Undisputed 3: Redemption (2010)

A number of main players return for this action movie sequel that, as the title indicates, allows for a bit of redemption. Moving even further away from the more grounded style of the first film, this establishes a world of more cinematic potential in which prisons all have major fighting tournaments, and the biggest one allows you to earn your freedom, but can also result in death for the losers.

Scott Adkins is back in the role of Boyka, who we last saw getting, pardon my wording here, pretty fucked up. He has been biding his time, rebuilding his strength, and trying to rebuild his body. And he eventually takes a chance in front of Warden Kuss (Hristo Shopov) and the powerful Gaga (Mark Ivanir). He knows it may be his only way to gain his freedom, but the opponents are a tough bunch, of course. And everyone also has to survive the brutality of the general prison life.

Writer David N. White returns, but is working solo this time around, and he's allowed to just throw away anything that doesn't relate to the prison brutality, the set up of the fights, and the new focus on Boyka moving from villain to (sort of) hero. It's all one cliché after another, which is absolutely not a problem when director Isaac Florentine continues to deliver the goods in terms of the action.

Adkins is once again solid in the role of Boyka, a role that actually works really well for him. As wobbly as his accent can be, it allows for him to speak in a way that  covers up the usual soft-spoken manner he has (something that can undermines his physical work). And his performance works well alongside the script, allowing his journey to seem believable, in this context, and worth rooting for. The other main fighter of note, at times an adversary and at times an ally, is Turbo, played by Mykel Shannon Jenkins. Jenkins does well as the typical talented fighter with the attitude of someone who thinks they are unbeatable while others start to realise the very real danger to their lives. And Marko Zaror is Raul 'Dolor' Quinones, the favoured fighter who may well take care of everyone else stepping into the ring. Valentin Ganev returns as Warden Markov, for a few scenes, and Ivanir has a bit more of a presence this time around, but the other big baddie is Warden Kuss, played by Hristo Shopov. It's another by-the-numbers character for this type of thing, but another case of it all working because of everything being kept so simple and familiar.

Depending on what you want from your movie entertainment, three movies in shows the Undisputed series as one that goes from strength to strength. The fun factor keeps being ramped up, with realism being pared away as viewers are taken further and further into a world that sets things up for plenty of gritty violence between plenty of characters who look like they can take way more punishment than I ever could (let's just say if I was in this world then I'd be in the montage of people concussed/killed with one powerful blow).

My high rating was something I debated in my mind for some time, but it is, as ever, based on comparison to other movies of this kind, and this is a perfect example of this kind of film, which makes the relatively high rating much deserved.

8/10

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Undisputed 2 (2006)

Walter Hill may have gone, and there's no Wesley Snipes or Ving Rhames returning, but Undisputed 2 (AKA Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing) replaces them with Scott Adkins and Michael Jai White in front of the camera, and the very talented Isaac Florentine in the director's chair. And it's the start of an upturn in a series that delivers some fantastic and brutal fight scenes.

White is George Chambers, the character played by Rhames in the previous movie. He's once again being sent to prison, but this time we know from the very beginning that he's an innocent man. Drugs have been planted in his home to get him sent to a Russian jail. That's where he can be forced to face the mighty Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) in the ring.

Taking things up a notch from the first movie, while also streamlining the ideas (there's no moral ambiguity here, you have a goodie and a baddie), Undisputed 2 is perfect entertainment for those who want to see some muscular men knock the crap out of one another. The only problem it really has is in still trying to keep things fairly grounded, which allows for a bit less action than some might want.

The script, by James Townsend and David N. White, is about as predictable as you could get, and they revel in the familiarity of the character beats as our hero gets jailed, encounters the main villain, is pressured into fighting, etc, etc, all the way to the expected final fight. It could be better, easily, but sometimes the simplest approach works well enough, as is the case here.

Florentine knows what he's doing with the action, and it's obvious why he has made a name for himself with the kind of movies that used to go straight to video. He has faith in his leads to show off their moves, he keeps the camera working well, without relying on too much headache-inducing editing, and he knows how to move things along well enough in between the punchy-kicky highlights.

There may not be many people worth mentioning in the supporting cast (aside from Mark Ivanir, who would also appear in the next movie), but that's fine. This is a film for White and Adkins. The former has long been a charismatic presence in every movie he's been a part of, and should have been getting even juicier roles for the last decade or so, and he's convincing as the boxer who ends up having to change up his fighting style. Adkins sports a different look, and a wobbly accent, but is as physically impressive as usual in the fights, and Boyka is a fun character to boo and hiss at on the way to fight night.

The fights are better than the fights in the first film, the rest of the cast brings things down slightly, which makes this deserving of an equal rating. Even if it's also just a bit more fun.

7/10

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