Beyond The Ring (2008)

Too much of everything

Excellent but underrated film

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Too much fake touchy feely stuff including lots of lame flashback scenes, horrible acting (Lima and the son are just pathetic) a plot that is boring, predictable and all around lame, terrible weak score accompanied by bad 80's music that wants to be "the eye of the tiger" and if you get through all of that you'll be rewarded with a horrible final fight scene. If you love fight scenes where a guy lands a big blow to his opponent and then turns his back on him so that he can begin showboating to the crowd while the other guy is getting up and preparing to jump in with his own big blow...Then you'll love the end of this movie. I was hoping that the final battle would make up for the rest of this bad movie, but it was the worst scene of all. They threw a mat on the floor of some dark room put up a work light and started filming. The set looks pathetic, there's a pallet leaning against one wall, a mop bucket visible against another, cardboard boxes laying on the floor...why? To make the scene seem more "underground"? If you have any event where the two participants take away $350,000 your gonna make the place look snazzy and not leave junk like that laying around. Let's just say that the final "set" was horrible and leave it at that. Watching the crowd of spectators keep showing up in this poorly edited finally made me question one thing... Where are they in this scene? I'm not sure they were actually in the same room, from the way the scene is shot it seems that nobody was close enough to the "stage" (mat) to even see the fight. And the fight... Just horrible, It's obvious that "Zulu" isn't even trying, look at his legs in any scene where he's on the ground and you can see that he's not struggling, he's not even moving. And in the end Lima turns his back on Zulu...WHY? Why would a trained fighter do that? This movie is just junk, don't bother.

Story line: played out but has potential. Acting: poor. Fight Choreography: good, highly technical. However, fight sequences are too short and at times can be see that no contact was made during the hit. Editing: good sound quality, good soundtrack, great visual effect that capture action. Actors and Fighters: Going back to choreography they did a good job sparing but everything else was on the poor side. In Summary: If you're a martial arts fan or fan of any of the fighter and like to see them in action, watch it and take it for what it is. However, even though its a low budget movie, I think Director should have put more effort and demanded more realism from his crew. Hope I didn't offend anyone too much :)

I just watched the film. I think for a low-budget movie is way more than I was expecting. I think Andre Lima did a great job as a main actor. He is not a professional actor and he put himself in this big challenger. People need to have heart and "balls" to be in front of a camera and do the best they can. The director Gerson Sanginitto did a great work directing Andre Lima with Gary Busey and Martin Kove. I think Mr. Sanginitto has a great future as Director. The little girl Jessica was awesome! She should have a bigger part next time.I want to congratulate this small production. I been around this industry for long time, I know how hard is to produce a film and make until the end and see the final product. A lot people never finish the end line.

For starters, I have to say I sort of enjoyed this little number. The acting is as wooden as a tree, the story line is completely corny on all counts but yes for me it held a slight appeal. Think of the film 'kickboxer' and you are along the right lines although kickboxer is by far the better film. The star, Andre is obviously quite nimble at the old martial arts and this is shown numerous times throughout the film. As said above however, acting wise leaves a lot to be desired, a cross I would rate as somewhere in between Dolph Lundrun and Jean Claude Vandamn. I cant really say much more without ruining the plot. Just give it a go. It was OK if you like these sort of films.