Unrivaled

If no one here has heard of this film, I don't blame you. It's a direct to DVD flick that scrapes the bottom of the barrel. There is not one shred of originality in this crap and it's sad. Why is it sad? Why did I watch it? These questions can be answered with these three words. I'm In It.

Oh sweet Matt, you're in this movie? Yes I am, but don't go out rushing to rent or buy this film. First of all, it's not worth the price tag and second, I'm only an extra in the background of the main fight. You see me when you see a cut away to the crowd. If you didn't know me, you wouldn't notice. If I were to point myself out to you, you'd see me in glimpses here and there because of my white shirt and sunglasses on my head.

I would honestly rather tell you about my time there than try to review this film. So I will. It was shot in my hometown, we got free pizza and a t-shirt that we were suppose to return and no, we did not get paid. I would honestly point you to view the trailer before I ever say see the film because I'm in the trailer too. I

So the film, yeah, unrivaled. It's crap. The director's other film that I have seen Ham & Cheese, is barely watchable as well. That film only got noticed because of the comedians attached. This one has UFC fighters, who cannot act for the life of them. The lead male and the lead bad guy are the two stand outs who should stick to being beaten in the head rather than mugging for the camera.

Pointless nudity in the first 20 minutes, left right and centre. For what purpose? Who knows. He works at a strip club. The guy owes money to some dangerous guys, wow, original there. He can't pay and is threatened. Boom, time for opportunity to come up. The champ is giving an unknown fighter the chance to be discovered. Is it his time to rise up and silence all the nay-sayers? Can a nobody defeat a somebody? Have I seen this film before, but with boxing? Unrivaled is a poor mash-up of Rocky and The Wrestler.

The script is amateur, as is everything else that accompanies this film. The film looks like a music video, so it's not all cheap. There are some nice cinematography spots, but as a whole the film never leaps out at you. The best feature this film has going for it is the soundtrack, which is surprisingly good. Yet there is the problem, I don't go to movies to listen to music.

This can't really be described as a movie, it's more a collection of music videos with terrible acting, fairly average fight scenes and stupid amounts of female nudity.

The storyline is the standard underdog story and, although it's not very original, it could of made a half decent sports movie if the acting was better. The main thing which annoyed me was the terrible direction, apparently the director began in music videos and it really does show; heavy rock songs have to play out from start to finish even if it means six minutes of watching a naked woman gyrate. Don't get me wrong, I'm a teenage boy and I'm usually up for a bit of nudity but at least make it relevant to the storyline rather just trying to stretch the running time.

The cinematography really ticked me off, in most films all the scenes are recognizably from the same movie, in this the look of the film is constantly changing and it doesn't work. One minute one minute you're watching a stylized fight scene, the next you're watching a brightly lit daylight scene with fast shaky cam action, where's the consistency?

This film was obviously made on a small budget (it's often obvious the fighting's being filmed in a cage surrounded by an audience of 8 people) so why waste time and money doing 360 swivels round buildings etc...

Don't even bother watching this, the fight fight scenes are less than average, if you want to see a good low-budget fighting movie watch "Blood and Bone"!

This film has got some bad reviews.

But

If you like fake MMA (as opposed to watching K1 / Pride / UFC reruns) then this film is for you.

Yes we can all guess the plot from the synopsis, yes we can say its predictable. But hay so was the hunger games and Lord of The Rings.

So if you like sweaty men and cute girls with names like Pepper than this film is going to be great.

If your wondering I've given it 8/10 simply because it is unpretentious unadulterated fun :-)

I started watching this film wasn't expecting much from it but it was just surprisingly good! I especially love the music and editing especially the camera work, all the slow mo and "shaky-cam" weren't over done but rather put together in a graceful yet exciting manner, got to love a movie that can convey the heart of a fighter from the screen to its audience - and this is often rather difficult to pull off, prime example of such failure can be seen in movies like "fighting", for instance. I'm thoroughly surprised and impressed and would recommend it to anyone who like fight movies! Be warned though this movie does contain quite a bit of violence (obviously...) and a fair bit of nudity - and i'm definitely not complaining..AT ALL!

I really enjoyed this movie. I put this movie on as something to fall asleep to but it turned out to be a really interesting movie. Unrivaled is a great movie. With lots of action and a great story line. I can't wait to see what movie Hector Echavarria comes out with next. The one thing that I do wish they had done in Unrivaled is add more information in regards to Ringo Duran's mother and what happened to her. They don't have much information about her and I think it would have made things a bit better to be able to know more information on the mother of one of the best fighters. Other then that I think Hector did an excellent job and think that he will continue to produce and write some of the best martial arts films that we will see for quite some time. Maybe he will also have the chance to act with some of the other famous martial arts actors?

Each and everyone of Hector Echavarria's movies that I have seen so far as exceeded my expectations on all accounts.