What was the point again?

Rating: 4/10 (28 September 2008)

This is a movie you can watch if you're your basic teenager dreaming of winning big fights and hot chicks. If not, you can watch it one time and almost enjoy yourself.
The acting is on the level. It's not bad, but it doesn't particularly impress either. What really frustrates is how pathetic the story is. The idea is nice enough. The movie's basic idea is that a guy has been trained to box by his dad. He tends to get into fights, though he tries to avoid it. He winds up in the latest school and decides not to get involved in anything. However, this school has an underground fight club going on, led by a rich kid who is also something of a sadistic sociopath. The main character gets his ass kicked because he's just a traditional boxer. So he goes to train MMA at a gym, owned by a man of principles. In other words, if you train at the gym, you can't fight with strangers.
Anyway the middle bit is just foreplay until the Big Finale where the main character crosses the line and fights the bad guy. What's really sad is how most of the movie keeps parading the "violence isn't the answer" slogan, which is nice, but in the end all problems, and I do mean all, are solved by kicking the baddie's ass. So in the end it ends up depressingly hypocritical. And also pathetic. The movie has the potential to make a good point about violence (and teenagers). And everything else in the movie is just a teenage boy's wet dream: fights and glory, expensive parties and a hot chick.