Fighting with Anger

This is an obvious effort by Willie to sponsor a pretty woman who has some martial arts experience for an acting career. It is clearly just a vehicle for her to show her fighting (not acting) skills.

However, the vehicle was delivered without even the most basic equipment. The plot is almost nonexistent. The girl is supposed to kill people for money She ends up killing a few and beating up hordes of bad boys without even breaking a nail, then she cries for no apparent reason.

I am a stickler for realism in action movies. This one disappoints in that regard. Although Kelli is agile, you can see that she is not strong. The stunt men do all the work.

The gun fights are ludicrous. Hundreds of rounds are wasted, hitting nothing. We are subjected to the "let's take turns shooting at each other" syndrome, where no one gets hit. Then the little girl singlehandedly takes out a dozen henchmen and never gets touched. As an example, in the warehouse scene, she takes the boss henchman as a hostage, then she TURNS HER BACK on two gunmen who nevertheless DON'T SHOOT her exposed back. Absolutely ridiculous! It must be hard to get good henchmen these days.

The performances are simply horrendous, as you would see in a bad middle school play. The evil men are laughable and hopelessly incompetent and Willie is simply Willie without a guitar.

In short, this is another "cute girl/martial arts queen takes out all the bad guys" movie with no acting, plot, or character development. I don't recommend this unless you are a die-hard fan of Willie Nelson or some other member of the cast or crew.

Look, I am not going to rant on the quality of the script or the film. Others have done that already.

What I do have a beef with is the terrible way in which the audio engineer mixed this project. Some of the worst Foley, recycled sfx and most erratic levels I have ever heard in a movie were in this picture. There is a scene in a bar where Willie Nelson's dialog is overshadowed by the background music! FOR SHAME, ENGINEER. FOR SHAME. You broke the cardinal rule of mixing audio! Not that repaired audio would have made it much better, but the fact of the matter is, this was an embarrassment. Willie Nelson put apparently quite a bit behind this movie in effort and money, and I can't imagine producing something with this slip-shod of an effort behind it. I don't care how much I were paid. A free rework of the result is well deserved. Enough said.

I really enjoyed the fight sequences! Kelli Fleming's techniques were very good. The warehouse fight was pretty cool too! I liked the musical arrangement, and of course Willie and daughter Paula Nelson's songs were great!

I believe Director Sam Um did an excellent job on a micro budget! Jon Boatwright was a very believable villain in the movie. His calm, cool, and calculating ways made him the perfect "bad guy".

Additionally, Willie Nelson won Best Actor, Best Original Song, and Fighting with Anger won Best Action Film at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival in Los Angeles 2007.