I couldn't really believe how terrible this movie was. T and A couldn't even save this (well, maybe if it had been better looking T and A). Basically this is a poor movie in all categories and is basically, as many reviewers have claimed, a softcore porn movie like you see on Cinemax or Showtime late at night.
Don't get me wrong, I love MMA. I have interviewed Quinton Jackson and I love B.J. Penn, G.S.P., Anderson Silva and Heath Herring and I'm loving that they got a chance to make some money without taking the bumps and bruises they normally get in the ring. However the acting was probably the worst of any movie I've ever seen. G.S.P. and all the guys could probably get a little better, and I actually thought that Heath Herring was the freakin star of the entire movie in terms of acting ability. The main character, who I guess is supposed to be the experienced actor is the worst I believe I've ever seen. I literally almost turned the movie off and I'll watch almost any martial arts movie to the end.
As for breaking down the areas of the movie. There was hardly any training sequences, mainly in between fights it was just a bunch of sex scenes (usually sex is historically a big no-no before fights). So I would give this a 0 in terms of training. I like my martial arts movies to show some training techniques and the more of them they are, the more aspects of training they show, and the realism of the training the better he movie. This one had none of that. As for the actual action, it was pretty terrible there as well. I will rate it a 4, simply because of my true life MMA guys. They didn't get to show off enough of their skill, nor where they even given some roles where they could maybe use some Hollywood effects to supe them up a little bit. But just being generous I'm giving it a 4 in terms of overall fight scenes and action, the fighting was fairly realistic.
The acting was truly the low point of a movie that I really can't find many high points. I don't usually, or ever worry about the acting in these type of movies as long as the action is kick a** and the fighting is either very realistic, or a good back and forth between the main hero and villain, or something innovative in terms of the fight choreography. This movie had none of that, as well as even worse acting than even the lowest of this genre. Since martial arts movies aren't known for Robert Deniro type performances and saying that this movie is the worst I've seen thus far that would put my acting rating in the negatives. The lead character is terrible, the lead villain is OK and I'm a fan of his and always have been. He far outshines anyone else in the movie and I was actually hoping he would beat the crap out of the main good guy (I hope he did accidentally belt him in a few of the takes). And the supporting acting of MMA fighter, Heath Herring was pretty decent too, especially considering as many hard tough fights that Heath has had in real life. He seems really sharp still, no signs of any damage from all his fights and he seems to have a natural talent for acting if he wanted to do that. Still, when your lead character is so bad the movie is gonna be bad. For it's genre I would rate the acting of this movie as a 3 (only because of Herring and lead villain Patrick Kilpatrick). I would rate it a 1 or a 0 if not for those 2 guys. In terms of overall genres of movies, this movie gets a 0.
Action 4
Acting in Martial Arts Genre 3
Acting Overall Genres 0
Story Martial Arts Genre 1
Story overall Genres 0 (I should give it negatives)
In closing, if you're a die-hard martial arts/kung fun movie fan, you may still regret watching this. If you are martial arts movie fan, plus huge MMA fan and really like George St Pierre, BJ Penn, Quinton Jackson, Heath Herring, or Anderson Silva then you might want to give this a watch just to see those guys. I would steer clear of this unless there is totally nothing else on. I also wouldn't buy this movie unless it is found at a yard sale or something for under a dollar. I don't really know if it's worth a rental, unless you are really curious and can find it at a Redbox.
