The Tournament (2009)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Absolutely Fantastic

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Every seven years, in a randomly chosen city in the world, 30 of the worlds best assassins battle to the death for the entertainment and betting pleasure of a bunch of bloodthirsty millionaires, run by Mr Powers (Liam Cunningham). The last volunteer standing wins $10 million, and the title of the worlds greatest assassin. The reigning champion, Joshua Harlow played by Ving Rhames, returns to play again, along with newcomers Lai Lai Zen (Kelly Hu) and Miles Slade (Ian Somerhalder). An innocent unsuspecting Priest, Father Macavoy (Robert Carlyle), gets caught up in the games when he ingests the tracking device Anton Bogart (Sebastian Foucan) removes from himself. This time around the games are being held in the exotic city of... Middlesbrough.Yes, Middlesbrough. To start with it needs to be stated that this film cannot be taken with on ounce of seriousness. If you can do that then this is truly a cinematic treat. The director and the cast have their tongues planted firmly in cheek throughout and the comical moments are incredibly well observed. The 'bus stopping' moment, the strip club, the petrol station, Miles Slade's camp as Christmas leather jacket... Middlesbrough, for Christ's sake!The film indeed pushes the boundaries of credibility and plausibility. The tournament is watched via the cities CCTV network which in itself seems futuristically fast and comprehensive. The cleanup aspect of the film stretches believability too; one highly doubts that the amount of death and destruction that is witness could quite so easily be written off as accidents and the like, but as stated already if you can let these little glitches pass by, then you will be fine.The aforementioned characters are our central players, with Ian Somerhalder putting in a surprisingly, especially brilliant turn as the psychotic Texan. Both Kelly Hu and Robert Carlyle are an entertaining double act as they team up to ensure the latter survives his mistaken participation in the game. Ving Rhames ins typically stony and emotionless, perhaps a little too so considering he is man bent on revenge for the death of his wife. But he is still a convincing, and at times scary, hard man that one certainly wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley, exemplified in the open scene where Harlow wins the previous tournament, which is just the epitome of cool, bloody action cinema.The only criticism one has, is that there are too many players in the game. The majority of the deaths are throwaway. So many characters, who we have no idea who they really are, are dispatched in the blink of eye. It is a difficult concept to do well, The Hunger Games (Gary Ross, 2012), failed in a similar way, but it can be successfully done, Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000), for example. That said, the deaths that we do see are great, gloriously gory and over the top.There is a nice little satirical edge to all the gore and silliness. The film quite simply offers The Tournament up as a dystopian future, where a select few, albeit rich and foolish, individuals are so desensitised to violence that it needs to be transcended into real life to be entertaining again.BOTTOM LINE: Utterly ridiculous but a hell of a lot of fun. The Tournament is an odds on favourite, blacker than black comedy.

I saw this in 2009 n revisited it recently on a DVD which i own. Action fans should definitely check this out. The plot - A group of sadistic gamblers makes wagers on 30 of the world's most deadly assassins who band against one another in a battle royal. Debutante director Scott Mann did a terrific job considering the budget. The action is non stop. There are shoot-outs, gun play, bloodbaths in unlikely venues, severed limbs, exploding bodies caused by booby-trapped tracking devices, plenty of explosions, car chases, kicking, punching, heads exploding off like melons, severed limbs, wild stunts, a bus/truck chase, nudity and gore. Its really a *ucking shame that this film didn't got the recognition it deserves. The star cast is decent, the hot n attractive Kelly Hu (her sex scene from Farmhouse man), Ving Rhames, Robert Carlyle, Liam Cunningham, Scott Adkins n Sebastian Foucon (the guy from Casino royal). There's an excellent free running sequence courtesy of park-our expert Sebastian Foucon.

At first glance it checks all the boxes: madman running a contest between champions from a safe distance; greedy ultra-rich gambling on the lives of those they consider lesser; cameras everywhere; interesting cameos; mayhem and violence ...But then you look closer and you see A-list production values and a novel "redemption" twist with a priest in the game (well played by Robert Carlyle) -- and this strange arc comes to dominate the film and hold interest, even with all the shooting and explosives.And amazingly it more or less works. It entertains. Does what it is supposed to (within the confines of the genre).Always great to see Kelly Hu in action too, arguably one of the most beautiful women in the world. She did not do enough movies.

THE TOURNAMENT is another in the string of films 'inspired' by the success of BATTLE ROYALE which feature armed opponents battling each other to the death in a specific location. The difference? This time around, that location happens to be Middlesborough, of all places! Middlesbrough is a run-down city in the north of England that just so happens to be famous for…well, absolutely nothing. So the choice to have it as the film's setting is unusual, to say the least, and seeing Hollywood stars prowling the streets is nothing if not incongruous. But then THE TOURNAMENT is a slightly quirky British production, so we shouldn't be too surprised.As for how this all stands as a film, it comes across as a mix between THE CONDEMNED and DEATH RACE and offers little we haven't seen before (aside from the setting, of course). Robert Carlyle plays a boozy priest (is there any other kind in the movies?) who unwittingly becomes caught up in a battle between the world's greatest assassins. The storyline is paper thin so the filmmakers wisely choose to focus on the action instead, which is pretty good.The various set-pieces are explosive and ultra-violent, seemingly designed to showcase the latest effects technology of human bodies exploding into clouds of splattery gore. The camera-work isn't too shoddy, as at least we can see some of what's going on, unlike in many modern-day shaky-cam action flicks. The actors playing the assassins are a fun assortment, ranging from pretty heroine Kelly Hu to martial arts supremo Scott Adkins (sadly underutilised) and CASINO ROYALE's parkour enthusiast Sebastien Foucan. Carlyle gives good value for money as always and it's always a pleasure to see Liam Cunningham in a film, although his role as this film's villain is fairly pathetic. Ving Rhames gives a typically larger than life turn in an extended cameo.Things pick up for the ludicrous but entertaining climax, which manages to drag in a classic double-decker bus for some high-speed action before the strictly routine ending. And it's true, you know; THE TOURNAMENT is predictable in the extreme, offering absolutely nothing that hasn't already been done (and done better). But you know what? I enjoyed it. It's not something you'll want to watch more than once, but as an example of adult-orientated action cinema it works.