Fight Valley: One way in. No way out. Read our review before we kick your ass.
There have been many no-holds-barred and illegal underground
fight movies before. The list is endless, including Bloodsport, Undisputed, The Circuit, Kickboxer, Confessions of a Pit
Fighter, In Hell, and many more. They've been popular enough that whole
franchises have been created from them. The one thing that all of these motion
pictures have in common is that the main characters are all male fighters. The
real MMA world, and the film industry, have been dominated by male superstars
until the recent popularity of Gina Carano in Strikeforce and Ronda Rousey in
the UFC. Their beauty and great fighting
skills have led to them being able to parlay themselves into the world of acting,
with both making appearances in the Fast
and Furious franchise as well as other films.
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| I kick. I stretch. And I kick. |
Writer and director Rob Hawk has seen the opportunity to
take advantage of the burgeoning popularity and sex appeal of the UFC female
fighters and created a story that features three of its current stars, Cris
Cyborg, Holly Holm, and Meisha Tate. All three have varying levels of time
appearing in this film, Tate being the one with the most actual screen time.
The story revolves around a tough town called Fight Valley, where women compete
in illegal street fights for money.
Hawk has experience in directing music videos and television
shows, and he shows what he has learned, essentially creating one long music
video. It features multiple crane, and most likely drone, overhead shots mixed
with constant hip hop, rap, and metal music. There is plenty of action,
fighting, and some nudity that would please most UFC fans and fans of these
types of pictures. There are some nice training sequences that combine Rocky and old school traditional Shaolin
techniques. The final fight scene between Tate and Cyborg is probably the best
of the picture, with a mix of grappling and street fighting.
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| I hope you brushed your teeth. |
None of the
choreographed fights come close to comparing to Jean Claude Van Damme or Scott
Adkins, but they are professional actors with years of movie martial arts
stunts and choreography experience. The acting is weak, which is to be expected
for this. What is surprising is that the best acting comes from the professional
fighter Tate, who shows more acting ability than Rousey has so far in her few
performances. With her recent women’s title victory over Holm, it would not be
surprising to see her begin to appear in larger budgeted productions.
Most of the music was created by Mikey Rukus, who has
created over four hundred theme songs for athletes and MMA organizations. There
was also music scored by Cloud Hex, a production team based out of Australia
that creates hybrid-orchestral beats using various devices.
What we end up with is a wild movie that fans of the UFC and
the various underground fight flicks are going to get great enjoyment out of.
It is a fun ride if you don’t take it too seriously.
Share this review or else our girlfriend will beat you.
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