The Tournament (Screamfest Review)
The action genre took a drastic shift toward the visceral side in the 1980’s with films like The Terminator, Aliens, Predator, and Robocop. A new breed of filmmakers were pushing the envelope in terms of how much carnage they could show on the screen – and for the most part were left alone to wallow in their excesses.
2000-2009 is easily been the bloodiest on record, with action movies outdoing most horror films in the grue department. The splatter-action hybrid was created and all bets were off. My jaw dropped when I saw Death Race, Rambo, Punisher: War Zone, Kill Bill, and Death Sentence. This new generation of directors don’t play by anyone’s rules, and I’m sitting back grinning by the shock and awesomeness they bring to the screen.
Every seven years 30 of the world’s deadliest assassins get together for a Tournament in an unsuspected town – the prize –  $10,000,00 cash to the sole survivor and the bragging rights as #1 in the World. The Tournament is setup for high-stake billionaire’s who watch the savagery unfold on CCTV and wager on the outcome. Every assassin has a chip implanted in their body so they can be tracked by the gamblers as well as the other assassins.
Reigning champ Joshua Harlow (Ving Rhames) is brought out of retirement after someone murders his wife and unborn child. He is tipped off that the individual responsible will playing in the current Tournament, and he is hellbent on getting some good old-fashion revenge. One of the assassins tears out his chip and dumps into a pot of coffee, which ends up in the stomach of a innocent Priest (Robert Carlyle) - who must now kill or be killed. Lai Lai Zhen (the gorgeous Kelly Hu) tracks him and is all ready to take him down, but it doesn’t add up, he’s not a contestant. One by one people bite the dust in gruesome fashion, leading to a explosive finale, and piece of mind for Joshua.
Before the screening I had never heard of Scott Mann, well, it’s a name I surely won’t forget. He directs one balls-out action setpiece after another, that never let up the entire film. Even when things start getting crazy when guns are blazing, he never lets a scene get to the point where you can’t see what’s going on. Such a pleasant suprise that he didn’t fall for that cliche’-ridden flashfire editing of today.
Kelly Hu is suprisingly well-written and actually has the most screen time of any of the actors. Robert Carlyle is the most believable padre I’ve seen since Tim Guinee’s performance in John Carpenter’s Vampire$. What the hell can I say about Ving Rhames? This guy has been kicking arse since The People Under The Stairs, and once again shows he’s a master of his craft. The scenes were he talks about the lose of his family are moving and feel real – when you see tears roll down his eyes they seem genuine. Being a newly married man, those scenes struck a chord with me.
The only stumbling blocks are a predictable third act and a heavy-handed finale.
The Weinstein Brothers have once again mishandled a great film that should of seen some sort of Theatrical Release – I’m so tired of them having no faith in their product. The great news is it’s on DVD right now, and I suggest if your a fan of high-adrenaline, machismo-driven action, that is essentially Battle Royale with assassins – then The Tournament is for you!
Rating: 
