Initiation (2016) Reviews

• Pleasantly surprised!

  cnarde2019-03-02

  5 men are kidnapped and forced to fight to death, the movie delivers exactly what it promises. The cast was anywhere from competent to excellent, with Dan Horton being the standout. The directing, set design and cinematography all were well done and the sets were simple. Nothing elaborate or memorable but they felt perfect for the scene. Now the fights themselves were pretty well done. Quick and brutal, none of this over the top Hollywood nonsense of people beating the hell out of each other for 10 minutes. Which may be entertaining, but anyone who's ever been in or seen a real fight will tell you that's BS, most fights are over in less than a minute. Every blow takes it's toll and you feel it with the actor, the fights come off as authentic and very believable and at times sickening in the way the director has perfectly captured the honesty of two men fighting for their lives. The sound fx also shine through and add life and realism to The fights. Bones break, teeth fall out, and skulls hitting concrete are all delivered with a sobering impact that feels believable and gives weight to whays happening. I would have liked to have seen a better resolution to the main characters backstory, but overall it was an entertaining movie. I went in with high hopes but low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. Aside from the aforementioned, virtually no time is spent or wasted developing the world or origin tales. Literally 60 seconds in the it takes off running and doesn't slow down much at all. Which can be disastrous, who wants to watch a bunch of people they have no investment in fight for their lives? Yet here is one of the times it worked. I dont even remember the main characters name or if we even got it, but I felt for him and everyone else. For what little screen time most of the actors had, they managed to milk as much as they could and gave me characters I cared about and connected with on some level through believable performances. Nobody tried to ham it up or make the scene more than what it was and the lines all felt genuine. I don't know that if go so far as to say this movie truly excelled in any one area or there was a particularly memorable scene, nor does it really do anything fresh or new. But I also can't find any true faults. Everything it did, it did well enough that It's definitely worth watching if you're a fan of this genre. I mean really, what all can one expect from a movie about death fights? It is what it is, dont try to make it any more than two people beating the hell out of each other. We don't need complex or irrelevant side plots, don't need to see numerous flashbacks, just follow the damn train CJ. We're given just enough to know what's going on and to be invested in the characters, and for me really this movie is a great example that sometimes less is more.

• Fight to death

  nogodnomasters2017-11-20

  Five strangers are kidnapped by a group of neo-Nazis. Part of the initiation is to fight to the death against a selected victim. One of the caged victims is Simon (Adam Ryan Rennie) who has former marine training we see in flashbacks. If the captive can beat the initiate, they can go free. Not that exciting. We watch two guys pummel each other. Simon escapes, gets caught, escapes, get caught. They attempt to create characters on the fly, but basically the film felt lame and low budget. Guide: F-word.