Dave Bautista has been on a hot streak lately with his awesome turn as Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, the James Bond film Spectre and more recently Blade Runner 2049, but I have been a fan since he debuted in the WWE and his role in Man With the Iron Fists. In between his big high profile flicks he has stayed busy with some smaller straight to home entertainment releases including his latest Bushwick co-starring Brittany Snow. I’ve been keeping up with this film since they debuted the teaser posters and looking forward to seeing it, but does it offer up the intensity it promises or will it fail to survive the fight?

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Bushwick follows Lucy, who steps off the subway and walks into an utter bloodbath on the streets of Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood. Texas is attempting to secede from the Union, and militia forces have descended upon New York City to claim it as an East Coast base of operations and negotiation tool. Faced with a flurry of whizzing bullets and total destruction around every corner, Lucy takes shelter in the basement of Stupe, a burly war veteran who reluctantly helps her traverse the treacherous five-block stretch of Bushwhack to reach her destination—assuming it’s still there. While this film wasn’t the type of action film I expected it still delivered the goods. This is a film very much like Red Dawn, but this time with a domestic war. Bautista has really come into his own as an actor offering up some great emotions here and of course always able to deliver the action. Snow is good here as well, but the chemistry these to have make the film work as a whole.

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From the moment the film begins it wastes no time getting to the action and offers up some great violent moments. I was expecting more of an over the top action film for some reason, but instead what we got was something a lot more realistic and in turn more terrifying. We as a country are already on the verge of this kind of thing with so many people fighting and rising up against each other. This brings it to life in a very real way with rarely anything you couldn’t believe happening which scarier to me than any horror film.

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This film isn’t breaking down the barriers in action, but does offer up something I enjoyed quite a bit and gives fans of Bautista to see a different kind of character than we are used to from him. Filled with action and realism this is a film worth checking out if for no other reason to get you talking about how to prepare if this happens for real and sadly it is closer than we want to think. Join the fight and grab your copy of Bushwick when it hits Blu-ray and DVD on October 24th from RLJ Entertainment.