O Lutador

Bizarrely a sequel to a film no one saw, about boxing, only this time it's about kickboxing. Now surely there must be more to the plot? Well no, it is essentially an excuse to have some downright superb fight scenes. Michael Jai White stars as George "the Ice Man" Chambers, played in the original by Ving Rhames. He's not playing the Wesley Snipes character as we might have assumed, considering White has been rumoured to be replacement Blade for Snipes, and after all Snipes and White are both martial arts demon's.

Anyway director Isaac Florentine has always shown a knack for filming fight scenes, without ever really getting the rest particularly right. Similarly his films never really look too polished, unable to look beyond their clearly meagre budgets. Similarly Florentine's previous films tended have bizarre mixes of time periods, costumes etc, to create non descript worlds, which just came out as strange on film. Bridge Of Dragon's for example was a pretty bog standard kind of fairy tale action movie. Also his use of cartoony sound effects for every movement, no matter how small, become tiresome in previous flicks. For example someone would raise an eyebrow and it would be accompanied by a "whoosh!" Having said all that I enjoyed his previous films for the action and the cheesiness of them. But Florentine has reigned himself in here, and in what is probably his most high profile and lavish production, he has produced a kick ass action film. Previously too he never really got any particularly good performances form his cast, be manages to here. White doe okay, and has the build and a certain amount of charisma that makes you wonder why he's not competing in the DTV wars with the top dogs like Seagal, Snipes and Van Damme. Strangely he's not much of an action star despite the huge muscular frame and martial arts prowess. Ben Cross also appears and as he did in the Lundgren flick, the Mechanik, he adds class to proceedings, because he can act. He does well in making his supporting part memorable in a fairly tragic kind of role, and he gives it some humanity and some humour. Ken Lerner too makes a welcome appearance playing a role we've seen many times before from him, and he of course he'll always be remembered as the agent, Arnold stabs in the back with a pen, in Running Man. Eli Danker is also superb.

However the real star of this piece is Scott Adkins, the British born, Kickboxer/Gymnast, here playing a Russian prison tournament champ. Adkin's not only has a good screen presence but like White is built like a brick outhouse, and to add to that he's an amazing athlete for a guy so huge. If marketed right Adkins could be the next big action star, he's got the ability to be one of the best. Adkin's performs some amazing gymnastic feats here. He's not a bad actor either and I think people will actually assume he's Russian, so he does a good job here, despite playing a comically two dimensional villains worthy of Ivan Drago himself. The fights are really well done. They feel unique too, much down to Adkin's himself but also the great photography, dolly and steadi-cam work.

This may have a plot that could have been written on the back of a match box, probably reading something along the lines of "Michael Jai White is forced to fight Scott Adkin's, twice!" However the film looks polished thanks to Ross Clarkson's photography, while Florentine is allowed to show some auterism that many DTV directors for hire aren't allowed to. It's simply a few situations that are thrown in to lead into fights, but the fights come thick and fast, and as well as that they are original, and pretty awesome. Thankfully the cast are good enough to rise above the trite situations which is why it's important in these films to include guys like Ben Cross, who can act.

Overall this is a film that will no doubt gain cult status amongst martial arts fan's. It's the most Drive-ish film since Drive, something simple yet for what it is, brilliantly delivered. There's rumours of another sequel, which I'd hope to see, but truthfully if it didn't have Adkin's it would be sorely lacking a one man special effect. Adkin's is even better than Kong! ***

Former heavyweight champion, George 'The Iceman' Chambers (Micheal Jai White, taking over for Ving Rhames) is sent to a Russian gulag on trumped-up charges where he must fight. Once you get past that this movie is less of a sequel than a remake (one that misses the whole crux of the original I might add). Once you surrender to the fact that Walter Hill is the Undisputed winner in directing. You'll find that this direct to DVD movie is actually pretty good in a brainless action movie kind of way. White does the best with what he's been given and the fight scenes are well staged. One could find worse ways to spend around an hour and a half, can't vouch for the film being very memorable though. To sum up, more in common with the Penitentiary films of days of yore than a sequel to Undisputed, but it's still solid.

My Grade: C+

I thought this movie was pretty fun. It was certainly by the numbers, but it didn't really disappoint. The characters were all pretty good, some over the top, but still engaging. Michael Jai White was pretty good as the protagonist (certainly uses the expression "F you" a lot), the bad guy was pretty standard but fun, and the Russian inmates were more than just cardboard cutouts. I thought the fight scenes were great, nicely choreographed, exciting and inventive. As a sequel, well, it's kind of interesting the bad guy from the first movie is the hero in this one, but you don't really need to see the first one to enjoy this movie. One needs to certainly turn their brain off a bit, but as an action movie, I would definitely recommend it for fans of the genre.

This is way better than the original film. It's explosive and heart-pounding from start to finish. The best American made martial arts action film in years. An action classic. An adrenaline-charged action-packed edge of your seat thrill-ride that packs some of the most intense, mind-blowing and bone-crushing martial arts sequences I've seen in some time. It's stylish, hard-core, gripping and wickedly entertaining. One cool as hell action flick that delivers. A stunning, thrilling and well-crafted piece of action movie. Michael Jai White and Scott Adkins are just pure dynamite, they deliver with their great performances and power packed fight sequences. These two set the screen on fire with their extraordinary energy. A tremendously exhilarating movie. This film in every sense of the word is a knockout.

Michael White takes over from Ving Rhames in 2002's UNDISPUTED, to play a former boxing champ, "Iceman" Chambers, who finds himself locked up in a Russian prison on phony charges. The purpose is to get Chambers to fight the prison's undisputed champ, a big bully of a guy named Uri Boyka (impressively played by Brit thesp Scott Adkins). Boyka fights with both hands and feet, so Chambers must learn to fight the same way. He takes lessons from a fellow convict, an old Russian general (played by Eli Danker) who is confined to a wheelchair but whose mind remains razor-sharp. This film, like the original, is heavily padded with sporadic fight scenes and other bits of business like Chambers ending up in solitary with rats for cell mates and later being staked out in the bitter-cold prison yard. The ring matches are the best part of the movie, and are amazingly staged and edited. In fact, they are better than those in the first movie, although UNDISPUTED 2 feels like a TV movie. I imagine it was an STV, since there are no big names in it.