Fantastic!

Absolutely Fantastic

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Okay, well I had never imagined that Samuel L. Jackson would be a movie such as this, but here was. And the reason for why he was, I cannot even begin to fathom. But this 2011 movie was a swing and a wide miss, a stinker if you will.The abomination that is supposed to resemble a storyline was so shallow and pointless that it hardly even mattered. A guy who loses his wife and unborn son in accident is kidnapped and brought in to fight in an online death game, where he fight against overwhelming odds.The storyline was so pointless and stupid that the only thing keeping the movie anywhere near afloat is the fight scenes and the overall stupidity of it all as it becomes a farce. And everything is so predictable that even a blind man sees it coming a mile away.As for the acting in the movie, well let's just say don't get your hopes up too high. The actors and actresses had very little to work with in "Arena", and it reflected on the overall movie.I bought this movie because Samuel L. Jackson was in it, but I was sorely disappointed. And I must say that this was a blemish on his track record of movies.In my opinion then I would suggest that you give this 2011 movie a wide berth and pass on it, because it is utterly mindless and not particularly entertaining in any sense.

A mysterious, underground fight promoter known only as Logan (Jackson) stages "Deathgames" in which combatants fight to the death. These bloody mano-a-mano brawls are broadcast over the internet and apparently everyone from office workers in Hong Kong to unlikable and annoying frat boys in America find Logan's product wildly appealing. When one of Logan's workers named Milla (Winter) kidnaps ex-Marine and current paramedic David Lord (Lutz) and forces him to fight for his freedom, at first Lord resists. But then Logan offers the deal that if Lord wins ten deathfights to the death, he can go, and not die. Meanwhile, he's kept in a cell far from the prying eyes of the outside world. It's there he befriends Taiga (Dae Kim), who is in a similar situation as him, but his final match will be against an executioner-type-guy known as Kaden (Messner). Will David Lord be the Lord of the underground internet deathfight circuit? Arena starts off on a bad foot right from the get-go and never recovers. It's almost like an athlete who's so pumped up that he got the ball, he fumbles immediately, and feels so much pressure to recover and make up time, he sabotages himself and can never really keep up. Right in the first few minutes, we're subjected to CGI-based fights, super-irritating frat characters that we only see from one angle as they watch their precious deathfights, and we discover, to our dismay, that our main hero, the guy we're all supposed to get behind, is a man named Kellan Lutz. Or possibly Kip Pardue, we're not really sure. Be it Kip, Kellan or Kaden, whatever, you know how it's said that couples that have been together a long time start to resemble each other, or in longtime human-pet relationships, the two start to look alike? Well, it's pretty clear Mr. Lutz has been admiring the Ryan Phillippe poster over his bed for a bit too long. If there's anyone out there who has seen every Ryan Phillippe movie ever made, it's him. While modeling your acting style and career on Ryan Phillippe might not be the world's best decision, if his goal was to be indistinguishable from him, he achieved it.The massive vacuum where a scintilla of originality might have lived is one of the more glaring problems here. This is just another stupid, mindless fighting movie that adds nothing to an already-crowded marketplace. It's filled with cliché-ridden dialogue and plot developments. Its lack of originality is even evident in its title. There are already multiple movies that exist called Arena, but apparently that didn't bother anyone involved. It's almost like they were trying to telegraph this movie's superfluity to any potential renters. (God forbid there be buyers). Okay, we don't expect total originality here, or anywhere, really, but honestly. The only dialogue we liked was the fact that the name "David Lord" was said like a thousand times throughout the course of the movie. It became funny, in a Malone or Brakus kind of way. If that's the name you're super-proud of, and not much else, there's a problem.OK, we know what you're thinking, because we were thinking it too: why in God's name is Samuel L. Jackson in this piece of crud? The only answer we can come up with is that he's a professional actor, and he likes to work. In Arena, he's a Black guy with a large underground command center, just like Keith David in Executive Target (1997). But this movie is just a knockoff of Gamer (2009) and Fatal Combat (1995) in just about every respect, so as noted previously, originality was clearly one of the first things on the executioner's chopping block. Speaking of which, Kaden as the executioner character, rather than be intimidating, is far more reminiscent of early-2000's game show character The Quizmaster from the show Inquisition. You think at any moment he's going to ask David Lord to recite the names of the Great Lakes.So we covered the childish, derivative dialogue and plot (a character even says "finish him" at one point, clearly ripping off Mortal Kombat), but the movie never explains why they put so much time and effort into getting this random guy, David Lord, to fight. Then they put him in a cell with a bunch of annoying lights and sounds, meant to break down his spirit. It ended up having the same effect on the audience. Then the brainless frat boys use their iPads and iPhones to bet on the fights. And did we mention Kellan is shirtless for about 90% of the movie? But we always try to see the positive, so on that score we applaud the fact that you can actually see most of the fights and there aren't a ton of eye-singing quick-cuts. But on the whole this movie is lame. It would have helped if they got someone good to be the hero, like a Dolph, Scott Adkins or Gary Daniels, but even if they touched Arena with a ten foot fighting pole, it would still be what it essentially is, sadly enough.The important thing to remember is that Kellan Lutz is not, we repeat, not Ryan Phillippe. Aside from that, Arena embodies almost everything that's bad about modern-day DTV "action" movies.

