The Tournament (2009)

Director:

Scott Mann

Writers:

Gary Young (written by) &
Jonathan Frank (written by) ...

Release Date:

8 October 2009 (Kuwait)

Genre:

Action

Tagline:

Every Ten Years The World's Greatest Assassins Gather ... Only One Will Survive

Plot:

Every seven years in an unsuspecting town, The Tournament takes place. A battle royale between 30 of the world's deadliest assassins...

Plot Keywords:

Assassin | Tournament | Time Limit | Looking At Self In The Mirror | Gash In The Face

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Robert Carlyle	...	Joseph MacAvoy
Kelly Hu	...	Lai Lai Zhen
Ian Somerhalder	...	Miles Slade
Liam Cunningham	...	Powers
Ving Rhames	...	Joshua Harlow
Sebastien Foucan	...	Anton Bogart
Craig Conway	...	Steve Tomko
John Lynch	...	Gene Walker
Nick Rowntree	...	Eddy Cusack
Rachel Grant	...	Lina Sofia
Andy Nyman	...	Tech Eddie
Iddo Goldberg	...	Tech Rob
Scott Adkins	...	Yuri Petrov
Camilla Power	...	Sarah Hunter
Tamika Cameran	...	Joshua's Wife

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language and some nudity.

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #45537) | Germany:Not Rated (SPIO/JK)

Filming Locations:

Bulgaria

Company:

Buzzfilms

Goofs:

Continuity: When Lai Lai opens the suitcase and holds up the 9PM there is a close up of her hand. Then the next shot is of her turning off the shower, with a noticeably very different hand.

Quotes:

Gene Walker: What's the matter, Mr. Harlow? Are you out of bullets? Why, here, have some of mine!
[opens fire]

Soundtrack:

Get Freaky With Me

Violent, predictable and pretentious but may entertain certain individuals

I am no sure what the budget for the film was but obviously the producers are making cuts due to the hard pressed economy. Much of the shots are done in Bulgaria. I imagine it is much cheaper to block off one of the two Bulgarian national highways to shoot the night car/truck/bus chase scene than blocking off Interstate 5 in L.A., for example. Much of the production crew is also Bulgarian which, I imagine, helps create jobs in the small Balkan country.

Besides this trivia, I gave the flick 3 because it joins the adamant insistence of people in the movie-making business that action films will please the audience only if they are gory, unnecessarily gory, and add more gore on top of that.

Language. The F-amous and F-abulous F word is well exploited to beef up the dialog. Nothing new. Also, I wonder when are they going to start using the name of Buddha as a curse word in those Hollywood and quasi-Hollywood productions!? No surprises in this respect, too.

If the script was not so blandly predictable and setting us up for the "gore experience" I could have given the film a 5 star rating. The chases are well filmed, the acting is reasonably good and there is a level of surprise in the ending. Surprise, that is, if you did not pay attention during the movie. The blowing up of humans and the rest of the violence actually take away from enjoying the fast pace of the film, if flying body parts are not in your taste for action entertainment.

Not surprisingly character development is also imperfect, shall we say? The Lai Lai Zhen character represents the ever present noble chick, turned bad, because bad people made her do it. She is one of the top assassins, and believe it or not, ends up having a heart of gold - inappropriate take compared with the rest of the intentions of the movie-makers and the tone of the movie. Joshua Harlow (Ving Rhames), the #1 world assassin also has a soft, tender heart. When he is not murdering, blowing up and hacking people he is a family man. The attempt at drama within and after the massive massacre was entirely, I think out of place. They should have stuck with the senseless killings. Stay with what you're good at.