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28 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
A pleasant surprise - 7.5 stars, 30 September 2008
8/10
Author: Lucretius660 from United States

There are several things to like about this movie, but I will place the bulk of my praise where it belongs: Rebecca Neuenswander. Without her, I doubt the movie would have been nearly as good. I read that Rebecca is a martial artist, and I believe it. You see in the movie that she is athletic; she moves like a fighter. Not only that, she is a fine actress as well. Exactly the qualities needed for the role of Katherine (and hence the movie). If Rebecca wants it, she has a career waiting for her as an action star.

This is an enjoyable picture, much more than I expected going in. The fight scenes are good, only slightly uneven in places. Story, character development, fine acting, they are all there. For a low-budget film trying to do something a little different, I think it turned out well. Definitely worth seeing.

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9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
call it "Female Rocky", 26 April 2009
8/10
Author: rock_cool from India

Definitely better than 5.5 it has got now. definitely not among the finest action / sports movies ever made, but in summary i called it "Female Rocky" well watch it and decide whether i am wrong or not.

It has got all a catchy story, whole lot of drama and pretty good action sequences but above all it has got good acting performances and screenplay which is definitely missing in recent action movies. performance of Chad Ortis and Rebecca Neuenswander is mind blowing and it is the face expressions that made it that good.

Also hats off to Jonathan Dillon the director for completely capturing the situations perfectly and to Ian Shorr the writer for adding situational drama in the movie, it ended as an romantic movie after being a complete action drama but still no points should be deducted for that as it made the end feel good.

summary of all above mentioned points it is 8/10 movie and one should not miss it. definitely watchable once or more

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12 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Not bad but not good, 12 September 2008
4/10
Author: refdan from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This independent low budget drama gets good ratings for the characterization and plot. Even though it is a typical boxing movie cliché, there are enough twists to make it seem somewhat fresh and original.

The story follows the adventurers of Dublin, a crooked boxing promoter who travels from town to town setting up underground fights and sometimes trying to fix them. He meets a female fighter, Katharine, who appears to be homeless but who can fight and defeat men twice her size. The two eventually team up, but Dublin's somewhat sleazy past catches up with them, causing conflict, pain, and emotional distress for both.

I enjoy all types of fighting (the real kind) and consequently, I find myself being somewhat critical of film fight scenes, particularly when they involve obvious mismatches. The notion of a 135 lb woman fighting bare-knuckle with much larger, ostensibly experienced fighters and winning by KO consistently is just too much for me to willingly suspend my disbelief. The fight scenes are poorly shot, primarily because there are no stunt people and the principal actors do their own "fighting." The fight theme and fight scenes are central to the film and they are just not well done. I realize that corners have to be cut somewhere in a limited budget film, but this was not the right place to do so.

The ending was just too sappy for me and I was disappointed that the writer couldn't avoid the Hollywood style happiness and give us a real surprise for a change.

If you enjoy the "Underdog overcomes all obstacles" type movie, then you may like this film, but I have to say I wasn't all that impressed.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Its all about the girl, 28 April 2009
6/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Boxing promoter in the underground fight game runs across a young woman with the power and ability to take out men twice her size. Hooking up they begin to make inroads into the fight game until the past and emotions begin to spin everything sideways. This fight drama is an okay little film. Its flashy low budget and independent attempts to spice things up (there are distracting titles as to places and times-how many times is it New Years Eve?) never really amount to very much. This is a run of the mill little film who?s dreams out distance its reach.

Normally I?d stop there and say that its worth seeing if you run across it but you didn't have to search it out. This time however I'm going to do something different and say that if you want to see a really good performance and what is sure to be an early performance by someone who is sure to be a big actress see this film. Rebecca Neuenswander who plays Katherine Parker, the fighter, is amazing. She gives a performance that is assured and radiant (even when she?s getting punched in the face). She is haunting in away that few actresses are. In all honesty I was ready to give up on this film early on but then there was this small young girl beating the snot out of this much bigger guy in an alley and I was hooked. Talk about making an entrance. Amazing. She has a fantastic screen presence something very few actresses, even established ones have. If she is can continue to get interesting roles and hopefully something that will get her noticed I think she?ll be huge. Then again if she can be arresting with this mediocre script odds are she?ll be able to make her own luck. She is an actress to watch. See this for Rebecca so that in five years you can say you saw her when...

