Underground

There's no plot and only a tiny amount of character development in this movie, but it sure is enjoyable to watch. It's like a season's worth of fight scenes from "The Ultimate Fighter" TV show collapsed into one sitting, except of course that the fighting in Underground isn't real.

Indeed, there were several times when I was annoyed with the silly decisions made by some of these supposedly top-notch martial artists, as well as the unrealistic effects of some of the strikes employed. They seemed out of place in a film that was trying so hard to be base and gritty.

Nevertheless, if you like watching high-flying, flip-around-in-the-air, make-believe martial arts, then this movie is for you. The filmmakers clearly just wanted to make a bunch of fighting scenes, and they knew that stitching everything together with a contrived, incomprehensible plot would just ruin it (think: Mortal Kombat sequels). So instead they opted for no plot at all, and put their time and money into the choreography.

Don't like fights? Don't watch. Like fights? It's worth a viewing!

A film that sounds like a rehash of Kickboxer or Dead or alive and it is but with more of the hash. That is the messy kind of hash rather than the weed kind of hash.

The film places 12 fighters against each other in a series of elimination bouts which take place in various 'street' arenas, with the aim of finding the ultimate winner. Much like a computer game, say, Tekken. The film feels like a computer game too and having as much depth as a paddling pool this point is further endorsed. The character development also follows suit.

We are thrown straight into the first fight within minutes of the film starting and with very little background on each fighter given at this point. This leads too the viewer not really caring for the fighters. Win or lose. This feeling is further struck home by the fact that the fighters in the film don't speak, only the suits running the show do. Furthermore the fighters are only known as the pigeonhole of the life they lead e.g The Homeless, The teacher, The Model etc.

The fights scenes are quite convincing and shot well with very little confusion and good fluidity. This is where the film gets 3 of the stars I have given it. The rest of the filmed is...awful.

I decided to watch this movie thinking it was going to be an action movie with a similar plot to most other fighting type movies where you follow the story of one man as he struggles to reach the top. That was not at all what this was. The director decided to make this basically a movie version of a reality TV show, by having these black and white cameras at times, and these cheesy background stories to the characters that you are given sometimes. Then there is the sequence when a fighter loses, similar to getting voted off in Survivor, except instead he goes home with a broken arm or something. While that may have been an interesting idea to have a reality fighting show, it certainly didn't pan out well in this movie. The fights seemed pretty realistic, where it only took a few hits to get knocked out, but the characters were just too cheesy.

So for anyone interested in no flairs fights with blood, and a cheesy storyline about people living with each other before fighting each other for 500k pounds, then you can watch this, but anyone interested in an exciting and action packed story-driven movie, go somewhere else.

To everyone else who's posted about this film, imagine it was named street fighter and released in the 90's.

If they'd used this formula with the film street fighter in the 90's instead of the whole UN army vs terrorists thing it would have suited it down to the ground.

If you like martial arts go watch it, if you feel you need x amounts of twists and turns in a movie to enjoy it then don't.

The plots simple, explain the structure of the tournament. 5 minutes on each fighter's background and motivation. 2 minutes deciding who's up for the next fight, then on with the fight.

Do not make the same mistake that I did by listening to these do-do heads! I wasn't planning on watching this movie but thanks to these guys who gave this movie such a great review, I basically wasted an hour and a half of my life... first of all, the movie is supposed to be a realistic view of illegal underground fighting but if you've seen any UFC fightings you would know that when your opponent is down on the ground you do not wait for him to get up, right? so why does all the fighters in this movie actually stands around till their opponent gets back on their feet after getting knocked down, doesn't make sense! 2nd... you can't get emotional attachment to any character, which turns the movie into a choreograph fighting w/ no story.. 3rd, why do all the characters talk like they're about to shoot a porn scene and the voice over makes it sounds like lord of the rings, it doenst work at all... 4th, bad acting... some girls will just burst into tears for no reason at all and the guy playing the leader of the underground fighting acts like he's the devil and i'm not talking about a bad person, i mean the real Devil! ... and last but not the least, cliché from start to end! ... I won't recommend this movie even to my worst enemies and do not believe the hype, the fighting is not even that good, maybe not even average!