It’s Die Hard in a football stadium when ex-soldier, Mike Knox (Dave Bautista) finds himself trapped at Upton Park, where Eastern block terrorists are looking for the leader of a failed revolution, hidden somewhere in the 35,000-strong crowd.
The premise is silly, the effects are budget, but somehow Final Score manages to punch way above its weight.
Part of its appeal is undoubtedly seeing the usual action-movie tropes being played out in a British environment where everything—apart from the football—is wonderfully low-key. Part of its appeal is knowing that you’re in safe hands. This isn’t the sort of film that’s going to surprise or disappoint—you’ll get exactly what’s written on the tin, and sometimes that’s just what you want to wash down the evening’s beer and pizza. But a huge part of its appeal is Amit Shah (The Hundred-Foot Journey), who steals the film right from under the nose of his Guardian’s of the Galaxy co-star. Forget Knox and his unfeasibly large deltoids, it’s Shah’s plucky “Faisal who Khan” whose fate—as the final minutes of the match play out— will leave you breathless.
Final Score is that rare thing: an under-the-radar action movie that manages to get all the ingredients right. Maybe it won’t rock your world but, it will make you smile.