clubberlang786

24 May 2012

All been done before but entertaining

This plot has been done many many times before. Basically you kidnapsomeone and make them fight to the death for a sadistic public. Theacting was okay I found. The main actor who I had never seen beforehandled himself quite nicely and the fight sequences although a bitcheesy and unbelievable were quite entertaining to watch. There is alot of blood and gore with a few decapitations, stabbings and the usualsomeone dying after landing on a big spike. The effects were prettygood. The story and the script though was quite weak and Samuel LJackson was somewhat subdued in this performance. Also the gorgeousNina Dobrev (Elena from the vampire diaries) was little used beingkilled off in the first 10 minutes of the film. Overall if you'relooking for a watchable action film where you can switch off your brainand enjoy with the boys this is okay. If you're looking for somethingwith a bit more substance go elsewhere.

Stanislav Ivanov

23 May 2012

Total disaster

Kind of "Saw" series movies, but much more easier to predict the nextstep. I'm astonished that Sam L.J. has decided to be a part of thismovie and I'm really curious if this has payed him off at all :) Asmentioned in the plot line itself.. it is brutal movie, but I still cansee much more blood and pain into "Spartacus, God of Arena" than inthis movie. If you want to loose 87mins when waiting for train orsomething like that, then this could be a good choice. I never havegiven so far a review of a film in any forum, but people, please, don'tloose your time into watching this unless you're really bored.Basically I would say that the only kind of theatrical performance hereis to Nina Dobrev, but rest is just much below of average of what thosekind of actors are capable of

uunio

23 May 2012

Surprisingly Great

Kellan Lutz was amazing in this and of course Mr. Jackson is alwaysflawless. I really hope they can do a part 2 or somehow franchise onthe film and keep the original characters and keep the story flowing.I'm typically not into fighting films, or anything of this nature butI'm a big fan of the Twilight cast so I've been watching their otherfilms in between releases of Breaking Dawn and I stumbled across thisone. It really surprised me! Not recommended for children of course.There is a ton of violence, I'd compare the gore to say, 300. Theaction is great and their is a surprising twist in the end. It reallydid take me by surprise. I hope you all get as good of a thrill fromthis as I did!

Robert_Bortz

22 May 2012

One of the best movies I have ever seen that did not go to theaters!

All in all a pretty darn good movie. Some of these reviews are justplain stupid. Its like they where not paying attention at all. Yes thisconcept had been done before but not exactly like this. Short Summery,Man is some kinda special ops solider. His wife and unborn son die. Hetakes a mission to track down and illegal cage fighting ring thatsinternet based where the fighters are kidnapped then sentenced to fightto the death using hands, hand-held weapons, and various stage props.He Infiltrates the fights as a fighter. He does some serious damage asyou would expect from A highly trained spec ops Solider. In the endback up rives and the fights are shut down and the bad guy that ran itall gets away leaving room for squeal (Samuel Jackson is not going tolet himself get killed off lol). Yes Some of the acting was not perfectbut they did a good job for allot of unknowns. Other then that thismovies strives on realism. There is allot of nudity and it is prettygory at times with lots of blood but you get sliced open and if youdon't loose allot of blood. The special effects where not the best butagain its not a mainstream movie and if you put to much special effectin your gonna loose its realism. Over all a pretty darn good movie anddefinitively worth watching. Just go into it expecting that if thiswhere real would it be like this and you should enjoy this movie.

jackarute

22 May 2012

Solid Action Flic

There is little original in the story line. Picture Death Race or Gamerwith the protagonist fighting to the death every week instead of racinga car or in a fps mock up with real people. Furthermore, if any of thesocial commentary on where our society is headed based on the viewer'sever growing appetite for realism and violence is meant to be novel, itbarely registers with this viewer. However, adding Samuel Jackson asthe puppet master for these spectacles certainly makes even a retreadseem re-energized.   Kellan Lutz gives a solid enough performance asthe sympathetic protagonist finding himself in the do or die scenarioand Johnny Messner is a more than adequate secondary villain. Mixedwith some eye candy and an arc (with a nice twist) that createssufficient  anticipation as to how it's all going to end results in anabove average viewing experience. 

David Nusair

21 May 2012

An absolutely, astonishingly incompetent piece of work...

xmanuchox

20 May 2012

Blah blah blah

After reading all the reviews, I felt that most people watched themovie as if they were voting for an Academy Award... this is NOT aboutthat.This is about fights, about blood, is like a classic 80's or mid 90'saction/martial arts movie. With a pretty much obvious script (altoughin the final 20 minutes there's a twist I didn't expect), and thefighters being "ordinary people" I think is a pretty good movie towatch and have fun. The way they dealt with the fact that was a lowbudget movie, using the green screen as part of the history was prettysmart.Anyways, If you are looking for something to lay on the coach and justhave fun, and you like Bloodsport type of movies, watch it. If you arelooking for Casablanca, keep walking....

mini-abm

20 May 2012

Men are forced to fight to their death in a virtual arena.

