Raze (2013)

Powerful

Masterful Movie

Crappy film

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

So obviously i am not a professional critic and nor do i possess the intelligence and knowledge to put a successful film out there. My first red flag was how immediately bored i was after 30 seconds of the first scene and my disappointment after i was to find that this boredom would not disappear. The second red flag for me was the absolute lack of depth and story. This made the so called "emotional scenes" not at all emotional and any sort of empathy was lost as well as a disconnection to the character from the audience point of view. The third was the script writing. Which for me was very basic and gave me the feeling i was watching a university students final exam. The character "Tracie" was highly annoying to me as well... just thought id throw that in.The story itself is rather predictable and unsubtle. SPOILER Im talking mainly about Sabrinas last fight and her Supposed death which was not only incredibly unsubtle but for me a little "naph". Lastly the ending was, for me anticlimactic and disappointing.So why am i so disappointed? The story/plot and setting had some serious potential. It was just executed so awfully. HOWEVER Credit where credit is due, the acting from the cast is extremely powerful. Rebecca Marshal did a particularly impressive job as well as Zoe Bell being an extremely pleasant surprise considering shes a stunt-woman rather than an actress. The fight choreography was entertaining enough. I love a good fight however for me this seemed to be all the film is. And again lacked depth. The soundtrack suited well to the situation on screen and gave what i believe to be the desired effect.My girlfriend enjoyed it so i got some peace out of her for a bit.Three stars for the acting and choreography. Otherwise totally categorically awful.

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.

RAZE is a terrible 'tournament fight' style movie in which an all-female group of fighters are forced to battle to the death in various one-on-one bouts, all for the pleasure of the viewing public. The whole film looks like it was shot on a shoestring budget and 90% of the running time consists of various undistinguished actresses thumping the hell out of each other in various badly-choreographed fight scenes.The erstwhile heroine of the piece is stuntwoman-turned-actress Zoe Bell (DEATH PROOF), who gives the singularly most wooden lead performance I can remember in a while. The entirety of her acting in this film consists of her jutting her jaw out and looking peed off, which I guess she achieves. Still, none of the other female cast members are any good, and you have to pity poor Doug Jones (PAN'S LABYRINTH) in a stock role as the bad guy. Watch out for an unrecognisable Sherilynn Fenn, one-time glamorous starlet of the early 1990s.I'm a huge fan of action movies in general but the fights here are pitifully done and generally uninteresting. There's a strong air of sadism in the air here with an almost torture porn vibe going on in regards to the brutality, but it doesn't make for a disturbing viewing experience - just a boring one. Listening to the dialogue scenes in which the fighters go into their life stories is even more excruciating than the relentless fights...

Technically, the film was made very well; that is, the acting of the female combatants, the host and hostess, the lead guard, but the overwhelming carnage is difficult to witness, and I nearly quit watching more than once, but I felt that ultimately there must be a balance to the plot line, so I held out for it. I wasn't completely disappointed in the end, but was disappointed nevertheless.This is a tragic film, with excessive violence and graphic human destruction of other humans, specifically woman vs. woman. All of the women are quite fetching, which adds to the subtlety of the lure for the viewer. The sadists and sadomasochists among us will love it, but the majority of the rest of us will find it quite difficult, even painful, to witness in its entirety. If and when you do complete that feat, it will likely fail to provide the kind of satisfaction that a memorable film will accomplish. If an "x" rating could ever be applied to a non sexual themed film, this one would certainly qualify for that rating.I will try not to spoil this for anyone, but I felt that I must check the spoiler box because I felt that my critique must include at least some mention about the ending, which essentially made this a completely and utterly tragic film. I suppose the final scene completes the consistent theme of complete domination and control by a demented group of sadistic entrepreneurs over a selected group of mostly normal, alluring kick-boxing women--- but the depths of degradation and dehumanization achieved in this film has truly set a new benchmark for this macabre genre. To gather a group of employees together to support such an enterprise as the film suggests seems reminiscent of the mechanism supporting the dark historic reality of the third Reich of Nazi Germany, compacted into a much smaller sphere of tragedy and despair, with the added element of hostage threatening and the ultimate degradation that a profitable commercial enterprise underpinned the entire premise of the story. Is this the nadir of tragedy??