I love a good underground martial art club movie, and when i saw the name of Scott Adkins i obviously had to check it out. I knew from the trailer he was not the main character but he is VERY LITTLE in this. I think he is friend with the director or something and it was a favor to attach his name to the project, kinda like with Section 8 where he also play a small part. Actually both movies share a few actors. But i digress.
Frank Grillo despite being close to 60 actually look pretty fit and credible as a retired badass soldier. His fight scenes are meant to be brutal and hard hitting wich work in the context of the movie but is obviously not as a spectacle as if someone like Adkins would had been the lead.
My main issue tough with the movie was the story that try to go in so many different places and have so many characters that ultimately are underdeveloped.
Even tough the movie does have a fair share of fight club scene, you never really feel much danger for the protagonist and sadly it stop being the focuss of the movie on the way.
Yet despite all my criticism with it, i found enjoyment in it. Grillo's acting was fine, and if they had center the story a bit more, it would had been a very decent one in term of B Action Movies. I really enjoyed the first half and i simply think the movie loss itself in the second act. But at only 90 minutes, it didn't overstayed its welcome.
One last thing that bothered me a bit more than it should had maybe is Jaime King's hairs. Her hairs goes from curly to straigh to curly all the time and im not an expert hair dresser so i dunno if you can switch hairs like that back and forth in the span of a few days but for me it just looked like bad continuity.
Ultimately often i rate a movie 7/10 but i would had given it 7.5 or such but its not good enough to warrant an 8. In the case of this movie i would definately rate it more a 6.5 but i enjoy it enough to not warrant a 6 (wich for me is barely above average). So i will go with a 7 also by the rating system. But i feel .5 should definately be introduced to movie reviews or make it on 20.
Frank Grillo despite being close to 60 actually look pretty fit and credible as a retired badass soldier. His fight scenes are meant to be brutal and hard hitting wich work in the context of the movie but is obviously not as a spectacle as if someone like Adkins would had been the lead.
My main issue tough with the movie was the story that try to go in so many different places and have so many characters that ultimately are underdeveloped.
Even tough the movie does have a fair share of fight club scene, you never really feel much danger for the protagonist and sadly it stop being the focuss of the movie on the way.
Yet despite all my criticism with it, i found enjoyment in it. Grillo's acting was fine, and if they had center the story a bit more, it would had been a very decent one in term of B Action Movies. I really enjoyed the first half and i simply think the movie loss itself in the second act. But at only 90 minutes, it didn't overstayed its welcome.
One last thing that bothered me a bit more than it should had maybe is Jaime King's hairs. Her hairs goes from curly to straigh to curly all the time and im not an expert hair dresser so i dunno if you can switch hairs like that back and forth in the span of a few days but for me it just looked like bad continuity.
Ultimately often i rate a movie 7/10 but i would had given it 7.5 or such but its not good enough to warrant an 8. In the case of this movie i would definately rate it more a 6.5 but i enjoy it enough to not warrant a 6 (wich for me is barely above average). So i will go with a 7 also by the rating system. But i feel .5 should definately be introduced to movie reviews or make it on 20.