Raze (2013)

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

If someone likes movies that are dark and gritty this could be for you. I saw the description about women that fight to the death and was immediately interested.What may not be immediately obvious though is that this movie also goes into care with the fight scenes. I even think it looks way more realistic then most if not all fight scenes I have seen, which is fantastic. They sound better too.The angles and directing I admired too. Things like the angle something looks while covered in blood can have a chilling affect. I enjoyed this movie visually.The acting and writing I found fantastic as well.

How many times did Sabrina turn her back on an adversary before she had finished them off??? Obviously, this movie relied solely on the violence and revenge angle for entertainment, so why didn't they have some contestants refuse to fight so we could see their family members being killed or tortured? Why didn't the writers have Sabrina kill all the guests at the end? Why didn't the guests flee when they saw the 2 guards being killed? Why did Sabrina throw her guns away while, once again, turning her back. I guess the writers were stunt men because they "wrote what they know" leaving out plot and even logic from the movie. Rachel Nickels' salary must have taken up 90% of the budget. Know why she got killed off at the beginning? Because she begged the director to get her out of this movie as fast as possible. And what's the big deal about Zoe Bell? Wow, she's a stunt woman but they didn't have her doing anything special in this movie, no ingenious kills or fantastic Olympian moves, she's surely not eye candy except for her silicone work. I would have given another star if there had been some clothes being torn off or someone had expertly executed some t***y twisters. What a horrible predictable movie except the one pleasant exception when Zoe got killed at the end, which I cheered. And finally, the movie broke one of my rules for movies - there must be at least one likable character. I didn't cover all my pet peeves about the movie because life is too short to spend too much time on a time waster. If you must must watch this movie, watch the beginning set-up then skip to the last 10 minutes, you won't have missing anything.

This was a great action/horror flick with excellent acting and many touching scenes as well as some gruesome ones. The characters bring you inside them and you feel the psychological torture that precedes the physical one. Each fight scene is unique and the dialogue is superbly crafted. You can feel the female touch in the making of this movie as the actors are not presented as titillation but as human beings undergoing the most extreme situation. I wish there was more elaboration on the purpose of the cult. It reminded me a bit of the atmosphere of Martyrs, bringing that sense of intrigue and shock. I would definitely see a sequel.

Gender twist on a familiar plot. Women are abducted and forced to fight each other to the death for the amusement of rich people. Rachel Nichols gets the Janet Leigh treatment, introduced as if she were the star but killed off very early. The real star is Zoë Bell, who's reunited with her Deathproof costars Tracie Thoms and Rosario Dawson (the latter of which is supposed to be a surprise but IMDb's trivia section spoiled it for me). Bell, for those who don't know, is an accomplished stuntwoman who's done surprisingly well when given acting jobs up until now. Here, however, I'll just say that as an actress Zoë makes a great stuntwoman. When it comes to squinting her way through action scenes, she's a regular Clint Eastwood. The rest of the time she's pretty weak. Rebecca Marshall chews scenery as the fighter who likes killing. Doug Jones and Sherilyn Fenn are the bad guys but they're sadly given little to work with. The fight scenes are brutal and bloody. I won't compliment them for their choreography as they aren't staged to be dramatic but to be realistic. How is that entertaining? I'll take Lionheart over this nauseating mess. Depressing ending is the cherry on top of the crap sundae.