Audience Member
This movie is so bad it hurts! Lousy acting,the whole "movie" looks like a high-school project of some kids with cheap camera..."Director" of this "movie" should be banned from shooting such films because nobody wants to watch shit!
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
01/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I honestly don't know where to start with this one. It took me two
tries to get through it, as the first 20 minutes nearly put me to sleep
(on second thought, maybe I should watch these so late at night...).
Whatever, in any case the filmmakers seemed to have a few things they
wanted to say with PIT FIGHTER, but much of the "message" (if one can
call it that) is blunted by not really explaining anything and massive
imbalance in the narrative threads that would have fleshed out exactly
what we were supposed to divine from this poorly edited mess of an
action film. It's also bookended by a couple of Bible quotes that have
something to do with the scenes they immediately precede/follow, but
little else (in my estimation).
The basic plot is that a mysterious man who nearly died in a shootout
and has memory loss gets taken under the wing of a low level criminal
in the Mexican mafia (Steven Bauer, SCARFACE). He discovers/remembers a
talent for fighting, and so he starts participating in underground
kickboxing matches for money. All the while he has memories of a woman
he loved and thought dead, but things change when he sees her one night
after a fight.
As messy and cheap as the film is, it's not all for nothing. There is a
decent amount of kickboxing action, and brutal action at that. There
was one scene with a guy's eyeball hanging out of his skull, which was
kind of cool. I also thought that the overall pacing of the fight
sequences was adequate so that the overly ponderous narrative never got
too much to take. The best action scene is probably the final shootout
between the titular "fighter" and what I'm guessing was the Mexican
mafia. You get to see him mow through all of these guys, often using
their own weapons against them, and then resorting to a sword that he
brought with him. The gunplay and sword-fighting was a nice changeup
from the brawling that came before it.
Where the film misses is about everywhere else. They tried to make the
main character, Jack (as we learn late into the film), into some
religious nut. He allows opponents to "show off" by beating him up
before knocking them out. He donates his winnings to a local priest
(from Ireland? The ethnic makeup of the cast was head-scratching at
times. Was everyone except the mafia an immigrant or living there
temporarily?). He also has visions of the Virgin Mary that aren't
explained (except kind of at the end where the actual person he's been
seeing is named). It was all rather weird, and the last minute
revelations/memories he has about his forgotten past smacked of
narrative convenience, i.e., to add an extra wrinkle to the final
conflict.
Another issue is the major subplot regarding Jack's girlfriend(?)
Marianne, who turns out to be some university
professor-turned-revolutionary stealing from the mafia in order to fund
antigovernment rebels (or something like that). The story of an
amnesiac who remembers his past and then confronts it would have been
sufficient, in my opinion. But, I guess the filmmakers thought since it
was set in a Central American country they might as well throw in some
half-baked subplot about the very real political and social turmoil in
the region...without any nuance, of course.
As for the other elements, the acting was generally poor. The best
actor was Steven Bauer (of SCARFACE fame), but even it seemed like he
was phoning it in. The oddest of the cast had to have been the "doctor"
who patches Jack up at the beginning. He had these weird mannerisms and
speech pattern that was really off-putting. It also didn't help that
his dialogue didn't seem based in reality (I know the filmmakers
weren't medical experts, but come on, they could have researched a
little bit). The cinematography was decent for a low-budget movie, with
the occasional shot that looked like it could be part of a TV
documentary, but the washed-out look was kind of depressing and just
emphasized how cheap-looking everything was. Camera-work was OK, I
guess, but nothing special.
Overall, I would say that only those with the lowest of standards would
possibly get any enjoyment out of this. It had the potential to be
laughably bad, but the tone and look would make it hard to have fun
with a drinking game, were someone inclined to make one out of this.
Basically, this wasn't worth my time and it probably won't be worth
yours either.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Utterly brutal, no budget whatsoever, but mesmerising fights!!! Dominiquie Vandenberg is an outstanding battler.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The martial arts are distinguishable, which is more than can be said for a lot of films of the genre. The plot is certainly forgettable, however. Several of the main characters seem token and uninspired. Still, I will praise the action scenes.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
horrible film. the film had the cinematography, acting, and plot line of a soap opera. the only up side to the movie was the fight scenes, and even they were sub par. unless you have seen every other fighting movie on the planet, and are extremely bored, do not watch this movie. P.S. (spoiler alert) there was literally a point in the movie where he stands in the middle of 50-100 guys with machine guns, who are about 5-10 feet away, and somehow they never hit him with a bullet... i haven't seen such bad aim since star wars.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
01/25/23
Full Review
Audience Member
"Exceeding expectations and knocking me senseless." Pit Fighter, started off a Saturday 1.5hr time kill and ended up a 5 star sleeper.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
Full Review
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