I always knew this would be some dumb action crab, but hey that is whatwe want right..? The idea is kind of cool, put a bunch of men into an arena, and forcethem to fight to their death. Then I realized, that it is based on theidea of the Hunger Games. (The Hunger Games is a book I read some timeago) That is also about a reality show, where there are chosen 1 boyand 1 girl between 12 and 18 to fight in an arena until a single victorremains.The idea of Arena is stolen from the Hunger Games books.If you want to see the real deal, watch The Hunger games. It is moredeep, and original. But it is also (unfortunately) a teenage movie,where all the blood is cut out. (takes some of the fun out of it)See Arena if you absolutely must, but really I'd just pass.

Simon Bubach

20 May 2012

Not as bad as it seems.

Well, you've seen it all before, it's not a new concept but it's stillpretty interesting. I sat through the whole movie without any problemsat all. Sure, some things were pretty stupid like that an infamous massmurderer wouldn't have more security or that you cannot possiblysurvive the amount beating the main character receives.I liked the movie but unfortunately it was too average. The acting isnothing to complain about but the characters are pretty boring. SamuelL. Jackson gives us a typical villain and Kellan Lutz gives us theusual hero, nothing special on that front.I liked Daniel Dae Kim's character but he had a too small a role. Ithad every better if they had developed his character more then I wouldcare a lot more about the people who died. There are lots of people whodie but I did not think I really cared it was unfortunate and somethingthat they could have worked more with.This is by no means comparable to Hunger Games/BR, but give it a shotif you just want some pretty OK entertainment.

miketaylor2007

19 May 2012

Great fun if you want to see a movie with lots of fighting and blood

This was a damn entertaining movie for the guy who loves fightingfilms. I thought Arena was great and I have nothing but good things tosay about it. Samuel knew this was really good too or he would havenever done it in the first place. I know when I turn on a fightingmovie I don't want to experience deep emotions and have myself a goodcry. I want to see a man beat another man's face in. I want brutality,I want violence, and this delivered. Seeing Samuel L Jackson play thevillain is nice for a change and he does a fantastic job. Arena is kindsimilar to The Condemned. I don't want to give away any spoilers, butgive this one a chance if you love fighting and gore. Sleepless inSeattle is for crying yourself to sleep at night, Arena is for anaction packed gorefest of fights to the death. 10/10 because it was myfavourite fight movie of 2011.

Jan Strydom

18 May 2012

Good cinematography and good performances but lousy fight scenes.

At first glance at the DVD cover and at the plot summary ARENA soundslike it could have all the makings of a good action movie butunfortunately that wasn't the case when I finished watching it.The good things about it is the cinematography and the acting, the badthing about it is the action sequences which are fight scenes with poorchoreography and camera effects involving a lot of flashes, quick cutsand slow motion for when our would be fighters strike a nice pose.As other reviewers have pointed out the plot isn't very original orvery good but oddly enough the cast pull off good performances, SamuelL. Jackson obviously must have done this just for fun because he lookedlike he had a field day with his role and yet he gives a goodperformance like always so he definitely didn't slack despite thematerial he was given and Kellan Luts despite being a bit stiff, isokay as the lead.Overall, in terms of a good action movie this film doesn't deliver whatyou would hope for when you read the plot summary, therefore actionfans are likely to be disappointed.

davidfurlotte

18 May 2012

The new porn - Violence, Gore and Blood

This movie is basically a Hollywood version of a snuff film. There isno real plot other than something that's been used as a sub-plot intelevision and in other B class movies.Simple formula.Kidnap people who have some talent to fight.Convince them to fight to the death.Put on shows for the masses and make big money.Okay, first tiny little problem is this: Where is the money? OBVIOUSLYthis is a SUBSCRIPTION based online revenue but it is CHEAP enough forsome College kids to afford? RIGHT...Then we have the second fight for our main hero, David Lord. He issupposed to kill his opponent in less than 3 minutes or the wife of hisfriend dies. Guess who his opponent is?....Yep, you guessed it, hisfriend.Now if you do the math, the ONLY way his friend would be inclined tofight is if HE were told that if he won, his wife and he would be setfree.SO, you have a man that has trained ALL HIS LIFE with weaponry inMartial Arts and he manages to get beaten? Okay, David Lord IS a Marinebut seriously, able to beat an opponent who has trained all his lifewith the Katana? I think not.I'm only halfway through viewing this but I already know how it's goingto end. Unless you're really into watching some senseless killing, giveit a pass. If the second half of this movie changes my mind, I'll beback to alert you that my original take on it was wrong. I'm big enoughto admit that.Well, I'm back and surprise, surprise, I was NOT wrong. To say it's acontrived ending leaving us open for a sequel is an understatement. Igo with my first warning to you. Give it a pass and a wide berth.

toudi

17 May 2012

Grade B movie with Samuel L. Jackson!

