Director and former fighter Hector Echavarria has tapped into the Mixed Martial Arts market to try and bring us MMA fans a decent film. Fingers crossed, we can get something of high quality that represents what this sport has become in the 21st century.

Unfortunately not – this is terrible.

With a plot that meanders spectacularly and with several cringe-worthy performances, it is unbelievable to think that the guys behind this film believed it would make profit.

Throw in star MMA names like Quinton Jackson, Georges St Pierre, BJ Penn and it’s quite clear that Echavarria has thrown together a film that he felt would appeal to UFC fans and would sell well to that particular type of audience. With no thought to any structure, he should’ve saved his money and concentrated on spending months on production, scripting and developing this, rather than throwing it together in a matter of days. He obviously wanted to cash in on MMA’s sudden popularity – but this isn’t how it should have been done.

The film lacks tension and emotion and reminds me of a poorly directed, low budget film from the eighties. It’s over the top – often reminding me of a Street Fighter film with its staged choreography in the cage. It also involves an incredible amount of pornography and at times, it’s almost excessive. Of course, our director Echavarria (Diego) is the lead actor in the film, which makes the pornographic references make sense. Diego engages in sexual activities with a number of women including Sandra – a woman who is the secretary for our villain Seifer (Patrick Kilpatrick).

One thing that strikes me is the stupidity and unreasoning behind a lot of the film. Here we have five of the biggest stars in MMA (Penn, St Pierre, Jackson, Herring and Anderson Silva) and they are used so ridiculously and at times, so sparingly, that you wonder why the hell they were cast in the first place. Clearly, we get back to the question again about Echavarria’s motives – is he just trying to make a quick buck on the back of the MMA bandwagon? The film might have flashy cars, big names and expensive settings, but if the foundations (solid scripts, production and direction) aren’t laid beneath it, then it’s going to look terrible. Unfortunately, it doesn’t rank as a terrible film – it’s up there with the most atrocious. That’s disappointing as this film could’ve, and given the star names probably should’ve, been a big hit. Think The Wrestler – solid cast, great research and good story. Why that sort of philosophy couldn’t have been built here is beyond me.

Also, one thing that really stood out to me was the plot of this whole film. Do we really want an MMA film to be about underground cage fighting? When we’re trying to move away from the connotation that this is a brutal sport with animals and blood thirty maniacs, how the hell are we suppose to get behind a film that makes this sport like thugs in a cage? We’re not. It’s a stupid idea. When Sandra calls fighters “animals”, it completely goes against what this film is about. The target audience is likely to be very niche market anyways, so why the hell is this film kicking fans in the teeth that have paid for this film? The likelihood is – MMA fans do not want to watch a film where their heroes are being called “animals”. A stupid, stupid move.

The potential is clearly there with an MMA film. Don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a market for a good MMA film. However, this is a laughable effort and was embarrassingly bad. Unfortunately, the negatives outnumber the positives a million times over and it’s simply not good enough. There may be knockouts, blood and violence, but this film bows out with a whimper.

Rating: 1 out of 10. Saved from complete embarrassment by a good soundtrack and a few half decent scenes with Heath Herring.

Martin Smith
martin@ifight365.com