Arena (2011)

David Lord finds himself forced into the savage world of a modern gladiatorial arena, where men fight to the death for the entertainment of the online masses.

Director:

Jonah Loop

Writers:

Tony Giglio, Michael Hultquist (original screenplay)

Stars:

Samuel L. Jackson, Kellan Lutz, Johnny Messner

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Logan
Kellan Lutz	...	David Lord
Johnny Messner	...	Kaden
Katia Winter	...	Milla
Daniel Dae Kim	...	Taiga
James Remar	...	Agent McCarty
Nina Dobrev	...	Lori
Lauren Shiohama	...	Kawaii
Irene Choi	...	Kaneko
Kofi Yiadom	...	Ripper
Derek Mears	...	Brutus Jackson
Dean J. West	...	Rick
Jason Zone Fisher	...	Josh
Kent Jude Bernard	...	Craig
Grant Case	...	Drunk Frat Boy

Storyline

David Lord finds himself forced into the savage world of a modern gladiatorial arena, where men fight to the death for the entertainment of the online masses.

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Plot Keywords:

fight to the death | arena | online streaming | gladiatorial games | car crash | 

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Taglines:

The rules are simple, Play or be Played

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong brutal and bloody violence throughout, graphic nudity and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Mandarin

Release Date:

11 October 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Deathgames

Filming Locations:

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA),Zero Gravity Management,RCR Media Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min (theatrical)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After Samuel L. Jackson was cast, the title of the film was changed from 'Fury' to 'Arena', to avoid confusion with Jackson's role as Nick Fury, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Goofs

Robben Island prison was decommissioned in 1996. Prior to that it was used as a medium security prison. Brutus Jackson would never have been imprisoned there as a high risk spree killer.

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Quotes

David Lord: Life sucks. Scars happen.

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Connections

References Family Feud (1976)

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Soundtracks

Ready For Battle
Written by Jonathan Merkel
Performed by KT Scene

User Reviews

Stylistic, gratuitous exploitation

While I agree with the highly negative reviews already posted, I didn't find it *quite* as offensively bad as they did. Sure, the fight choreography was poor, at times, but it wasn't nearly as bad as Amsterdam Heavy. The acting wasn't much better, but it was still about par for the genre. I guess this is place where I'm supposed to express incredulity over Sam Jackson appearing in this movie, but, really, everyone who watches lots of low budget, direct-to-video movies knows that he'll appear in anything. He's done some really mediocre (and even bad) movies, in the past.

Anyways, the main plot consists of a James Bond villain (Sam Jackson) kidnapping people and forcing them into fighting to the death. That's it. Nothing else. No pretenses to art here. Now, if the fight choreography and stunts were good, I might able to suggest this to fans of direct-to-video B movies inspired by Enter the Dragon and Bloodsport. Unfortunately, they're really not very well done, with some of them looking downright crappy and unimpressive. Some others, however, end up looking pretty decent, though nowhere near Enter The Dragon or Bloodsport. The direction focuses on stylized, bloody violence, with fast cuts, slow motion, and lots of posing. If Michael Bay drives you nuts, I doubt you'll like this much, either.

There's a rather surprising amount of gratuitous exploitation in this movie. If you're prudish at all, I'd warn you to avoid it. There's constant, gory violence and occasional full frontal nudity (female only), making this one of the most overt, unapologetic, and cynical attempts at making a mainstream action movie that I've seen recently. I guess they're saying that if the nudity doesn't get you off, the violence will, like we're all a bunch over-stimulated sociopaths. There's a satirical element to all this gratuitous exploitation, but I think it was inserted merely to deflect criticism.

If you're looking for exploitation, there's plenty of that. Otherwise, I'd say you're best off skipping it. The action scenes aren't good enough. Some people have criticized this as being pornographic, and I have to agree; the violence seems to be almost fetishized. However, amoral as I am, I find the lack of plot and poor fight choreography to be the true problems with this movie.