my thoughts on.... 'The Tournament'

i've said this before, but it's always a pleasure when you find a gem of a movie in the wasteland of straight to DVD junk.... and when this recommendation came along from a friend of mine, i decided to check it out.... i was not disappointed.... as a matter of fact, i watched it twice before i returned it.... that's saying something.... yes, i thought it was that good.... in my opinion, it had really high production values.... almost on par with your theatrical releases.... the action was kick ass.... the story was original.... the acting was fun.... overall a good way to spend an hour and a half....

the storyline goes that every 7 years there's a competition held to find out who's the best hired killer in the world.... they pit 30 hitmen against each other and rich onlookers bet on who they think will win.... sounds pretty simple....? everything is going to plan, when a priest accidentally becomes involved and everyone thinks he's one of the killers too.... it just gets bloody and action packed from there.... actually the whole movie is action packed and the blood is over the top.... lots of blood splatter and explosions, including people.... the whole movie oozes excess.
well, it's pretty obvious that i enjoyed this flick.... i'd love to add it to the DVD collection, as i'd like to watch it again.... Ving Rhames is at his bad ass best.... Kelly Hu (a very underrated action star) is in top form.... and Robert Carlysle plays the drunken priest to the hilt.... the rest of the cast is fairly unknown, but everyone works really well in their roles....

4 out of 5 stars.... well worth the rental from Netflix.... or wherever you can get it from.... i'm sure at some point it'll be OnDemand, but for now.... go and rent it....! if you like bloody over the top action films, this one is for you.... i wish that there were more movies out like this.... a great stress relief and good to the last drop. (of blood).

if you like this, check out: 'Starship Troopers', 'Hard Boiled' and 'Rambo' (2008)