Hey folks, Valkor here. And I welcome you to TOV's "30 in 30", where I'll review 30 unique film and maybe some not so unique, all in 30 days. What's cool for most of the flicks, is that I know nothing about em. So this should be a real treat not just for you guys, but for me as well. Good or bad, this is gonna be a fun month. It all starts today July the 4th and ends on Aug the 3rd. Can I make it through? We'll know soon enough!
Film number eight takes us back into the ring, only this time the end results won't be the same as Undisputed III. I bring you "Bare Knuckles".
Bare Knuckles stars Jeanette Roxborough as Samantha – single mom/bartender/stunt woman. While on her bartender job, she's gets into a tussle with one of the patrons. Though the skirmish is immediately settled; her skills catches the eye of Sonny (Martin Kove). He approaches Samantha and asks her to be his fighter, in an elite women's fighting tournament, where she can win lots of money. She agrees and easily gets the pass. And even her first few matches are pushovers. But now Samantha has caught the gaze of one Nedish (Louis Mandylor) who thinks Sam has the stuff to be in the ultimate bout "The Show" (which comes with major prize money). Sonny does his best to pull Sam away from Nedish, but the thought of all that money, keeps Samantha in the game. And in her first confrontation in "The Show", her first competitor, Mona (Bridgett Riley) proves to be too much for her and Sam is defeated, ultimately giving up on the whole fight scene. But you can't keep a good fighter down as Sonny re-enters her life, convincing Sam she can win at "The Show" and of course the thought again of all that money draws Sam back into the ring, only this time they get the help of one Al (Chris Mulkey), a rugged trainer. And Flame (Spice Williams-Crosby), a fighting agent who also acts as trainer and inspiration. Together they'll reenter the ultimate tournament for a huge cash prize of 500,000 but there's only one catch – the fighters have to duke it out with bare knuckles. Cutting right to the chase, of the 16 fighters entered, only two remain – Samantha and Mona.
And if you said "I saw that coming" then you have only touched on what I felt and said as I watched this horrendous tripe of a film.
The Good:
N/A
The Bad:
Oh man, I don't even know where even to begin breaking this down. First off most of the actors are either stunt performers and bit TV actors; but none of the skill carries over to this film. And in all honestly, I thought this was a film full of porn stars by the way everyone looked and acted. Not only that but the glittery font used for the main title, also the hot pink font in the opening credits, and even the music screams porno… but not a drop of sex to be found, which would have definitely give the score a good boost. The fight sequences were crazy weak; slow, poorly choreographed, and some of the punches were more like love taps… literally! Some of the fighting picks up towards the end, but it's like too little too late. Finally, there's a lot of convincing going on – Sonny convinces Sam, Nedish Convinces Sam, Flame convinces Sam; and I'm talkin easily convinced. Take Al and Sonny's scene, where Sonny tries to convince Al to train Sam. The dude is adamant about not training her one second, but in the next he's like "ok, I'll do it". Didn't take much, did it? He didn't even put up a fight. The same thing happens when both Sonny and Al work on Flame to bring her into the mix. UGH!
The Ugly:
I think we covered everything in the bad section. No need to throw salt on the wounds.
Bare Knuckles is an uninspired, uninteresting, and a total fail of a film on every level. If you should happen to come across this title, you've been warned by the Val-Man – just steer clear of this one. It's totally not worth it! And out of TOV 5 stars, I give Bare Knuckle 0 stars.