Fight Valley

As a fan myself, I just felt the need to give this title a chance. What I found was beyond disappointing. A cast of AMAZING female fighters with not one good fight scene. Like hiring a crew of stunts and filming them laying on a couch for 90 min. The plot is dull, the acting makes you cringe. A nice movie to stare at our beloved girl warriors in costume, nothing else. 10/10 not worth it.

"No spoilers"

My opinion of the movie "Fight Valley" appears to be different than other reviews written so far. I actually enjoyed a lot of aspects of the movie:

I liked Meisha Tate's role as Jabs, even though she is not an actor she performed very well. I wouldn't mind seeing her in future films. Its refreshing seeing a fighter who has the potential to act.

I liked Cabrina Collesides who played the role of Jamie, She was believable in her character. For instance, some of the girls it felt forced either the way they dressed or came off as a hardass, Cabrina just fell into the role smoothly like it was really her and not a character. She didn't seem to be "acting" for example, Yanni felt forced and far fetched trying to play a ghetto girl with an attitude. It seemed she did more googling of how to live in the hood then actually being in the hood. And Windsor (that's another thing all together, she was simply NOT good).

Gracie, played by Ivy Lashawn Coleman did an amazing job as well. She was very intimidating on screen, always causing trouble and starting beef with the knockaround girls. And she was really pretty.

Duke, played by Erin O'Brien was a pleasure to watch on screen. She brought it! She may be tiny but she's got fight. And all of these girls did a great job, so i disagree with some reviews here saying ALL acting sucked, because no not everyone was a shitfest.

Windsor was a joke to watch, so maybe because she was the lead and had to carry the film, people don't look at the co-stars or supporting cast who played their roles without looking fake. Bottom line, Jabs, Jamie, Gracie and Duke KICKED ASS, and the score in the film really pumped me up when the fight scenes came about. As a whole, I give this movie an 8/10. Its a good movie (could've been better with the casting of certain roles) but all in all go grab some pizza and sit down and relax and watch this movie.

I agree that this is a poorly made film in almost all its aspects. Frankly, I don't care. I'm tired of everyone reviewing every film as if it were 'Chariots of Fire'. I couldn't stand that 4-star, Oscar winning piece of over-hyped dribble. 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes', 'Showgirls' or 'Devil Dog, Hound from Hell' received an overrated 1- star. Cheap and shallow has its place and mindless entertainment is exactly what you want at times. Effort was put into this project and you can't take that away.

The movie is so bad, so bad, SO BAD that you will feel your IQ dropping. Acting = 0/10 Story = 0.5/10 Direction = 0.5/10 Screenplay = 0.5/10 Cinematography = 1.5/10 Fight Choreography = 3/10

Verdict: UNWATCHABLE

I don't think Meisha or Holly or Cyborg are superbad actresses, considering they acted almost as good as Ronda Rousey, but the truth is, they can still try their luck in big blockbusters with more action and less dialogues. Cyborg actually does look menacing in her role. So with proper direction, she should be able to land a role in the next Expendables movie.

Let me first say, the only reason I wanted to watch this movie is because I'm a fan of WMMA as well as Miesha Tate and Holly Holm; so naturally I wanted to see how both would do in their feature film debut's. The verdict? They are better fighters than they are actors and that's clearly evident in this film.

To give my review some cred; I graduated from film school, have written numerous feature scripts, directed numerous shorts and short films and have taken acting lessons so I know how to make a film from script to screen (production through post).

That being said, this film is definitely high on the list of poorly made films.

Acting - nearly all the performances are stilted, stiff and lifeless. At times you can tell the actor is just waiting for their scene partner to finish their lines so they can say theirs; versus "being in the moment" and actually listening to what their scene partner is saying and evoking a real reaction. Additionally a lot of the performances are dramatic for the sake of being dramatic with no apparent motivation (called over acting). Everything must be motivated.

Dialogue - seems very contrived and often the dialogue is pointless and irrelevant. There's also too much of it. Film as a medium is primarily visual; i.e. you can still convey a message without speaking a word. Watch Don Cheadle, he's one of the best at doing that. Sometimes in a scene you just need to let it breathe and allow the viewer to consume what is happening rather than force feeding them dialogue non stop.

Writing - like the acting the dialogue is very stilted and contrived. I lost count on the numerous plot holes and setups without any payoff (screenwriting 101). One major plot hole is that none of the girls who "have to fight to survive" have any plan to better themselves, no plan to get out of there and make their life better. By doing that, I as a viewer couldn't care less about the characters because they don't care about themselves. The whole purpose of characters in a film is for the viewer to ride along with the characters along their journey. None of the characters have a transformational change in the film (even the main character which is highly unusual). Where's the character arcs? One major plot hole is the training of Windsor to eventually fight whoever killed her sister; but when the scene comes she doesn't fight her, Jabs fights her. Why build that up and not pay it off? As a viewer I feel let down. I was led to believe that Windsor would fight Church. Another example of setup with no pay off is Holly Holm's character. Animosity is created between her character and Miesha Tate's but then nothing comes of it. We never see her again after their confrontation in the bar. Why initiate that if you're not going to follow it through especially with a high profile fighter/star like Holly Holm.

Directing - There seems to be scenes of drama and emotion and/or hostility for no apparent reason. One minute a character is mad at another then all of a sudden they are completely calm, seems very unnatural. There's also issues with the blocking of the actors and framing issues (rule of thirds).

Technical - Bad and fake fight choreography. The actors take larger than life swings which look totally fake. Watch 'Bourne Identity' to see fight choreography done correctly. The audio mix in this is very poor; effects come in hot one minute, then too low the next minute (static shot of house, crickets are nearly distorting). Music is too low, dialogue cuts off from one scene to the next, there are scenes with dialogue out of sync, the volume goes up and down, etc.

According to the IMDb page the budget on this was $27,000,000 which has to be a typo because I find that extremely hard to believe based on the poor production quality. However their are some great aerial and crane shots in this so possibly that's where the majority of the budget was spent.

The reason I'm so critical is not to be demeaning or rude, or judgmental, but rather provide food for thought to those who desire to make films and encourage them to put out their best work. Don't put out crap, put out the best thing you can in anything you do. No one likes to see crap and this is pretty close to that.