville) by throwing out some preppy douchbags who keep grabbing her, making lewd comments and generally doing what preppy douchebags do.
As it turns out, the hot waitress has a boyfriend (Walton Goggins) who manages underground fighters. John declines, hoping to keep his nose clean after getting out of the joint, says no, even though he stands to make six figures from one big-time fight.
About that time, though, the wife of the man John killed (in self defense, natch) reveals that she was instrumental in getting him released early, and did so because she wants him to atone by saving her terminally ill daughter, who will die unless she can get a heart transplant that, thanks to a lack of medical insurance, will cost $250,000.
So what's an ex-con to do? Brickner goes into fighting with the goal of saving the little girl.
And that's that. There is one mildly amusing running joke, where Brickner's ho-hum parole officer is only interested in hearing whether his urine passes the drug screen, and never looks at him to ask why he has consistent cuts and bruises on his face.
Brickner's slate of opponents are faceless beefy types, and the battles are mostly pedestrian slugfests, with the occasional chain or pipe thrown in.
Austin is really capable of conveying two emotions: anger and ambivalence, which is really all he needs for this role. The rest of the time his fists do the talking, though I'm a little disappointed that he didn't break out the Stone Cold Stunner as his big finishing move (at least The Rock knew to do his move in "The Rundown").
Vandervoort has a solid future acting. She looks and acts like a star on screen, and she'll have at least a decent career in TV if not film.
There's not much more to say about this film. If you're into this sort of thing, more power to you. It's not the worst of these films ever made, but neither are you going to be a changed person because of it.