This could have been a really great action/thriller. It has a very solid storyline and some decent action and fight scenes but the film's laughable, cheap special effects and gore are too great a flaws. Also, Ving Rhames is terribly miscasted here. He's a good enough actor and all, and has played some tough guy roles pretty well. (Think Melvin in Baby Boy 2001 or Diamond Dog in 1997's Con Air.) However, being the world's deadliest, kick-ass, assassin? I'm not buying it. And it shows too. While everyone else's fight sequences are fast and brutal, most of Rhames' scenes are staged so that he has to do very little fighting.
The idea of a killing tournament where the filthy rich bet millions on contestants as if they were dogs on a racetrack, in itself, is anything but new. The films 13 (2010), The Condemned (2007), and even 2001's Rat Race and the Death Race franchise have already covered this plot. What makes The Tournament fresh is the subplot where a priest (Robert Carlyle) struggling with alcoholism accidentally gets tangled up in the tournament, and as a result, becomes a contestant against his will. But he's fortunate enough to win over the help of our co-star Kelly Hu as deadly female assassin Lai Lai Zhen. Seeing whether or not Lai Lai Zhen will make it to the end, with the priest as her extra baggage, is the highlight of the film.
The two plot twists at the very end of the movie are pretty obvious early on. Otherwise, the story is quite entertaining. So I would say it's definitely worth a look. Just prepare yourself for needless gore galore.
The idea of a killing tournament where the filthy rich bet millions on contestants as if they were dogs on a racetrack, in itself, is anything but new. The films 13 (2010), The Condemned (2007), and even 2001's Rat Race and the Death Race franchise have already covered this plot. What makes The Tournament fresh is the subplot where a priest (Robert Carlyle) struggling with alcoholism accidentally gets tangled up in the tournament, and as a result, becomes a contestant against his will. But he's fortunate enough to win over the help of our co-star Kelly Hu as deadly female assassin Lai Lai Zhen. Seeing whether or not Lai Lai Zhen will make it to the end, with the priest as her extra baggage, is the highlight of the film.
The two plot twists at the very end of the movie are pretty obvious early on. Otherwise, the story is quite entertaining. So I would say it's definitely worth a look. Just prepare yourself for needless gore galore.