PRISONER OF WAR: Scott Adkins, the Pizza Man

PRISONER OF WAR (Blu-ray)

2025 / 113 min

Well Go USA

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Brawler😼

My wife works a couple of evenings a week, and on those days, I am tasked with making dinner. Being the creative culinary Jedi that I am, that means we’re having frozen pizza on Thursdays. It may not be as delicious as some of the fancier pizzerias in town, but it’s cheap, easy and does its job of tasting more or less like a pizza.

When it comes to action movies, Scott Adkins is kinda like the guy who actually makes the pizzas we passively consume once a week. There’s nothing particularly outstanding or memorable about the B-movie brawls he stars in, but more often than not, you can count on them doing the job of serving-up perfunctory action, violence and, of course, Adkins' considerable martial arts skills. 

For Prisoner of War, the title and cover art tells all, just as the photo on that pizza box shows what it’s supposed look like once it's heated up. Here, Adkins plays British WWII fighter pilot James Wright, who gets shot down and ends up in a Japanese prison camp run by sadistic colonel Benjiro Ito (Peter Shinkoda). But instead of executing him - though he threatens to daily - Ito repeatedly forces Wright to fight other Japanese soldiers. Unsurprisingly, Wright whips their asses every time.

This pizza man delivers...pain.

Meanwhile, Wright hatches an escape plan with his fellow POWs, some of whom are provided personalities, but this is mostly just the Scott Adkins show. That oughta suit his fans just fine, who’d probably be just as happy if the film had him fighting his way out of a staff meeting that could’ve been an email. And unlike some of his direct-to-video contemporaries, Adkins is a fairly decent actor, so when not snapping limbs, at least he’s capable of delivering his lines without making the viewer cringe.

Prisoners of War runs a little longer than necessary, especially with a superfluous prologue and epilogue. But for the most part, it delivers exactly what you’d expect from a Scott Adkins fightfest. Like the frozen pizza I heat up for the family every Thursday, we won’t give it another thought afterwards, but it’s adequately satisfying in the moment.