MMA fighters in movies

[GeneChing]

I'm predicting that there are going to be more of these and that most of them will not be that good. So I'm going to start compiling them here. I'm thinking more about direct-to-DVD flicks, like the one I'm going to start out with, than stuff like Redbelt, Never Back Down and Fighting. I'm thinking more like Honor with Rowdy Roddy Piper, Rener and Rorian Gracie, which I could have swore I reviewed here, but now can't find it.

So here's my first one: Confessions of a Pit Fighter starring Armand Assante and Flavor Flav. Amongst the fighters are Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Hector Echavarria and Rigan & Jigan Machado. Skip it. It's a stereotypical reluctant fighter tale, something we've seen a thousand times already. I like Rampage. I saw him on a late night interview and I thought he had the charisma for film, not to mention the chains (which strikes me as very WWE). But in this film, he's reduced to a growling villain. The fight choreography is a throwback to old bad John Wayne/Chuck Norris style fights - big haymakers, spinning kicks that take half and hour to wind up, the action is cut at every blow. Lame. I didn't even notice the other fighters much until just now as I read the DVD box.

[Cimaroon]

Flavor Flav......geez, thats enough to not make me wanna see it.

[GeneChing]

According to Cung "I wouldn’t classify this as an MMA movie at all. It’s would be more like a mix of LIONHEART and FIGHT CLUB." (see Cung Le Stars in FIGHTING) Still, Cung is an MMA champ, so mention of Fighting is still appropo to this thread...

That being said, check out our new sweepstakes for the latest from Hector Echavarria - Never Surrender. Never Surrender stars MMA champions Georges RUSH St-Pierre, Quinton RAMPAGE Jackson, Anderson THE SPIDER Silva and BJ THE PRODIGY Penn. Brought to you courtesy of the good people at Lionsgate. Contest ends 6:00 p.m. PST on 5/12/09. Good luck everyone!

I'll post a review of Honor if I can remember it...

[GreenCloudCLF]

I read an article I can no longer find that said Rampage was up for the roll of BA Baracus in an A-Team movie. However, this was before he went temporarily insane (which everyone seems to have forgotten), so I do not know if he is still up for it.

[doug maverick]

I read an article I can no longer find that said Rampage was up for the roll of BA Baracus in an A-Team movie. However, this was before he went temporarily insane (which everyone seems to have forgotten), so I do not know if he is still up for it.

that article was pure bull****. i know who is on the list for ba and it isnt a mma guy. well one of them is but he is at the bottom, cant say who thou. its not rampage thou.

[GeneChing]

...come on now, give us a hint. Who's gonna be B.A.? Because the success of that remake will hinge completely on who plays B.A.

I love it when a plan comes together.

[AdrianK]

I pity da fool who tries to be B.A.


... Oh come on, you knew it was coming.

[@PLUGO]

Rampage in Costume as B.A. Baracus

thoughts?

[Jimbo]

Well, it's got its own thread but I'll name it again, Blood and Bone. The fighters that appear include Bob Sapp, Kimbo Slice, and Gina Carano (in a cameo). Unlike most straight-to-DVD MA movies, this one's awesome.

[GeneChing]

...we'll have to start an A Team thread soon...

[Jimbo]

Hey Gene,
I don't know if this is the right thread for this, but I figured I'd rather not waste space starting a new thread. Have you heard anything about a film called, simply, "Fighter"? I recently spotted this one. Reading the back cover, it's apparently about a young Turkish woman who wants to become a pro(?) martial arts fighter in a man's world, also having to deal with it being at odds with her culture. I think there were (foreign?) film award accolades on the back cover as well. I know nothing else about this, or whether it lives up to the hype or not. The guy who's listed as playing her kung fu teacher is Xian Gao (sp?), from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

[GeneChing]

Fighter with Gao Xian
I haven't seen it yet, but I hear it's enjoyable.

[Jimbo]

Thanks, Gene.
It's not the typical straight-to-DVD 'cheapie', as it was listed at full price, $19.99. Looks like it'll be on the list.

[Jimbo]

I just watched Godzilla: Final Wars. It's not a good film, but I actually enjoyed it in a guilty pleasure kinda way. It's one of those "so bad it's good" movies. As far as MMA fighters, Don Frye has a fair-sized role, and Gary Goodridge, Masakatsu Funaki, and K-1 fighter Ray Sefo had brief cameos. Don Frye is the only one of them who actually has a fight scene, but only briefly. His character doesn't have much personality (unlike how he appears in real life), but he is given a couple classic action movie moments: one or two straight-faced one-liners.

[GeneChing]

I couldn't find a place to post this. If it turns into anything, perhaps I'll remember this and move it to a new thread of it's own.

Clarke writes martial arts film
Friday, 8 July 2011

Noel Clarke would like to make a British equivalent to The Fighter

Noel Clarke has revealed he would like to make a film about mixed martial arts (MMA) and has already written the script.

The Adulthood director-actor wants to follow in the footsteps of successful Hollywood films such as The Fighter and The Wrestler, but with a British version.

"I looked at films like The Wrestler and The Fighter and thought to myself, 'Why hasn't there been a British film like that?' I'm trying to expand what British films do," he told Screen Daily.

Noel continued: "I've been a massive fan of the sport for a long time and this felt like the right time to make this film, as I've got more confident as a filmmaker. MMA is more popular than football when you look at the attendance figures. It's the fastest growing sport in the world."

The untitled film will focus on a "down on his luck MMA fighter who gets drawn further into the sport than he would have liked".

The 35-year-old revealed on Twitter that the script has already been written: "It's written already, been through loads of drafts and should be shooting in a few months."

Noel has co-written a romantic comedy with Davie Fairbanks called The Knot, due out in 2012, and said he was also working on a "sci-fi horror".