Ta-daaam!!! Boyka is back!!!
Filming "Strike: Undeniable“People have been waiting for 5 whole years! After filming was completed, people waited almost another 1,5 years for the film to be released! And so, unexpectedly for everyone, in mid-April the film is released in northern European countries (in such large markets as Germany, France and the USA, the release will take place only on July 31). And of course... a crowd of people (including those who said that due to the delay, they were no longer looking forward to the film) rushed to watch the new film about the Most Perfect Fighter in the World!
On my own behalf, I want to say that, having warm feelings for the entire “Undisputed” saga, and recognizing that “Undisputed” are the best fighting games of our generation, I was not particularly looking forward to the fourth part and would have calmly survived if everything had ended in the third. Scott's films such as "accident man","Triple Threat"and the possible continuation of the Ninja duology are much more interesting to me than Undisputed 4,5,6, etc. But the film came out, and it was impossible not to watch it!
I immediately liked the film because Yuri remained the same fierce and aggressive fighter who likes to fight and who loves when the audience chants his name. This catches your eye from the first minutes. I was very afraid that they would continue to humanize him and he would become the standard hero who saves everyone... just because it is written in the script. This did not happen, and that is very good. I would even say that in its character it is closer to the second part than to the third. The only difference is that he decided to start life with a clean face and become a professional MMA fighter, therefore all kinds of crime, and especially killing people, are no longer his path. However, the accidental death of his opponent in the ring completely cancels out all of Yuri’s plans.
Reviews in the style of “why did he get involved with this woman?","Why did they introduce a woman into the plot?","Boyka used to be a real man, but the woman ruined everything"and stuff like that. I won’t even comment on this, but will simply say that the storyline with the girl and why Boyka began to fight for her is clear to me. Yuri no longer wants to be a criminal, he chose a different path for himself, an honest path. And if he can explain his love for fighting by the fact that “it's a gift from God that he can't waste“, then he cannot forgive himself for killing a person in the ring who did nothing wrong to him. And the fact that this oppresses him is normal!
Among the actors we can only note: Adkins, who looked great not only in the role of the furious Boyka, but also looked good when he had to act out other emotions (and here there were more such scenes compared to previous films), and Teodor Dukhovnikov, who, although she is not a sexy beauty (in the image of a waitress who has bills shoved into her neckline, she generally looks terrible), but she played her role normally, and in the end you get used to her, and even begin to sympathize with her. And I really liked that they weren’t brought together as a couple. It would seem like overkill.
Alon Aboutball, who played the main villain Zurab, who is in love with the main character, is not annoying, but the absence of Gaga from the previous parts is very upsetting. Mark Ivanir turned out to be a very interesting and charismatic character, who, being a villain at his core, perfectly feels the line when he needs to change sides in order to emerge victorious from the current situation (Zurabu, oh, how far is he from him). The same can be said about Yuri’s rivals - Nightmare, Victor, Igor Kazmir, Ozerov Brothers. They are great in fights and are in no way inferior to their predecessors, but the lack of additional scenes with them (whether it be fights in the ring, where they would show how tough they are, or scenes with dialogues that would reveal their characters) puts them on a par with the faceless Bulgarian stuntmen , whom Scott beats up not for the first time in the film (just look at Troyan Milenov, who played three different characters in all three “Undisputed”). The film lacks a charismatic and cool main villain, such as Boyka in "Undisputed 2" and Dolor in "Undisputed 3".
Fights. The fights in the film are great! It is very encouraging that Scott, at the age of 40, manages not only not to lose his form, but also learns new strikes and combinations that he did not demonstrate in his films either 10 or 15 years ago. Special thanks to him for this. His rivals are in no way inferior to him and, thanks to the choreography Tim Mana, and directing Isaac Florentine, demonstrate their maximum. This is cool. Separately, it is worth saying that despite the absence of the permanent cinematographer of the films Isaac and Scott Ross Clarkson (who was busy filming Never Back Down 3), the camera work hasn't deteriorated at all. Everything is clearly visible. The viewer may think at the beginning that the battles are too fast, but as you watch the film, you quickly get used to it. Moreover, slow-mo is turned on at the right time so that we don’t miss a single spectacular and beautiful blow. And these transitions (from fast to slow and vice versa), on the one hand, add dynamics, on the other hand, do not tire the viewer, and allow him to fully enjoy the battles.
