WFG RATING: B

Vision Films presents an Engineered Films production. Produced and directed by Salvatore Samperi and Mathew John Pearson. Written by Salvatore Samperi. Cinematography by Koji Takahashi Chan. Edited by Michael Yee and Mathew John Pearson

Stars Salvatore Samperi, Artom Simin, Jamaica Vaughan, Amelia Conway, Wazza Waseeq, Eirini Pap, Aaron Scully, Christopher Daw, Song Junho, and Sanjeev Mehra.

A former private investigator goes on a path of redemption in this Australian action thriller from the duo of Salvatore Samperi and Mathew John Pearson.

After a job gone wrong led him separated from his family, former private investigator Levi Meli spends his time at the local marina waiting for answers. However, as he waits to hear news, he is visited by an old childhood friend, Marissa Darby. Marissa is now a high-ranking police officer whose sister Suzy went missing a year ago. Reluctant out of fear his cover could be blown, Levi eventually decides to take the job.

As Levi gets close to finding Suzy’s whereabout, he soon finds trouble coming for him. Met with one challenge after another, Levi somehow makes it out. He soon learns that Marissa’s beau, Siroos, may have something to do with Suzy’s disappearance as Suzy’s friend April may be the key to helping Levi find her. However, as Levi gets even more closer, Siroos might be the last person gunning for him as the past he has been trying to confront slowly inches its way back to him.

Australia is definitely making its mark again in the action film industry. With a resurgence spearheaded by Bren Foster’s awesome Life After Fighting, this film also has the tendency to showcase some action but instead of doing Foster’s brand of updated choreography, this one has a lot of throwbacks to various old school and millennial action films when it comes to its action sequences.

While the film has a sense of stereotypical villains, Salvatore Samperi’s lead character of Levi helps elevate the film. He’s not your typical strong action hero. As a matter of fact, he is very reluctant to want to help his childhood friend out as he is plagued by nightmares of his last protection job gone wrong to where he was almost killed. And he even goes as far as getting himself beaten up in the first few action scenes, having to resort to the environment to either evade or defeat some of the thugs.

There are two central villains of the film. One is the head of an Asian crime organization who is responsible for Levi’s job gone wrong, played by Wazza Waseeq. However, the core villain here is the sly gang lieutenant Siroos, aka Reza, excellently played in stereotypical fashion by Artom Simin. Simin plays your typical skeezy gangster who starts the film with two ladies only to kill one while under the influence of a drug but ultimately shows no remorse.

The fighting doesn’t really get to amp up until halfway through and once it does, it really drives the film further. Samperi and Simin, along with Michael Jupp, served as the action unit and they display various forms of martial arts, and use some pretty good camera angles for some of the action. One such involves a brief “oner” where Samperi takes on a group of ninja henchmen while Simin does a high kick to a villain knocking him off a platform before it goes into almost Tony Jaa territory. The finale between Simin and Samperi is actually pretty well done for their value. It’s not Scott Adkins territory, but you can see some of the inspirations behind the action involved.

Unseen Enemy is actually a fairly decent Aussie action vehicle that could put Salvatore Samperi’s name on the map as a face to watch out for.

The film will be released on Digital on September 30.