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Since the announcement and seeing the trailers, I was pumped up to see this film and finally had the chance to rent in on Amazon Prime. It is an enjoyable throwback to 80s and 90s martial arts tournament films with very a few small flaws that are forgiven.

The plot is simple: karate champion's daughter is kidnapped and he's forced to fight in an illegal kumite in Eastern Europe to save her. A nice little twist comes in that he befriends two other fighters in a similar situation and he also trains with a former kumite champion hellbent on revenge on the organizer and the current champ's former teacher, who herself is hellbent on revenge for her student's heel turn.

Mathis Landwehr is great as lead character Michael and it was exciting to see Kurt McKinney return to martial arts flicks after 1986's No Retreat No Surrender and 1997's Sworn to Justice (which features his TLK co-star and MA icon Cynthia Rothrock). At 61, McKinney still has the action chops. Kudos also go out to stunt performer Mounia Moula as Lea and YouTuber David "Viking Samurai" Kurzhal as kumite fighter Marcus. Rothrock and Billy Blanks are great as Michael's trainers while German wrestler Mike Derudder impresses as the deadly Kumite champ Dracko.

My only gripe is that one fighter who was hyped up in the film was wasted. However, this particular actor, the son of an icon may get redemption in the form of the upcoming "The Circuit 4: Faith Fighter", starring Billy Blanks.

So while it's not perfect, it does its job and is an enjoyable throwback to the good ol days in the form of a slow burn as the kumite starts 65 minutes into the 105-minute run time. But it's definitely worth it thanks to the backstories of some of the characters.

A solid 9!

There are two reasons to see this film: Ava Cantrell in the titular role and Tren Brown as the reluctant new friend. Having shades of classics like "Carrie" and "Natural Born Killers", the film revolves around Abigail, a teen who moves from California to Alabama in 1976. Her first attempts to befriend neighbor Lucas is futile until she helps him stand up to bullies. She goes through a "3-strike" mode, first glancing then a warning shot in the form of knocking the lead bully down.

However, the lead bully's retribution becomes strike 3 and you can guess what happens. Cantrell delivers a brilliant performance as a young woman who has an overbreaking protective mother that is reminiscent of Margaret White minus the religion aspect with Hermoine Lynch delivering an amazing performance while Lucas's home life is even worse with a very condescending and arrogant mother, driven with an excellent performance by Karimah Westbrook.

Things really pick up at the halfway point but just wait until you see the final ten minutes. Totally shocking and jaw-dropping. This film is highly recommended!!!

After seeing her 2021 debut film Quarantine, I had a good feeling about Diana Ringo as a filmmaking force to be reckoned with. She solidified that statement with her adaptation of the classic Orwell novel 1984. Combining elements from Orwell as well as a 1921 Russian novel, We, by Yegveny Zaymatin,

Ringo brings us to a futuristic or alternate 1984 where we see D-503 (based on Winston Smith, a mathematician in a world run by Big Brother, begin to have thoughts and personal feelings that do not mesh with Big Brother's vision of a world. Together with artist I-330 (based on Julia and played by Ringo herself), they learn of a possive resistance movement and will go to great lengths to enjoy "freedom".

Excellent performances by Aleksandr Obmanov as D-503, Ringo as I-330, and Aleksei Shamayev as Big Brother's "spokesman" drive the film. Overall, highly recommended and can't wait to see what Ringo comes up with next as she did it all here (co-star, director, producer, writer, composer, VFX artist).