First off I hate the one shot gimmick when it's used for the entire movie but I love it when it's used for a sequence withing the movie (Hard Boiled and Johnnie To's Breaking News both come to mind when talking about action movies), I think it takes away from the experience and to be honest I find it unnecessary most of the time but that doesn't mean that there haven't been good movies made with this gimmick in fact Victoria (2015) was one of my favourite movies of that year which was shot in one continous take for real and involved traveling to multiple locations, I also loved Birdman and 1917 as well (still think it's somewhat overrated) and this year One Shot joins that list. I'm familiar with James Nunn's work, he's one of your go to director these days if you want some good old fashioned DTV action movie carnage, Eliminators which was also a collaboration with Scott Adkins was a fairly decent entry and I remember it had one fight scene filmed in one continuous shot. So when this movie was announced and I learned that it's a DTV film that is going to use the one shot gimmick to say I was annoyed would be an understatement because I thought not only are they gonna completely mess up the technical aspect but this is going to have mediocre action because the one shot technique isn't exactly helpful when you're pulling off any complicated choreography. But much to my surprise One Shot took me completely by surprise and ended up becoming one of my favourite films of the year not that it's saying all that much about the quality of films coming up these days. The filmmakers used the siege and prisoner extraction scenario well though you've got to have some suspension of disbelief here because of the infinite waves of suicidal terrorists but I personally do not expect my DTV actioners to be oscar worthy material if you know what I mean. Still for this kind of movie it did have some.well implemented comments on the war on terror and radicalisation. I gotta admit that scene where they motivate the young terrorist to put on the suicide vest kinda moved me and I was surprised with the unique and sympathetic view on this hard subject. I love how the action was varied, you got everything from shoot and cover to defend the building to sneaking around in stealth mode in what could be the film's most impressive part. The oner gives you a good sense of immersion and you're never confused about the geography of the scenes and of the characters at play in regards to eachg other. Another element that I appreciated is that you could feel the exhaustion and the desperation of Scott Adkin's character and the detainee towards the end of the movie. My only minor complaint is that Scott doesn't get to show off his great kicks here but I get that this is not that type of flick. This is one of the best DTV action films of all time imo, up there with Universal Soldiers Regeneration and Day of Reckoning, Sinners and Saints, Drive (with Marc Dacascos) et al... and I love the fact that people like Scott Adkins, Jesse V Johnson and James Nunn are singlehandedly keeping this dying breed of cinema alive.

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