The Tournament

The Tournament - a deadly game played out every 7 years, where the world's richest people put 30 of the world's deadliest assassins in an out of the way town, and bet on who will be the last man (or woman) standing. The surprise (aha( is that through a plot twist, a drunken priest played by Robert Carlyle becomes an unwilling participant. Ving Rhames, Kelly Hu and that dueshbag from LOST round out the character actors.

A movie like this, for me, needs two things - badass characters - and I mean MAKE THEM BADASS! Have a guy who uses snakes as weapons, and has an eyepatch, and uses a boomerang! Have a girl who has poisons and throwing stars, and who killed her whole family when she was 3 years old - I want some bloody history goddammit. Have assassins who get their arms pulled off and still keep killing. What we get here is a stupid video game sequence for each of the top 5 assassins, THE TEXAN, THE FRENCHMAN, THE Asian CHICK, etc, kicking and punching a bit before freezing for the camera. This is not the way to go. Show them in their environment. SHOW us, don't just tell us how badass they are.

The movie has a stupid subplot where Ving Rhames's wife has been killed, and hes there for revenge, blah blah blah, these movies tend to get all cocked up when they try to make an emotional plot work, and this one is no exception. I feel like having this tournament, plus a bystander who's a priest who then becomes one of the players is more than enough plot for an action movie, the rest can be just watching the carnage unfold, and if the characters are interesting, and the action scenes are creative, that's all it really needs. This movie tries to straddle both, and ends up having mediocre characters having mediocre fight scenes (the two fight scenes with the FRENCHMAN were the exceptions, mostly because I'm a sucker for that parkour jumping around stuff).

One last thing - movies like this need to understand the idea of contrasting elements. Contrast these deadly killers against a very normal town! Show them getting coffee at starbucks, fighting in a wal-mart, contrast crazy with normal. Instead the towns people seem to barely exist, the cops are nowhere, you never get that moment where a kid looks at a bleeding murderer from behind a box of paper towels, and the killer goes "hey there buddy" before blowing away a crazy monkey fighter who leaps over the tootsie roll display. This place is the town equivalent of an empty warehouse.

People are comparing it to death race, but I actually liked that better, because it embraced it's stupidity, and didn't try to have that emotional subplot. The Tournament is really a movie best enjoyed after at least four beers, and even then you might find yourself nodding off near the end.

When I decided to check out "The Tournament" the expectations were moderate. Actually I expected it to be a pleasant DTV title with a couple of cool actors.

What I got instead was a thrilling actioner that surpasses most of the theatrical releases of the same genre. The action is hyperkinetic and violent, and Scott Mann has undisputed Hollywood potential.

The plot about the assassin tournament is clean and simple, a lot like "Taken" and when it comes to comparison between these two films, only advantage for "Taken" is Liam Neeson. "The Tournament" provides solid acting but it doen't have such a potent star. Actually, if we consider its budget, "The Tournament" is really outstanding in terms of casting because it combines available theatrical-feature actors like Kelly Hu, Liam Cunningham,, Robert Carlyle and Ving Rhames with top DTV names like Scott Adkins. Scott Adkins' potential was obvious ever since he first appeared in Isaac Florentine films and in "the Tournament" he is accompanied by Sebastien Foucan, the parkourist we remember from "Casino Royale".

Fight scenes are marvelously staged, with great fight choreography, but also outstanding gunplay and vehicle stunts. When it comes to the sheer amount of action "The Tournament" gives you the most for bang for the buck. It is very hard to invent some new kinds of action set-pieces and choreographies but in a couple of scenes "Rhe Tournament" does that.

Also, you must bear in mind that action is very violent and gory. The sheer amount of gore is comparable to Neill Blomkamp's "District 9". Bloodletting is stylish and lavish and Scott Mann really has the guts (quite literally) to pull it off.

I am surprised that this film failed to get theatrical release. I mean, it's quite obvious that American distributors wouldn't release because none of the stars are a draw in the US but I guess it should've worked quite well internationally.

Writer Gary Young was lucky to move on into theatrical business with Matthew Vaughn production "Harry Brown". I hope Scott Mann will accomplish the same.

I saw this in 2009 n revisited it recently on a DVD which i own. Action fans should definitely check this out. The plot - A group of sadistic gamblers makes wagers on 30 of the world's most deadly assassins who band against one another in a battle royal. Debutante director Scott Mann did a terrific job considering the budget. The action is non stop. There are shoot-outs, gun play, bloodbaths in unlikely venues, severed limbs, exploding bodies caused by booby-trapped tracking devices, plenty of explosions, car chases, kicking, punching, heads exploding off like melons, severed limbs, wild stunts, a bus/truck chase, nudity and gore. Its really a *ucking shame that this film didn't got the recognition it deserves. The star cast is decent, the hot n attractive Kelly Hu (her sex scene from Farmhouse man), Ving Rhames, Robert Carlyle, Liam Cunningham, Scott Adkins n Sebastian Foucon (the guy from Casino royal). There's an excellent free running sequence courtesy of park-our expert Sebastian Foucon.

When I saw the trailer for this film I immediately thought The Tournemnt had potential to be one of best action films of the last years, unfortunately that's not the case. The premise is very interesting even if flawed; every seven years somewhere in the planet(usually in a random city) a tournament between the world's deadliest assassins takes place. 30 assassins fight against each other in a bloody battle royale hoping to survive. The last one standing wins the tournament and receives a cash prize and more importantly the title of world nº1 assassin. This is obviously a receipt for lots of action,fighting,blood,death and so on... But as much as I love the concept, the movie felt short of my expectations...there are a couple of well done fighting scenes but overall the action in the film is not nearly as spectacular as the trailer led me to believe, it's just not impressive at all considering other action films that have been done before, and the few twists in the story are very easily predictable. The acting was average, while Ian Somerholder and others did a good job, Ving Rhames, for instance, was constantly over-acting. The tournament could have been amazing,instead it is a forgettable movie with a few more or less known actors that doesn't deliver what it promised.

5.5/10

There are only three other reviews here so far: two give this 10 (Err... two different named reviewers, identical reviews, duplicate memo to PR team please....idiots) and the other 1 so let's assume some will love this and others will hate it. I'll try to review it....

Plot: pretty easy sell, every seven years the top assassins hold the tournament; they kill each other until the last survivor wins it all; all organized, tracked, and betted on by billionaires, of course.

The whole thing is kind of like no limit hold'em.... but they can't all dodge bullets, baby. Think Tekken and you're not in the right area, it is better than Uwe Boll and that ilk.

Not quite lineage as Guy Ritchie (Obviously) but only needing Jason Stratham this is exactly what is says on the box: an out and out kill or be killed cartoonish film.

Filming is good, nothing too dark or menacing but just nice.

It's not Battle Royale but if action is your thing and you liked Death Race 2000, Shoot Em'Up or Wanted then you'll be happy enough.

Any gripes about morality are irrelevant here, this is in a moral vacuum, and so are plot holes, logic, or how heads explode like watermelons, this is either your type of film or you should really it avoid totally.

Yep, it's violent - limbs fly, people die in well, imaginative ways - but it is not horror.

It's all well put together, nicely cast, and creates enough interest; better than just hunt or be hunted there is a real plot and even character development...

Oh and great to choose Middlesborough, seriously one of the ugliest, most desolate pile of concrete crap evaar...ha ha....shooting it up the kyber pass can only improve it....

This is a movie to watch with mates and wince and cheer to....