Review: The Tournament

Every seven years the world’s greatest assassins are gathered to take part in a tournament to bump one another off. It takes place in a new location every year and the winner gains $10 million and the satisfaction of being the winner. The rest earn nothing and obviously end up dead. In the middle of the mayhem is an alcoholic priest (Robert Carlyle) who is somehow confused for a participant and is now fighting for his life. Ving Rhames plays the defending champion, whilst other participants are played by the likes of Ian Somerhalder, Kelly Hu, Scott Adkins, and a flippy Sebastien Foucan. Liam Cunningham plays the overseer of the show, and the accompanying gambling carried out by wealthy interested parties.

 

“Smokin’ Aces” meets “Bloodsport” with a touch of “Mean Guns” in this violent, trashy, but enjoyable 2009 action movie from director Scott Mann (“Final Score”). How violent? We get exploding heads early on, you’ve been duly warned. The eclectic cast is interesting, with Scott Adkins’ Russian bad arse a scene-stealing cameo in particular, and Ian Somerhalder well-cast as a dog-shooting psycho. Seemingly having more fun than anyone, he’s not convincingly Texan, however. I also don’t particularly like dogs being killed on screen – even fake killing as it is here. So that was a bit of a turn-off. Ving Rhames doesn’t get a lot of screen time, but when he does get it, he’s typically magisterial badarse personified. I don’t know if he loves feeding his family or if he’s a problem gambler, but Rhames is the biggest wasted talent in cinema. Someone in the upper crust of Hollywood filmmaking needs to throw the enormously talented man a bone and give him a worthwhile, more prestige project to appear in. This is a fun film, but Rhames is so much better than this film requires of him. Meanwhile, Kelly Hu never quite made it as a star, because she’s a modest talent pretty much. Here that modest talent is pretty well-utilised. Her brief tangle with Adkins is good fun, despite director Mann favouring the quick cuts a touch too much for me. Parkour expert Sebastien Foucan looks cool-as-ice but spends so much of his time jumping on rooftops instead of fighting that he kinda ends up the film’s Boba Fett/Captain Phasma. It’s cool to watch, but it’s not what we’re here for. Foucan (who is given stunt credit as well) does eventually get one fight scene, and it’s good. Towards the end he and Hu beat the shit out of each other in the middle of the amusingly chaotic bus vs. truck chase. Ridiculous? Yes. Well-done and thrilling set-piece? Also yes, though I actually think the first half of the film is a little more enjoyable than the second. At the centre of all the violent mayhem is Robert Carlyle bothering to give a full-on dramatic performance as a clearly tortured, heavy-drinking priest. It’s a good performance, just a very odd film to find it in.

 

Enjoyable schlock, but for an admittedly very small audience of sickos like me. Overpopulated, with some of the cast faring better than others as a result, but never dull. Good, extremely violent fun for those inclined. The screenplay comes from the trio of Gary Young (the dour vigilante flick “Harry Brown”), Jonathan Frank (Mann’s not-bad “Final Score”), and Nick Rowntree (who has a small role in the film).   

 

Rating: B-