Yes, this is bad.A man loses his wife, starts drinking, gets into a barfight, gets kidnapped and is forced to perform on an internet reality death show. This is a show which apparently everyone (at least all the college idiots and some Japanese office workers who are constantly shoved on your face) is paying to watch all over the world AND NOBODY CAN FIGURE OUT WHO'S RESPONSIBLE, WHERE THEY DO IT AND WHERE THE MONEY GOES.There is a lot of forced plot elements, a lot of crappy music, a lot of horrible characters but also a lot of nice violence and gore. Most of the fights are not that bad, I'll give it that. Also, some tits and ass. That's what you get from this movie: James Bond villains, some nice bloody fights and tits. Samuel L. Jackson is the main villain operating the show. He's got to choose his movies more carefully. He's actually not that bad, considering how bad the script is. He's also got a couple of Asian latex babes as pets/workers, who wave their hands on a touch-pad control panel like idiots (I hate that, I really do, in almost every movie where some advanced tech is shoved in) when they're not performing lesbian acts or relaxing on a swing. Kellan Lutz...well, his physique is fine, and he doesn't suck all the time. But then, Maria Winter! She plays the most disgusting character in the whole movie. She kidnaps people (and sometimes their relatives for extortion purposes) to perform on the show. In this movie, she's very Kristen Stewart-like with her appearance as well as her acting, and you can see her tits in 5 scenes (if I counted right), ass in four scenes and pubes in one. As you probably guessed, much of that nudity is just for the sake of nudity and nothing else. Funny part is, she suddenly develops a conscience and falls in love with our hero. And of course our hero falls for it. That's just sickening. This is the woman who kidnapped you and many others, taunted your dead wife and is overall a smug bitch. The love interest between her and the main character is so forced I wanted to puke in my mouth and hit myself in the head with pointy rocks. Of course she's the only bad guy who gets a free pass in the end. If you have boobs, your past crimes mean nothing. I hate this movie. It's not only bad, but I'm also offended for some reason. I had to take breaks so I could watch it all the way to the end. This movie belongs to the bad movie category that I hate. Not the "so bad that It's hilarious" kind, but "so bad that it makes your life permanently worse for having seen it" kind. It actually tries to be serious. Yes, this movie takes itself seriously. Give this concept to C-movie makers along with a 100 dollar budget and they will do a better job.And oh yeah, there's a twist in the end! A TWIST. Imagine that.

I rarely watch a movie of this type but I have seen the martial arts movies of the past. Kellan Lutz was in the movie as the focal character and did justice to his part. Not only is he gorgeous but he is a fairly decent actor who is highly underrated. I see no problem that Samuel L. Jackson was in the movie. The part was tailor-maid for him. No the story wasn't unique but an idea is an idea and this one wasn't the same as others, just the overall idea.Kellan Lutz plays an agent for the government who has gone through a tragedy. His cover was blown and because of this his wife and unborn child are killed in a planned car accident. He becomes bitter but can't take his own life. He is the perfect person to send in undercover to a fight ring because they haven't been able to locate them or get rid of their presence on the net. Their technology and ability to keep officials at bay is astounding. Two Asian women are behind the computer technology along with Mr. Jackson.People are surprised Jackson was in the movie but I'm not because acting is his job and the movie would be seen and make money. It is pretty much a guy flick and full of blood and guts and gratuitous sex which is actually done quite tastefully even with the nudity it only alludes to the actual act for the most part. There is only one graphic scene where Lutz and the young woman who captured him are engaged in love making, which is briefly shown.David Lord the undercover name for Kellan Lutz goes there initially to help break up the group but gets involved over time in a vendetta against the one they call the Executioner. I won't give away any more but the ending is what one would expect but as someone else said leaves an opening for a sequel. It's a decent movie for its genre and if you aren't looking for academy award fare, this will while away a little time.