Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Eight elite fighters - prisoners from maximum security prisons around the world - are brought together by a powerful underground gambling syndicate for a secret, survival-of-the-fiercest battle competition. The prize: freedom for the champion...and a payday of millions to the organizers. Except the syndicate really doesn't plan on allowing anyone to walk free. With the odds against him overwhelming, Boyka will take on the syndicate his way. If his gambit works, it might send the whole scheme crashing down around them.

I normally would have just written this one off but I’d been hearing a lot of buzz on it from the various film festivals this past year. This is definitely straight to video type material, but it actually pulls off a fun mix of martial arts and story. Sure some of the lines and acting are pretty cheesy, but you can’t deny the quality of the fighting sequences and the talent on display. Anyone who enjoys a mindless martial arts film would be remiss to not give it a chance. You don’t even have to know any back story from the other two films to enjoy it.

This one was shot with the Red One camera and provides a pretty stunning image at times. Detail can be exceptional, but the image does have more of a video quality than some other Red One based films of late. Contrast is good but some of the brighter sequences looked a tad overcooked. Some light banding is also noticed on occasion. The soundtrack is delivered in DTS-HD Master Audio and does the job. The fighting sequences have a nice sense of atmosphere and the dynamics are good on occasion. You get a bigger sense of the budget in the soundtrack though and can tell a lot of the practical sound effects were canned. Some of the dubbing in the dialogue is also pretty bad.

A digital copy for your portable device is also included and some trailers.

For straight to video fare you could certainly do a lot worse. The fighting sequences alone are worth the price of admission here. Easily worth a rental for fans of the genre.