Lights Out

Lights out goes through well worn action territory. Drifter Duffy (Frank Grillo) gets ripped off in a poker game at a bar in LA. After using his fists he comes to the attention of Max (Mekhi Phifer.)

He wants to manage Duffy for underground fight clubs. As an unknown quantity, Duffy is an ex army veteran with PTSD. Max who has recently been released from prison hopes to make money on the betting that takes place.

Only both men fall foul of corrupt cops who run the underground fights with gangster Sage (Dermot Mulroney.)

When Max's niece is injured by the baddies. Both go after them hard. Duffy also calls in ex army buddy 'The Reaper' Scott Adkins.

The action scenes are the best selling point for the movie. Not over the top. It helps that Grillo has the a acting chops for the quieter scenes. There is a strategic guest cameo from Adkins.

Yes, Grillo lead movies are B movies but he is a great actor and the story in this film was decent. Even with the low production budget, the acting was spot on by most of the top cast (Adkins could've been better). I was a bit put off by the PTSD flashbacks (those scenes seemed rushed and out of place). Having just watched Werewolves , I was expecting Lights Out to be as bad but I was pleasantly surprised. I was entertained throughout and the casting was not bad and the CGI was just enough.

Overall an entertaining movie to pass the time, I wouldn't listen to all the low rated reviews. Give this film and chance and judge for yourself.

I give it a decent 7/10.

Did you ever wonder who green-lights these scripts? The answer is, you wouldn't want to know who, or even how, because it would make you weep for the lost opportunity to make a proper film. Decades later, and the industry still has not grasped precisely what makes these films exciting, fun to watch, and profitable -- ie, the gradual escalation, growing anticipation, of the fights entirely for their own sake. Trying to complicate the story with hard drama or useless plot arcs is the fast track to ... nowhere. To see this done right, check out Charles Bronson in HARD TIMES 1975 (still works well a full half-century later!); or the surprise hit WARRIOR 2011, which coincidentally leads my IMDb list of best films. Frank Grillo at age 58 can still command the screen. But he deserves so much better than this. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

Frank Grillo as a badass with impossible hair. Even after he slept he woke up with perfect hair? Little details, make a difference.

I didn't watch much of the trailer and did not realize that's based on "fight club", cage brawling.

The characters had potential, particularly the main baddies , but it all goes down like a dud firecracker.

Some of the plot at first was not so cohesive, for example, wondering who that guy was who was rummaging through that ladies house, only to find out that was her boyfriend? Very unlikely looking pair.

At the end of it all what I wanted to see was more of Scott Adkins who was barely in it. This was a Frank Grillo movie.

I came to see Scott, but it's not what I got.

So so film that lacked originality, suspense and true gripping action.

No pun intended - the movie has quite the stellar cast - which makes it understandable if some may feel ... there could be more to it, than meets the eye (or the bullet for that matter). Also do not confuse this with the horror movie of the same name - this dangles and has action written all over it.

The action is decent, the stunts are overall well shot and the story is ok, I reckon. Do not expect too much of it of course - Frank Grillo seems to have taken over from Bruce Willis - in the sense that he was doing all those low budget movies ... Willis has his illness and obviously can't continue that road. It does it's best and I feel it is one of the better efforts he is a part of (big budget movies aside of course)