It is so sad when a great actor ends up in grade B movie. But even ifit happened to Cuba Gooding Jr. I have never imagined that Samuel L.Jackson could fall so low. Although he never seemed very picky if youremember "Deep Blue Sea" or "Home of the Brave" but he was alwayssuccessful in choosing movies of at least moderate quality. And to behonest his flicks always get better ratings than they should which isnot surprising, he is one of the most likable and charismatic actors inHollywood. I always wonder can the actors predict how awful a movie isgoing to be before signing up for it. The answer more and more oftenseems to be they can't. The first question an actor should ask theproducer is how high is the budget then they should really carefullyread the script. The choice between acting in one good movie every twoyears or in three mediocre ones a year should be obvious. But it's not!Arena's budget surprisingly isn't that bad what it lacks most of allwas a good screenplay! And it's the combination of first time directorand inexperienced first time writers that made it a grade B movie.

Elijah Houchins

17 May 2012

I over rated to compensate for the hate.

This film was pure art that most failed to recognize. If you haven'tseen the film yet, I encourage you to watch it before seeing the restmy review because realization will further enrich the film for yourather than me telling you this.The film showed sequences of people watching and making rude commentsat the gory fights which I took as a beautiful mirror that was supposedto show that you were doing the same thing. You may have related to thedisgusted girl or maybe you were more like the casually watchingbusinessman. Or maybe you didn't relate to anyone and the symbol fellon deaf ears. Irregardless, the stage design was great and the effectscomplimented it in how the bad guys used a green screen to generatetheir backdrops. The acting was great and there were few lines. I saythis as a positive since the lines used were poetic and thoughtprovoking(except the college students, although I liked how accurate itwas to reality). The use of silence was supposed to make you feeldisconnected, trapped.I have so much more good to say, but I don't want it to be toodisproportionate to the negative. The story was highly predictablesince I knew how it would end from the very beginning. The characterswere mostly flat, even the main one I would have trouble consideringround.Overall, a good film. I would consider it a guy movie, but that's mygender stereotyping kicking in. If you hate it, so be it. Don't call ita bad movie though, I've seen some pretty bad movies and this onedoesn't even come close to their level. Just don't go into it thinkingyou're about to see the best movie ever, because it has it's faults.Enjoy.

FlashCallahan

17 May 2012

James Remar isnt my dad?

Basically a hybrid of The Running Man, Death Race, Gamer, and bloodsport, all hosted by the friendly, maniacal Jackson on autopilot.The story isn't very good, but it involves someone who was in Twilight,his wife gets killed (who is pregnant), and he kills them all.Take your eyes away from the screen for an instant, and he's soon inthis sort of gladiatorial game where people watching on the web, decideif the assailants get killed or survive.If this guy can survive ten bouts, he's a free man.It's a highly un-original movie, with not many saving graces.The action looks like it's taken from the worst parts of '300', and theacting isn't up to much.The saving grace is Jackson, who despite being on autopilot, is alwayswatchable.Thismovie is pointless, and suffers from the crime of being downrightboring.

davideo-2

16 May 2012

Pretentious, immoral nonsense with easy pay cheque written all over it

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning** Sunday Night * Monday Morning In a futuristic world where people watch and vote for on-line battlesto the death, David Lord (Kellan Lutz) is an all star football playerwho has everything going for him until his beautiful girlfriend iskilled in a car accident. With his reason for living gone, he findshimself drunk and desperate in a Mexican bar, where a chance encounterfinds him thrust into the world of the online fighting, run by thesadistic Logan (Samuel L. Jackson.) As he fights for survival, Lordhatches a cunning plan to break free and bring down Logan's brutalempire.Samuel L. Jackson is certainly one of the more curious of the HollywoodA listers. A late starter on the scene, and certainly not one of theyoung and beautiful crowd now, his name on a poster can still prettymuch guarantee a big box office opening weekend with the rightpublicity and appraisal. He possesses an undeniable charisma and stylethat still makes him distinctive as an actor and meant he was alwaysdestined to make it big one day. Yet, when artistic credibility is notat the top of his agenda, he seems an actor who's willing to sellhimself out for an easy pay cheque on whichever piece of limitedrelease/straight to DVD bunkem that comes along, of which categoryArena falls into quite easily.Aiming for a Running Man style clever satire of the waytelevision/online media is heading, Jonah Loop's utterly style oversubstance offering simply revels in it's own ridiculousness, becomingever more over the top and far fetched as it goes along and seeming tocompensate by way of a load of brutal, nonsensically over the top bloodand gore delivered with a minimum of subtlety or taste. Jackson himselftries his best and tries to inject the hopeless corpse with some of hisflair and delivery, but he really shouldn't have bothered. Lutz islittle more than the average all brawn no charisma clowns Hollywoodseems to pass off as actors these days, while the rest of thesupporting cast just go through the motions as you can with this sortof thing.It would have been one thing if Arena had been a beautiful mess of afilm. As it is, it's just quite a garish and unpleasant one. *