However... I have to say that I am very upset by the lack of episodes with the training of Boyka and his rivals. In the previous parts these scenes were gorgeous, but here they are not there at all. Yes, it would be better to remove a couple of fights with extras and replace them with scenes with training. Ugh. :-(
But still, the main disadvantage of the 4th part is the lack of conditions during filming, which does not allow the series to develop in the right direction. Trying to get out of prison is the right decision, but the money and time have apparently run out. Now, instead of a prison, they show a shabby and poor city... and this somehow does not add scale and high cost to the film. The same ring that we saw in all the previous parts, the same premises, the same extras, the same music... for the third time in a row it’s already starting to get a little annoying. Isaac and Scott are not to blame for this, and they made the most of it, but, unfortunately, it is difficult not to notice this.
I liked the ending of the film more than not. Yes, they went too far with the number of knockouts Boyka was sent to in the last 20 minutes. But the plot ending...I would even say it was a little surprising. Everyone is waiting for a happy ending, usual for category B, but here you go! Although, on the other hand, such an ending is more likely caused by the lack of financial resources for the development of the series (performances at major tournaments, trips to different countries and fights with fighters of different nationalities), rather than the creative decision of the screenwriter. But as an ending to the story of Yuri Boyka, the ending is good!
As a result... we have a candidate for the title of the best fighting game of 2016/2017 (“Boyka: Undisputed” is definitely better than the new “Kickboxer" and "Never Give Up 3", although the filming conditions were much worse). This is Scott's best film since "Ninja 2" Is Undisputed the best of the series? I would say it's worse than Undisputed 3, but better than Undisputed 2. And this is definitely one of the best representatives of the genre that we can see in our time! I'll definitely pick up the movie as soon as it hits Amazon (July 31st), but I'm looking forward to Ninja 3 more than Undisputed 5. :-)
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Tags: Boyka: Undisputed, Isaac Florentine, Alon Aboutball, Scott Adkins, Theodore Dukhovnikova, Tim Man
Tags: Boyka: Undisputed, Isaac Florentine, Alon Aboutball, Scott Adkins, Theodore Dukhovnikova, Tim Man
No, Kickboxer, at the expense of one JCVD, beats Boyka to the fourth. In general, the films are just inexpensive, well-made films for fans of the genre, and then only on the level of the personalities of the main actors and their leadership charisma can be determined. Van Damme has much more of it
Andrey Skovorodnikov-Erlich,
ZHKVD Cool of course, especially at his age + a great purse (burden?) of a bad guy on his back!
But if you look (IMHO, of course) at the products of Adkins (the same Ninja and especially Undisputed) and ZhKVD in a sports-motivational way for young people (and a N-th number of old farts too), then ZhKVD motivates only for Twine and Scott - starting from all sorts of gymnastic-percussion complexes and ending with tattoos and shurikens (I’m exaggerating of course, but I think the message is clear)
Adkins is the JCVD of our time, JCVD 2.0 is simple in the late 80s and early 90s, what Van Damme did was relatively breakthrough, especially coupled with that same charisma, and what is important is that the BUDGET of the films with his participation was many times more decent + good directors and screenwriters
Sincerely! ;)
Tim Man is good, very good.
I already said that, for me, there is too much Tim Man in the choreography. I would add more wrestling, to me Boyka is closer to the perception when he uses grabs and throws, as for me, this suits him better than sweeping taekwondo. IMHO, they should have added another choreographer.