Raze

This is without a doubt one of the most pointless movies that I have seen. The storyline is nearly non-existing. Basically this is a movie about a group of women held captive and forced to fight one another to the death, under the threat of harm and death to their loved ones.

And that was it.

Sure, there were some good enough fight scenes throughout the movie, but it hardly made up for the total and complete lack of a proper storyline.

And truth be told, I actually fell asleep during the movie, only to wake up because of some loud noise from the movie. And even having slept for a part of the movie, I was missing not a single beat of what was going on; women having to kill each other.

While the cast were doing good enough jobs with their given roles, they just had nothing to work with and whatever was there was stacked against them. The characters were meaningless and without any background stories, which ultimately made you distance yourself from them, as there was nothing to care about or anything to be drawn in by.

There are some fairly brutal moments throughout the movie, but again, this does absolutely nothing to make up for the horrible lack of a proper storyline.

All in all, then "Raze" is a pointless movie experience about violence amongst captive women. I believe if you are a fan of anyone on the cast list that you might find some enjoyment in this movie. Otherwise, then I find it next to impossible to find any reason for recommending you wasting your time on this.

I'm going to start this review with a secret: I decided to watch this movie because it looked hot. I mean, hot chicks brawling in prison, there's bound to be at least a nip-slip and if it sucks, there's a good chance I'll see some nudity, so I still win. So, as soon as the girlfriend left, I pressed play. Then I saw Zoe Bell cave some chicks head in.... game changer, not what I was expecting at all. At that point I realized there probably won't be a lesbian shower scene. But, as soon as I recognized Zoe from "Death Proof" I got a little excited in another way because I also remembered that she's a freaking awesome stunt performer. From that point on, the movie went in the direction I hoped it would. The action was quality and ruthless. Zoe Bell should star in more action movies, she's one of the few females in Hollywood (I know she's Australian, but you know what I mean, don't be a smart ass.) that I could easily take seriously as an action hero. I'm not sexist, it's just that many women in Hollywood are super skinny and frail looking (like, how much would getting punched by Kate Beckinsale really hurt? seriously?). There were even moments in this movie where I uncontrollably cheered aloud, at home... by myself... in my underwear.

For the people with children, if you're even considering showing this to your kids, you're a bad parent. For the dudes with significant others, you might want to watch this one alone. She probably won't like it, and she might question you're sanity because you'll like it.. which will probably come up again in some sort of fight 3 months later. So I recommend putting it on a shelf with the porn and wait till she's out to watch it. For the ladies, if your the metal-head/horror movie type, you'll probably like this and somehow find it empowering.

I just noticed that all I did was praise this movie and you're probably wondering why I gave it a 7? The story was a little weak and nothing can be perfect...except for "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" Dave

When I read the synopsis in the Fantasia Film Festival program, I was intrigued. Even though the premise was about abducted women, it did not seem like your typical movie about helpless women tortured under the hand of men. It also did not seem like a cliché women on women violence type of movie. It also used words like "empowered" and "different".

And so I went in expecting just that. Something different. I especially went in expecting this movie to make some kind of statement about the way this society views women in general. I actually thought that the organization that abducts the women was a metaphor for the patriarchal system and that the "empowered" women portrayed would eventually break free from that system.

And so when the movie ended, I felt let down. Like somehow, the filmmaker was telling us that no matter how hard we fought, we could not defeat the system.

I was lucky enough to attend a screening after which the director of the movie as well as the principal actress were both there to answer questions from the audience. And so when I pointed that out, the filmmaker became defensive and explained that he did not want to make any kind of political statement whatsoever and that he just wanted to give us an "enjoyable fun movie to watch with lots of fighting." He also made a point to tell me that if it had been men fighting, I wouldn't have made the comment I made.

Exactly. But this movie was about women, strong women, who were imprisoned by a cruel system forcing them to fight one another. It had everything in place to make a strong statement, give us something to reflect upon and do what a good movie should always do: teach us something.

And yet, this movie has no depth and isn't different from any other action movie with fights. To be "different", this movie needed a message beyond "look, chicks fighting and it looks real!".

In the end, the plot of "Raze" falls into the typical normalization of helpless women forced to behave a certain way by an oppressive system passed on from father to son. To me, this is the precise opposite of "empowered".

I'm awfully disappointed.

Not a bad film. It's different, pretty brutal and bloody so if that's your thing, check it out.

My only complaints about it are that we didn't get enough info on the reasons why. There is a brief explanation but I would've liked elaboration and a better look at who the members of this society really were.

I'm on the fence about the ending. Some will love it. Some will hate it. I just don't know which group I fit into yet.

I say check it out. It's found a place amongst my "So Glad I Gave It A Chance" films.

It is really good. Unfortunately a lot of people seem to watch it with the completely wrong ideas about it in their head. This movie is not about empowered women and it doesn't make any political statements. It shows how women from different walks of life act when thrown into an impossible situation. For this the organization who kidnaps them chose women who know how to fight or else the whole setup wouldn't make much sense. But it is not like your regular 90 minutes martial arts flick. There is nothing heroic about it. The directing, the lighting, the soundtrack - that's all closer to what you see in horror movies and they way they went about making this film reminded me a little bit of Saw.

I gave it 7/10. The acting is damn good and the general mood of the movie is dark. The fighting isn't glorified and flashy like in your regular action movie where male fighters have to fight in a to-the-death tournament. It is extreme, unpretty and direct. If they had given the story a little bit more room for getting into the surroundings and the organization who's holding the fights I'd probably have given it an 8. A few things were to compressed in my opinion.