dooleyanthony

15 May 2012

This is one to watch.....ARENA is AWESOME

This is one sick, awesome and brutal film. Enough to keep the gore fansand the Samuel Jackson fans happy. I give it 11 out of 10.It is actionall the way and has a few plot twists that make you go ooooooooh. I wasnot to sure what to expect from this film as I had not heard anythingabout it but I am glad I took the time to watch it (I urge you to dothe same). A life long Samuel Jackson fan I think I would have beenunhappy had I missed out on this film and the vast majority of Arena isnot about him. It has a feeling of Condemned meets Gladiator but its anew twist on it. I guess the only real way to judge a film is to watchit for yourself. Some of the fight scenes could have lasted longer, butwhere they lack in time they make up for in both gore and sheerbrutality.I HOPE YOU ENJOY WATCHING IT AS MUCH AS I DID.

Tony Heck

14 May 2012

Death Race 6...this time with Sam Jackson and no cars. Not a bad movie, but Im getting burnt out on this idea. I say B-.

"What's the one thing we all have in common?...Death." After a tragicaccident leaves his wife dead, David (Lutz) is picked to take part in a"game". This game involves two men fighting to the death. When Davidagrees to do it in exchange for his freedom, the creator (Jackson) hasother plans. My theory of movies lately are that there are no originalideas anymore. Recently it seems like it's either a remake, sequel,comic book or a rehash of a movie that has been done. Counting thismovie, 13 and Freerunner there are now 4 movies released recently thatsteal from "Death Race". While I did see the others first it may haveskewed my judgment but this was much slower then I was expecting. Theplot is...take a guy with no family, force him to fight and kill forhis freedom while the evil creator watches. Very predictable and isreally only worth watching for the fighting and nudity. On the otherhand, why else would you watch this anyway? Overall, not a bad movie,but the plot is starting to get old and over used. That makes it losethe excitement and impact. Because of un-originality I give it a B-.Would I watch again? - Not this one...but again I'm sure next monthanother version will come out.*Also try - Gamer & Death Race 1 & 2

equazcion

14 May 2012

Youve already seen it

Men are forced to fight to the death for an eager internet audience,but the game's most recent recruit may pose a threat to the system withhis unyielding spirit.It's a cliché to even say this sounds familiar, so I won't do that ;)This might've had a chance at being good if it had been made prior toGladiator, Running Man, Gamer, Rollerball, etc. etc. etc. (as then, atleast, the idea behind the whole thing would've been something new).This doesn't seem to make much of an attempt at serving up anythingsignificantly fresh though, except perhaps the effects technology to upthe bar slightly on gore.The topic is the public's tendency to get hooked on sadistic voyeurism,and the people who use that tendency to make money/power. Samuel L.Jackson plays the man taking advantage, and although Samuel is usuallygreat, and I would SO like to say "even Samuel's awesomeness couldn'tsave this film," I actually can't even say that. I found hisperformance here to be somewhat sub-Samuel. His heart just didn't seemin it, and for that I can not blame him too much, as the material justisn't worthy of his efforts.I'm not sure what exactly got Mr. Jackson stuck with this job, but Ihave a feeling it was a reluctant favor to first-time director JonahLoop, who handled visual effects on a couple of Sam's other films.The film progresses somewhat as one would expect, albeit with a littlewindow dressing. I found myself wanting to fast-forward often, which Itook as a bad sign. Cinematography, effects, sound, etc. were onHollywood par though, and everyone else's acting was actually prettygood (perhaps the rookie director was too intimidated by Jackson tooffer him much direction, in comparison). Hopefully, with some betterideas that everyone can actually care about, this director can pull offsome good films in the future.

snivellinggit

14 May 2012

Retardedly awful

The movie was merely okay for the first 20 minutes or so. Totallypredictable and cliché, but watchable. At the point the the maincharacter, who's only claim to fame is being a marine widower kills thekendo master in a katana duel, the movie just got moronic. From theevil villainess's change of heart that would rival the idiocy of theBaroness falling for Duke, to the terrible montage glossing over themore interesting looking fight scenes, the movie robs the viewer of anyentertainment, despite the pornographic violence and the T&A.Sam Jackson knocks it out the park with his contemptuous performance.It's clearly a mailed in effort, which is all this movie deserves.