Director: Scott Mann
Cast: Robert Carlyle, Kelly Hu, Ian Somerhalder, Ving Rhames

As you may have gotten from my many reviews here on this web site, I have a pretty good idea of what makes a movie work, as well as what does not make a movie work. Oh, I do know that making a movie is really, really, really a lot of hard work. And even if a filmmaker strives to work as hard as he or she can possibly do, certain circumstances may come up that will thwart all of their hard work and make the end results fail. But all the same, I feel that if filmmakers take the time before starting work on their movie to study films of the same genre they want to tackle - both good and bad examples - they can dramatically increase their chances of succeeding with their movie. Take the action genre, for example. While I have never made my own movie (yet), I've seen so many action movies that I am pretty confident that I could sit in the director's chair and not only make my own action movie, but make it good. When it comes to the prime action movie ingredient of explosions, I know what makes a good explosion. For one thing, the bigger the explosion, the better it looks on the screen. Especially if at the same time you can see a lot of flying debris, which would illustrate just how destructive the explosion was. Another prime action movie ingredient is with fight choreography. While showing the protagonist beat up one person after another without hardly breaking a sweat can be pulled off (Bruce Lee, for example), I much prefer it when the protagonist has to really struggle fighting one person after another. When the protagonist gets hurt during his struggle, to me that makes the fight scenes more exciting and less predictable.

No doubt you have seen your share of action movies as well, and you feel that you have some idea of what makes an action movie good. But I know some of you readers probably have a certain idea of what could make an action movie really good that to me is more risky that portraying a protagonist who hardly breaks a sweat during his fight sequences. That idea is to make the action in the movie non stop throughout, with one fight scene or gun battle after another. I can understand why that might seem like a great idea at first - everybody loves action, so why not let us see a relentless series of action sequences? But I think most people thinking about the idea some more would see it as an extremely risky thing for an action filmmaker to do. For those who don't, let me bring up, of all sources, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV show. When the show was revised a few years ago on Netflix, a number of people thought that because Netflix was commercial free, the mocked movies would now play out in an uninterrupted manner. But that was not the case - every so often, there would be a break during the mocking. To me, it was pretty easy to figure out why. Of course, one reason was so that the new episodes could possibly be aired on commercial television sometime in the future. But there was another and more important reason. If the mocked movies played non stop from start to end, viewers would be exhausted by the very end. The actors in the show doing the mocking certainly would be exhausted. So with that in mind, it's easy to see that a movie that would be non stop action would more likely than not tire out viewers long before the movie reached the end credits.

There are obvious other reasons why more often than not action filmmakers do not make action movies that are non stop action. Action scenes can be expensive to pull off, so dozens of action scenes could really increase the budget (and the financial risk) of the movie. Also, you more often than not need some important filler between action sequences. You need to learn about the characters so that you can care about them (if they are protagonists) or love to hate them (if they are antagonists.) So as you can see, a movie that is non-stop action is a risky enterprise. But several years ago, I came across the movie The Tournament, and my memories of it indicated that not only was it essentially non-stop action, but that it was a good movie. Who da thought that? I'm not sure why I didn't decide to review it on this web site after watching it all those years ago, but when I stumbled upon a Blu-Ray copy of the movie in a dollar store recently, I decided the fates were telling me to buy it and give it another look. The activity that is announced in the movie's title is a contest that is secretly run by various wealthy individuals (criminal and non-criminal) around the world. Specifically, it is an event put forward every few years where various assassins, serial killers, military figures, and other people at the peak of their game are invited to participate. The challenge these individuals are given is simple - kill each other until only one participant is left standing, and that individual will win ten million dollars. One catch is that the participants must kill each other in twenty-four hours, otherwise devices planted in their bodies will explode. This year's tournament, being held in Middlesbrough, England, has a variety of contestants. There is the winner of the previous tournament, Joshua (Ving Rhams, Pulp Fiction), who is giving it another go for personal reasons. There is also Lai Lai (Kelly Hu, Surf Ninjas), a Chinese assassin who seeks the prize so she can retire from the hitlady life. Miles (Ian Somerhalder, The Vampire Diaries), on the other hand, has entered just for the chance to kill other people, and Anton (Sebastien Foucan, Casino Royale) is participating just to challenge his survival skills. Who will be the winner this time, especially since there are bound to be unpredictable factors thrown in at some point, one of them being a bystander priest (Robert Carlyle, The Full Monty) who accidentally gets caught in the game?

