Story line: played out but has potential. Acting: poor. Fight Choreography: good, highly technical. However, fight sequences are too short and at times can be see that no contact was made during the hit. Editing: good sound quality, good soundtrack, great visual effect that capture action. Actors and Fighters: Going back to choreography they did a good job sparing but everything else was on the poor side. In Summary: If you're a martial arts fan or fan of any of the fighter and like to see them in action, watch it and take it for what it is. However, even though its a low budget movie, I think Director should have put more effort and demanded more realism from his crew. Hope I didn't offend anyone too much :)
10 Reviews
Not worth to watch
avijit_n13 January 2008
This movie is not too bad. But I will not suggest you to watch it if you have some better things to do. The acting is very poor. I have not seen so bad acting in local drama also.
The good part is the plot is little better than acting. It has shown the parental love. Though it could have been shown in much better way or by much better acting. The movie was not too clear also. At last they were able to arrange of money but how it was not clear to me.
The movie could have been presented much better way. Like little more past story the situation. As if the movie was trying to show only some fight and nothing else. I am till not sure about our hero. He had suffered acute proverty in his childhood. But the movie does not tell how he overcame those. Little more touch could make it better.
The good part is the plot is little better than acting. It has shown the parental love. Though it could have been shown in much better way or by much better acting. The movie was not too clear also. At last they were able to arrange of money but how it was not clear to me.
The movie could have been presented much better way. Like little more past story the situation. As if the movie was trying to show only some fight and nothing else. I am till not sure about our hero. He had suffered acute proverty in his childhood. But the movie does not tell how he overcame those. Little more touch could make it better.
Whatever you do, save yourself and don't watch this.
m-haysmcgee13 October 2010
Now I'm not gonna give a breakdown of the plot as it's already been done by a few other reviewers. The story has potential, but Andre Lima, nor any of the other people in this movie should have been in it. The acting is down right awful. I think that this movie's acting quality and production value would make a production of Break the Barriers doing "Romeo and Juliet" look like the 90's blockbuster the "Titanic". Andre Lima is a great martial artist, but after seeing this movie it's like he crapped his pants on camera. As much as I respected him before now when I think of him, it's gonna be this... this horrible thing that crawled from the pits of Hades. The choreography was just blatantly ridiculous. Every single time I've seen someone try one those spinning leap kicks in a real fight thats not TKD they get their face/groin/leg/foot broken. I've also seen better shots taken in the Power Rangers. Please, do yourself a favor, this movie is just bad. Don't buy it, don't rent it, don't even look at it in the store. Just keep walking. It's not even so bad it's funny. It's just bad. If they cut the acting out of it and just showed the gym scenes and clips from the fight scenes and add some decent music. Lima TKD advertisement.
Wow...
Snabben13 January 2008
Well, I don't even think I got words for how terrible this movie is. Its acctualy a must-see-to-believe, you might laugh your head off or you might suffer depression, watch it if you wish, but be warned- its like playing Russian roulette with your brain.
Even the trailer is terrible and the movie is filled with fact-mistakes. Mixed Martial Arts being portrayed as a bloodsport for people with nothing to loose is one thing, using slow-motion in fight scenes in order to make it look cool, is not cool. If you want to watch real Mixed Martial Arts of proper quality, go ahead and watch Ultimate Fightning Championship or Ultimate Fight, Pride or any of the other top quality, real, no-bullshit MMA Tournaments thats around the world.
Even the trailer is terrible and the movie is filled with fact-mistakes. Mixed Martial Arts being portrayed as a bloodsport for people with nothing to loose is one thing, using slow-motion in fight scenes in order to make it look cool, is not cool. If you want to watch real Mixed Martial Arts of proper quality, go ahead and watch Ultimate Fightning Championship or Ultimate Fight, Pride or any of the other top quality, real, no-bullshit MMA Tournaments thats around the world.
Bit disappointing even for a b-movie
angelsfang5 December 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I knew this was a low-budget independent, and I did keep an open mind before I watched it, but still it was disappointing and downright funny at times. Being a fan of martial arts as well as MMA, I have nothing but respect for Mr.Lima for coming out and making a movie on the genre. However I was misled by the cover; there was two fierce-looking fighters, one in a standing armbar, but this scene was not found in the movie at all. The acting was indeed mostly wooden, but Andre came out as a pretty likable guy.
The biggest letdown was the lack of action scenes and slow pace. There were lots of scenes that I found pretty pointless, and some of the "fights" were downright hilarious. For example there was a decent sparring practice between Andre and an Asian grappler, everything went well as they showed good technique transitioning from submissions to submissions and escapes, but out of nowhere, the Asian guy does a front flip when being pushed off by Andre. This isn't Drunken Master or a Jackie Chan flick, such fancy moves as well as jumping spinning kicks are really unnecessary. Besides, mainstream Hollywood movies do it better anyways. The plot also has some serious issues, I didn't really understand it at all nor do I understand why Gary Busey took the role in this movie, he looked completely out of place. The ending was also pretty weird, I didn't get it at all but I did feel pretty relieved to finally see the credits.
