The Tournament (2009)

A tournament is watched by dozens of wealthy men betting on which one of the 30 assassins will survive the next 24 hours "kill or die" and claim the USD10,000,000 prize. It takes place in an English town with plenty of CCTVs.

Director:

Scott Mann

Writers:

Gary Young, Jonathan Frank

Stars:

Ving Rhames, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Hu

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Carlyle	...	Father MacAvoy
Kelly Hu	...	Lai Lai Zhen
Ian Somerhalder	...	Miles Slade
Liam Cunningham	...	Powers
Ving Rhames	...	Joshua Harlow
Sebastien Foucan	...	Anton Bogart
Craig Conway	...	Steve Tomko
John Lynch	...	Gene Walker
Nick Rowntree	...	Eddy Cusack
Rachel Grant	...	Lina Sofia
Bashar Rahal	...	Asa Sadi
Andy Nyman	...	Tech Eddie
Iddo Goldberg	...	Tech Rob
Scott Adkins	...	Yuri Petrov
Camilla Power	...	Powers Assistant

Storyline

Every seven years in an unsuspecting town, The Tournament takes place. A battle royale between 30 of the world's deadliest assassins. The last man standing receiving the $10,000,000 cash prize and the title of Worlds No 1, which itself carries the legendary million dollar a bullet price tag.

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Plot Keywords:

tournament | assassin | money | last man standing | prize | 

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Taglines:

Death by elimination

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language and some nudity

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nick Rowntree, one of the 3 writers of this film, has a cameo as 'Eddy Cusak,' the assassin in the Parking Garage.

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Goofs

At the end of the opening contest an announcement comes on the screen stating 'Middlesborough, Teeside' with a background scene of chemical works then there's a shot of blocks of flats. If the image (if watching on dvd) is frozen the Get Carter car park is recognisable in the background and the blocks of flats, now demolished, were near by. Robert Carlyle is then seen walking along the old High Street in Gateshead and at one point is thrown out of Ye Old Fleece pub.

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Quotes

Gene Walker: What's the matter, Mr. Harlow? Are you out of bullets? Why, here, have some of mine!
[opens fire]

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Alternate Versions

German retail version is cut by ca. three minutes to secure a "Not under 18" rating. The version released in Austria/Switzerland is cut as well (the killing of the dog).

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Hit by a Bus Scenes in Movies (2016)

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Soundtracks

Petrol Station Guitars
Composed by Ruud Jan Bos
Performed by Ruud Jan Bos

User Reviews

"The Tournament" - a decently cool idea staggers, crawls, then dies.

The Tournament - a deadly game played out every 7 years, where the world's richest people put 30 of the world's deadliest assassins in an out of the way town, and bet on who will be the last man (or woman) standing. The surprise (aha( is that through a plot twist, a drunken priest played by Robert Carlyle becomes an unwilling participant. Ving Rhames, Kelly Hu and that dueshbag from LOST round out the character actors.

A movie like this, for me, needs two things - badass characters - and I mean MAKE THEM BADASS! Have a guy who uses snakes as weapons, and has an eyepatch, and uses a boomerang! Have a girl who has poisons and throwing stars, and who killed her whole family when she was 3 years old - I want some bloody history goddammit. Have assassins who get their arms pulled off and still keep killing. What we get here is a stupid video game sequence for each of the top 5 assassins, THE TEXAN, THE FRENCHMAN, THE Asian CHICK, etc, kicking and punching a bit before freezing for the camera. This is not the way to go. Show them in their environment. SHOW us, don't just tell us how badass they are.

The movie has a stupid subplot where Ving Rhames's wife has been killed, and hes there for revenge, blah blah blah, these movies tend to get all cocked up when they try to make an emotional plot work, and this one is no exception. I feel like having this tournament, plus a bystander who's a priest who then becomes one of the players is more than enough plot for an action movie, the rest can be just watching the carnage unfold, and if the characters are interesting, and the action scenes are creative, that's all it really needs. This movie tries to straddle both, and ends up having mediocre characters having mediocre fight scenes (the two fight scenes with the FRENCHMAN were the exceptions, mostly because I'm a sucker for that parkour jumping around stuff).

One last thing - movies like this need to understand the idea of contrasting elements. Contrast these deadly killers against a very normal town! Show them getting coffee at starbucks, fighting in a wal-mart, contrast crazy with normal. Instead the towns people seem to barely exist, the cops are nowhere, you never get that moment where a kid looks at a bleeding murderer from behind a box of paper towels, and the killer goes "hey there buddy" before blowing away a crazy monkey fighter who leaps over the tootsie roll display. This place is the town equivalent of an empty warehouse.

People are comparing it to death race, but I actually liked that better, because it embraced it's stupidity, and didn't try to have that emotional subplot. The Tournament is really a movie best enjoyed after at least four beers, and even then you might find yourself nodding off near the end.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

UK USA Bahrain

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 July 2010 (UK)

Also Known As:

The Tournament

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$8,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$493,459

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mann Made Films, Sherazade Film Development, Storitel

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1