Movie review - Affinity

Affinity ** (out of 5) Hulking Marko Zaror stars in this action flick as an ex-SEAL living low in Thailand riddled with PTSD, kicking himself over an old mission failure. He rescues a woman (Jane Mirro) on the run from something bad. She calls herself Athena, but has no memory of her life before that moment. He becomes her protector and lover. But only briefly, before she’s snatched and in need of another rescue. The more we learn about her, the less sense the plot makes.

Zaror is a legit stunt man and martial artist. As an actor, he’s like Arnold Vosloo with less emotional range. Or Dave Bautista without his capacity for humor. But his thespian side seems relatively good compared to the rest of his skill set, since he shares credit for the lamentable story idea and screenplay. As solid as his fight scenes are, the talky parts between them are quite unconvincing and understimulating. You can’t wring much romantic juice from a wounded warrior and a blank slate of a paramour. That makes the whole rescue quest go south on the empathy scale. The obviously low budget doesn’t help, either.

The evils to be conquered include designer drugs, crimes large and small and a demented scientist driven by a Pygmalion obsession. So Zaror delivers beatdowns to many who richly deserve it, making the fight scenes gritty and gratifying. Some semblance of protagonist energy comes from Zaror’s cohorts played by Louis Mandylor and Brooke Ence, but not enough to boost the production into an emotionally engaging experience.

The inevitable climactic battle is the film’s best feature, and almost worth what you have to sit through to get there. Basically, watch this for the fights. Fast-forward through the rest.

(Affinity debuts on Digital from Well Go USA on 9/30/25.)