We have a new film with Amy Johnston - a rising star of action cinema, who, according to the general hopes of fans of the genre, will continue his legacy with dignity Cynthia Rothrock on kicking bad people's asses. The theme of the film is straightforward and is stated right in the title. This is Amy Johnston's second film on the theme of female fighting without rules. For the second time in a row... Not the most interesting trend, and for me personally, not interesting at all. Within the genre of fighting without rules, it is almost impossible to film something interesting. Only performed a miracle "Warrior" with Tom Hardy, but this movie is in a completely different category in terms of quality. And here we are talking about women’s fights without rules, and this aggravates the formation of a positive assessment of the film.
So, "Women's Fight Club". In local translation - "Woman's Fight Club". I consider the local version of the translation more correct, because not every woman is a woman, although every woman is a woman. Formally.... This is a film about that category that can be called women. Apart from Amy Johnston. No matter how much she pretends to be a man, she is still quite feminine.
This is the director's first feature film Miguel A. Ferrera, who is also the screenwriter of the film, so know who to blame. Let's analyze what he did... or did. Judge for yourself.
Plot:
Five years later, Backs, nicknamed “The Beast,” returns to his hometown to help his sister, who is in debt to the local organizer of ultimate fights. The only way to repay the debt is to earn money by winning the annual championship in fighting without rules, defeating the most important and terrible opponent, “Bull” Claire. And at the same time, the fight organizer himself, Jones, who had previously been kicked out of the legal bookmaking business for bad behavior. And Becks also has a dad. Dolph Lundgren, and she had and again had a boyfriend. The same. How such a miracle happened, see for yourself, those who haven’t watched. And she works at a dog shelter. And it would be better if it worked that way. In this role, Amy looked more attractive, and I would even forgive the lack of demonstration of her fighting qualities, especially in this film.
The film's narrative style is leisurely, but not boring. It looks more or less simple, although it hardly evokes any feelings. Plus, there are no radically new plot twists and turns that were not previously seen in films of similar themes. Stamp on a stamp. Among the innovations, perhaps, is this moment: usually women blame their other halves that they “have been missing somewhere for 5 years,” but here it’s the other way around - the boyfriend turned on the woman and began to be capricious that Bex had disappeared somewhere. And in general, the boyfriend’s character turned out to be somehow feminine, especially against the backdrop of the fighting women. And at first he didn’t even want to hear about the reasons for Bex’s disappearance for 5 years. Nasty. And in the last showdown he appeared only after Bex had already turned on “The Beast” and dealt with the villains. These are the knights these days... Oh the times! O morals! Well, for what he did to Bex in the ring, it’s generally difficult to forgive him.
I think one of the important aspects of any action movie is the presence of charismatic personalities on both of the warring sides. In this case, there are few charismatic personalities here: Bex, her butt, as well as her two-meter Swedish “unstoppable” daddy and the main villain, who went out of his way to seem like one. And in principle, he coped with his task. He evoked only one desire - he wanted to attack him, and this is a good indicator of his identification with the role of the villain. Although his acting is too theatrical. The rest of the characters in the film - insofar as. Everything is in its place. Among the opponents, Becks did not notice any particularly interesting personalities in the ring. Standard jocks with tattoos who don’t yet know what gender they are.
I will point out the strengths and weaknesses of every aspect of this film.
Plot. General impression.
The plot consists of cliches of the genre. It seems that none of them have been forgotten. But, nevertheless, it is almost not boring. Well, in order to give the film a couple of points, the director and screenwriter came up with an intimate scene for Bex. I won’t say at what minute, otherwise I know you, you’ll waste the whole film, but people tried. However, I took this scene as a reason to dilute the most banal plot and the leisurely rhythm of the narrative. I can’t say that in my eyes the film became better because of this... The denouement of the film is primitive and too predictable, there were not enough feelings and emotions, the predictability killed everything.
The ending creates a pleasant impression - family in the form of Bex, her father and niece, together again, the sun is shining, the grass is green. Dolph Lundgren fits perfectly into the role of Amy's father, both blondes look like true Aryans. But to create “drama” it was not necessary to kill any of the central characters. It's not dramatic - it's banal. The film would not have suffered at all if her sister had not been killed, but on the contrary, there would have been a nice happy ending. This is a big minus. It was possible to find another reason to deal with Jones, if only for the very fact of his existence.
Actor play.
Is it even worth talking about acting when watching such films? Sometimes. In this case, Amy Johnston can be noted as the main character. Because if the GG plays poorly and is not at all interesting for his content, then this is not good, to put it mildly, for the film. In the case of Amy Johnston, everything is fine. In principle, nothing more is needed; there are no complaints about it. Yes, and she holds the viewer’s attention and looks good in the frame. But the film rests solely on her. Put another actress in her place, and it’s unlikely that anyone would have even heard of this film. Although....Gina Carano as an option for someone.
Fight scenes.
Only hand-to-hand and foot-to-hand weapons are available. In general, I have no desire to evaluate fight choreography with the participation of women against women, because in principle there is nothing beautiful about it and cannot be, especially if we talk about fights without rules, and if we talk about my subjective preferences. The exception is old Hong Kong action films. At least it looks aesthetically pleasing and artistic.
I liked only one fight, compared to the others, this is the fight between Becks and "Bull" Claire, with which the film begins, but in order to create an interesting narrative, it is interrupted by a scene change and postponed until later.
Otherwise, the fights were filmed tastelessly, no dynamics, no interesting techniques or techniques, ordinary angles. I only liked the view from the security camera, which Bex tore from the wall and beat up a no-name fighter. Nice visual find. This is where the interesting aspects of the action sequence end. The final showdown doesn't look final. There is too little drive, opponents, and the main villain does not know martial arts.
Visuals.
The filming was average, neither good nor bad. Usually. Several scenes can be called good from an aesthetic point of view.
Verdict.
The story of the film is standard - another passable "B-shka" that doesn't pretend to be anything, which could have been saved with good action, the kind that Amy demonstrated in the short videos. It's strange that the team working on them were not invited to direct the fight scenes. If you perceive the film as an action movie, then it is very weak. If you take it as just a story, then it’s tolerable. Beer and popcorn included.
Rating 3/5 - Amy and Dolph pulled out the film, although the second one is quite decorative.
We can only wish Amy good and quality projects in the future and the role of Sonya Blade in "Mortal Kombat".
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Tags: Female Fight Club, Dolph Lundgren, Miguel A. Ferrera, Amy Johnston
Tags: Female Fight Club, Dolph Lundgren, Miguel A. Ferrera, Amy Johnston
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