Seeing The Tournament for the second time, I found out that what my memories had been of the movie for all these years weren't quite correct. As it turned out, my rescreening revealed that the amount of action unfolding in the movie wasn't quite as relentless as I had thought. It's possible, however, that my somewhat incorrect memories may have come from that fact that when the movie does deliver action, it's pretty well done and very compelling for the most part. For one reason, the movie manages to jam-pack all sorts of action in its 95-minute running time. We get martial art sequences, we get vehicle chases, we get firearm battles, and quite a few explosions. There's even some parkour thrown in for good measure. Not only is there a great variety of action, it's often directed in a very pleasing manner. Sometimes, I admit, it's not up to its full potential. The martial art sequences generally have the camera pretty close to the combatants (and shaking around) with rapid editing. Actually, the other flaws in other action sequences share that problem of jiggling cameras and quick cuts that occasionally make this a little hard to follow. But even while this is happening, there is great energy and excitement. The action is swift and filled with creativity, such as one sequence that combines parkour with the pursuit of a vehicle. Even better, the violence level of all of this action is pumped up to the extreme. Fingers and entire hands get cut off, there are several moments involving people's bodies being blown up into thousands of bloody pieces, and if that isn't enough for you, we even get to see some topless women being shotgunned to death.

Clearly director Scott Mann (Heist) knows enough of how to present action effectively, and I would certainly be gung-ho to watch another action movie from him in the future. As for his direction in the other parts of the movie, it is generally solid, though not without a few issues. There are a few moments where the generally low budget does make itself evident, but the biggest objection I had with the direction was that while almost the entire movie is set in England, there is very little local color on display; the almost anonymous feeling may come from the movie being filmed in three different countries. But I will admit that without distracting details, the action might jump out some more from this somewhat bland backdrop. Also, some non-action sequences stand out every so often, ranging from a long torture sequence to some effective low-key humor. Mann certainly manages to keep the audience interested and entertained, enough that any possible objections to the story will be minimal or non-existent. There is, of course, the whole idea of a violent (and public) tournament being held every seven years without the public getting any wind of what's happening; this is lamely explained by the tired old "It's being controlled by the very top people in power!" explanation that's been used in dozens of other movies before. But at least this particular setup is written efficiently, with the screenplay setting up and explaining almost everything in the first few pages. There are additional details that the story has to deal with subsequently, but they unfold in a manner that while may not be completely explained immediately, do manage to be interesting while not being too confusing.

As for the parts of the script that involve the various characters, The Tournament does have some significant weaknesses. A movie like this really needs a good central villain, but the one person who could be called a central villain (the organizer of the tournament) doesn't get that much screen time or much to do or say, which makes his eventual fate not really pay off much as it should. Also, while the priest character played by actor Robert Carlyle ends up playing a significant part of the movie, his background and actions seem mysterious. He is a troubled figure when we meet him, but I don't think the movie ever clearly explains why he is in mental anguish. Carlyle's performance all the same is professional enough to give this character some sympathy and color. So is for that matter the performances by all the other major actors in the movie; Ian Somerhalder in particular is clearly having fun playing the sadistic and relentless hitman Miles, and his enthusiasm is infectious. But the eventual two main characters (played by Ving Rhames and Kelly Hu) seem to have real large murky sides that makes their actions and thought processes often unclear, so much so that any performer in these roles would have problems making good characters. The Tournament, as you can see, would not be the ultimate winner in a competition for all-time best B movie actioner. But all the same it has enough merit that it would wipe out a lot of the competition before it eventually fell from better movies, enough that the watching audience would give it a good round of applause and a solid runner-up award after seeing all of its efforts.

(Posted June 8, 2023)