This movie isn't completely without positives though, there's just very little. Jennifer Chu was very fine, too bad she doesn't do more movies because her on-screen presence far exceeds other exotic-looking Asian actresses, such as Devon Aoki (i am going to kill myself if i have to hear her call Paul Walker "Bullet" again). *Some* of the fight scenes, which were all sparring and practice except the last one, were okay. Being a Taekwondo master, Andre Lima display some impressive kicking, but again most of it is flashy stuff that we see all the time in mainstream flicks. I also can't get over the fact that the movie looked an awful lot like an advertising campaign for Lima Taekwondo Schools, which was blatantly displayed at the beginning when they showed the kids training, as well as Andre's family members taking part in some of the roles, such as Jessica (Aycka Lima) who seems to be her daughter or niece. I have no problems with fighters and martial arts masters selling themselves in some way, as they do need to make a living just like anyone else, but I don't think Mr.Lima will be getting a call for an actor's role very soon. Taekwondo is fairly common, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the art that's on the rise, and Andre doesn't display it enough in this movie. Beyond The Ring has nothing on classics like Bloodsport, because there is a serious lack of passion on Andre's part. When it comes to fighting, which is basically his entire life, he just seems like a robot despite executing his kicks with impressive technique. Andre Lima should stick to being an instructor, and possibly a martial arts director or stuntsman.
The biggest letdown was the lack of action scenes and slow pace. There were lots of scenes that I found pretty pointless, and some of the "fights" were downright hilarious. For example there was a decent sparring practice between Andre and an Asian grappler, everything went well as they showed good technique transitioning from submissions to submissions and escapes, but out of nowhere, the Asian guy does a front flip when being pushed off by Andre. This isn't Drunken Master or a Jackie Chan flick, such fancy moves as well as jumping spinning kicks are really unnecessary. Besides, mainstream Hollywood movies do it better anyways. The plot also has some serious issues, I didn't really understand it at all nor do I understand why Gary Busey took the role in this movie, he looked completely out of place. The ending was also pretty weird, I didn't get it at all but I did feel pretty relieved to finally see the credits.
This movie isn't completely without positives though, there's just very little. Jennifer Chu was very fine, too bad she doesn't do more movies because her on-screen presence far exceeds other exotic-looking Asian actresses, such as Devon Aoki (i am going to kill myself if i have to hear her call Paul Walker "Bullet" again). *Some* of the fight scenes, which were all sparring and practice except the last one, were okay. Being a Taekwondo master, Andre Lima display some impressive kicking, but again most of it is flashy stuff that we see all the time in mainstream flicks. I also can't get over the fact that the movie looked an awful lot like an advertising campaign for Lima Taekwondo Schools, which was blatantly displayed at the beginning when they showed the kids training, as well as Andre's family members taking part in some of the roles, such as Jessica (Aycka Lima) who seems to be her daughter or niece. I have no problems with fighters and martial arts masters selling themselves in some way, as they do need to make a living just like anyone else, but I don't think Mr.Lima will be getting a call for an actor's role very soon. Taekwondo is fairly common, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the art that's on the rise, and Andre doesn't display it enough in this movie. Beyond The Ring has nothing on classics like Bloodsport, because there is a serious lack of passion on Andre's part. When it comes to fighting, which is basically his entire life, he just seems like a robot despite executing his kicks with impressive technique. Andre Lima should stick to being an instructor, and possibly a martial arts director or stuntsman.
Like a bad soap opera. Poor acting, terrible music/score, trite plot, horrible fight scene, total junk.
Sailinship28 November 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Too much fake touchy feely stuff including lots of lame flashback scenes, horrible acting (Lima and the son are just pathetic) a plot that is boring, predictable and all around lame, terrible weak score accompanied by bad 80's music that wants to be "the eye of the tiger" and if you get through all of that you'll be rewarded with a horrible final fight scene. If you love fight scenes where a guy lands a big blow to his opponent and then turns his back on him so that he can begin showboating to the crowd while the other guy is getting up and preparing to jump in with his own big blow...Then you'll love the end of this movie. I was hoping that the final battle would make up for the rest of this bad movie, but it was the worst scene of all. They threw a mat on the floor of some dark room put up a work light and started filming. The set looks pathetic, there's a pallet leaning against one wall, a mop bucket visible against another, cardboard boxes laying on the floor...why? To make the scene seem more "underground"? If you have any event where the two participants take away $350,000 your gonna make the place look snazzy and not leave junk like that laying around. Let's just say that the final "set" was horrible and leave it at that. Watching the crowd of spectators keep showing up in this poorly edited finally made me question one thing... Where are they in this scene? I'm not sure they were actually in the same room, from the way the scene is shot it seems that nobody was close enough to the "stage" (mat) to even see the fight. And the fight... Just horrible, It's obvious that "Zulu" isn't even trying, look at his legs in any scene where he's on the ground and you can see that he's not struggling, he's not even moving. And in the end Lima turns his back on Zulu...WHY? Why would a trained fighter do that? This movie is just junk, don't bother.
