Beyond The Ring (2008)

Now I'm not gonna give a breakdown of the plot as it's already been done by a few other reviewers. The story has potential, but Andre Lima, nor any of the other people in this movie should have been in it. The acting is down right awful. I think that this movie's acting quality and production value would make a production of Break the Barriers doing "Romeo and Juliet" look like the 90's blockbuster the "Titanic". Andre Lima is a great martial artist, but after seeing this movie it's like he crapped his pants on camera. As much as I respected him before now when I think of him, it's gonna be this... this horrible thing that crawled from the pits of Hades. The choreography was just blatantly ridiculous. Every single time I've seen someone try one those spinning leap kicks in a real fight thats not TKD they get their face/groin/leg/foot broken. I've also seen better shots taken in the Power Rangers. Please, do yourself a favor, this movie is just bad. Don't buy it, don't rent it, don't even look at it in the store. Just keep walking. It's not even so bad it's funny. It's just bad. If they cut the acting out of it and just showed the gym scenes and clips from the fight scenes and add some decent music. Lima TKD advertisement.

Non-actor Andre Lima stars in a story that mirrors his own story as a fighter who has to return to the ring when his daughter develops a brain tumor and he has get the money some how.The non-acting and unimaginative direction (its as rudimentary as you can imagine) kills this film pretty quickly.Its simply too difficult to pay any attention to the non-performances. I know its wrong to criticize people who aren't actors but normally the director can work with an actor to get a performance but here its clear the director either didn't care or wasn't able to try and make the performances into something workable. The only one giving anything like a real performance is Martin Kove as Lima's friend. To be certain it won't kill you if you run across it but its not something to seek out.

Well, I don't even think I got words for how terrible this movie is. Its acctualy a must-see-to-believe, you might laugh your head off or you might suffer depression, watch it if you wish, but be warned- its like playing Russian roulette with your brain.Even the trailer is terrible and the movie is filled with fact-mistakes. Mixed Martial Arts being portrayed as a bloodsport for people with nothing to loose is one thing, using slow-motion in fight scenes in order to make it look cool, is not cool. If you want to watch real Mixed Martial Arts of proper quality, go ahead and watch Ultimate Fightning Championship or Ultimate Fight, Pride or any of the other top quality, real, no-bullshit MMA Tournaments thats around the world.

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.