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Real dirty fight flick., 18 April 2009
8/10
Author: Michael O'Keefe from Muskogee OK

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

MILLION DOLLAR BABY is a pantywaist compared to RIGGED. As good as that acclaimed movie is, RIGGED is just as real and powerful as FIGHT CLUB. And Rebecca Neuenswander is a knockout. FIGHT NIGHT is about the underground boxing circuit...from Dalhart, Texas to Tulsa, Oklahoma and Kansas City, Missouri to Miami, Florida. Michael Dublin(Chad Ortis)is a full-time con man, a product of the circuit traveling from town to town with one scam to another. You have to get in line to get a piece of him...enemies outnumber his friends. Dublin comes across the best scam of his career when he meets Katherine Parker(Neuenswander), a female bare-knuckled fighter that possess more skills than any man twice her size. Dublin and Katherine hit the road with what he calls 'fight-rigging, in-reverse'. Every abandoned warehouse, country fair and seedy basement bar seems more and more like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Dublin's extra shady past was meant to catch up with him as the stakes get higher and danger is just a left jab away. Even the relationship between Katherine and 'Dub' travels to an unexpected place.

Brutal violence and strong language star equally in this hard punching drama. Others in the cast: Kurt Hanover, David Alan Graf, DeeDee Arps and John Wilson.

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7 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Worth watching definitely!, 15 November 2008
8/10
Author: ghostlander from Europe

The story line of this film is about underground boxing. Rebecca Neuenswander acts as a Katherine Parker, a young but promising fighter. Another key character is Michael Dublin (Chad Ortis), a young but experienced promoter. Not a hard guess that this couple has to get through this film in some interesting way.

All right, let me tell you what you won't see in this low budget project. There are no outstanding special effects, no expensive decorations, no catching breath stunts. At the same time, keep in mind that this film isn't just about fights for money, though Rebecca has done an excellent action job while standing against and knocking out numerous tough guys (a matter of taste and fighting experience whether you buy this or not, but I wouldn't say it's impossible totally). First of all, this film is about real life, real relationships and that bitter feeling when you've got nothing to lose, really nothing...

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A risk worth taking, 30 April 2009
7/10
Author: frogsupmyarse

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

When you sit down to watch this movie you know your taking a risk, your gut tells you there's so much that could go wrong with this film even before you start watching.

The plot is essentially the traditional boxing story with a twist, the underdog in this case Katherine Parker who is played by first time actor Rebecca Neuenswander whom similar to her on screen persona has the odds stacked against her here as she attempts to convince us that the good looking girl can punch above her weight. The film starts out on shaky ground you feel it just wants to get its prize fighter on screen as soon as possible but this is justified as Neuenswander puts in a performance that defies her c.v. and shows flash's in her work that with the right direction could see her going on to bigger projects. Guiding Katherine Parker through the seedy underworld of illegal boxing is her fast talking manager Michael Dublin played by Chad Ortis, Dublin as he is commonly referred to is portrayed in a convincing performance as desperate and morally bankrupt individual with underlying currents of self loathing about the man he is and fear about the man he might become.

The action scenes come thick and fast as Parkers rise to notoriety gathers momentum. It is in these scenes the obvious physical limitations of Neuenswander's character facing her sizable opponents might raise the first doubt you have about her ability to beat her burley opposition but upon reflection i guess thats what an underdog does, he or she defies the odds to succeed and is a good metaphor for what this film is, it defies the odds and surprises you, it makes you think not to be a movie snob and avoid something just because you don't know the actors because sometimes taking a risk pays off.

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