Poor performances and poor direction sink what might have been an okay film
dbborroughs26 October 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Non-actor Andre Lima stars in a story that mirrors his own story as a fighter who has to return to the ring when his daughter develops a brain tumor and he has get the money some how.
The non-acting and unimaginative direction (its as rudimentary as you can imagine) kills this film pretty quickly.Its simply too difficult to pay any attention to the non-performances. I know its wrong to criticize people who aren't actors but normally the director can work with an actor to get a performance but here its clear the director either didn't care or wasn't able to try and make the performances into something workable. The only one giving anything like a real performance is Martin Kove as Lima's friend. To be certain it won't kill you if you run across it but its not something to seek out.
The non-acting and unimaginative direction (its as rudimentary as you can imagine) kills this film pretty quickly.Its simply too difficult to pay any attention to the non-performances. I know its wrong to criticize people who aren't actors but normally the director can work with an actor to get a performance but here its clear the director either didn't care or wasn't able to try and make the performances into something workable. The only one giving anything like a real performance is Martin Kove as Lima's friend. To be certain it won't kill you if you run across it but its not something to seek out.
Waste of time
amichnea13 May 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This film was a waste of time, acting was poor story line poor, made no sense whatsoever to why they made this film as it had no point. Why did he fight? They could have just made the film in 5 minutes, out of shape fighter's daughter gets sick, insurance won't pay as she is under 18, he starts training and fights underground to get some quick cash to pay for her, he loses, his dad gets money from lawyers as they fight with insurance. WOWOWOWOW amazing... thanks for wasting my time.
The whole point of watching films like these is to get somewhere, the hero kicks ass and wins or dies after kicking ass. This has no story whatsoever and no point.
The worst part of this film was the final fight, fight start he get's smacked then he starts to kick ass and as the other fighter is on the floor he turns his back on him and starts to cheer doing so leaves him open and ZULU the other fighter knocks him down with 1 final punch... common... who the hell would do that, if you are a champion black belt and have 3 black belts in 3 different fighting styles you get told never to lose eye contact with your adversary.
You wanna see a kick ass film go watch anything that has Tony Jaa or Jet Li:):) 1 star is generous, I would give it a -minus rating if I could.
The whole point of watching films like these is to get somewhere, the hero kicks ass and wins or dies after kicking ass. This has no story whatsoever and no point.
The worst part of this film was the final fight, fight start he get's smacked then he starts to kick ass and as the other fighter is on the floor he turns his back on him and starts to cheer doing so leaves him open and ZULU the other fighter knocks him down with 1 final punch... common... who the hell would do that, if you are a champion black belt and have 3 black belts in 3 different fighting styles you get told never to lose eye contact with your adversary.
You wanna see a kick ass film go watch anything that has Tony Jaa or Jet Li:):) 1 star is generous, I would give it a -minus rating if I could.
"Beyond the Ring" is a great begin !
capl197413 January 2008
I just watched the film. I think for a low-budget movie is way more than I was expecting. I think Andre Lima did a great job as a main actor. He is not a professional actor and he put himself in this big challenger. People need to have heart and "balls" to be in front of a camera and do the best they can. The director Gerson Sanginitto did a great work directing Andre Lima with Gary Busey and Martin Kove. I think Mr. Sanginitto has a great future as Director. The little girl Jessica was awesome! She should have a bigger part next time.
I want to congratulate this small production. I been around this industry for long time, I know how hard is to produce a film and make until the end and see the final product. A lot people never finish the end line.
I want to congratulate this small production. I been around this industry for long time, I know how hard is to produce a film and make until the end and see the final product. A lot people never finish the end line.
Back to the eighties........ and thats not too bad
wbafanclub122 December 2007
For starters, I have to say I sort of enjoyed this little number. The acting is as wooden as a tree, the story line is completely corny on all counts but yes for me it held a slight appeal. Think of the film 'kickboxer' and you are along the right lines although kickboxer is by far the better film. The star, Andre is obviously quite nimble at the old martial arts and this is shown numerous times throughout the film. As said above however, acting wise leaves a lot to be desired, a cross I would rate as somewhere in between Dolph Lundrun and Jean Claude Vandamn. I cant really say much more without ruining the plot. Just give it a go. It was OK if you like these sort of films.
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