Gladiators

source: The Philly Kid

I caught this on Prime. I am fan of films involving martial arts, and underdog stories (the two themes are often in the same fims.) I appreciate these films because they rely on talent, not budget. The acting was solid. I have not seen Devon Sawa in anything as an adult. He flexed his acting muscles in his role. The fight choreography was well done. Unfortunately, the editing is lacking as others here have commented. It takes away from the fight scenes significantly. Overall, a strong film with heart. Enjoy it!

This movie was enjoyable for me and I think Wes Chatham is very attractive.

The Philly Kid is a so so film. Never really get invested in the characters, but it's not dull. So Wes Chatham looks like Michael C Hall, talking about the monster inside and Sarah Butler's a bit like a Jena Malone kind of beautiful and looks like she could go a few rounds herself, she says something like "I see the good in you." Dexter similarity...hah. Sawa again seems out of place. It all works out a bit too nicely in the end and a bit amateurish.

The movie exceeded my expectations, the fighting was rather realistic for most of the first half of the movie, I cringed when they called an arm triangle/head and arm choke a "guillotine choke" in the last half of the movie but otherwise it was alright. I thought it was funny seeing the villain from Walking Tall in there and Rich Clementi as the secondary trainer made me crack a grin. All in all I give it a 7 out of 10, it's at least worth a one-time watch especially for MMA fans. Some interesting stuff I would suppose. I thought the acting of course could have been better and the budget was a bit bad (the gunshot wound), but the story was decent in my opinion. I would and probably will watch it again.

Very small spoilers about the intro sequence only, the rest is spoiler free. I only mention it to stay clear with IMDb. This movie is the equivalent of the kickboxing movie made in the 90s when that sport was on the rise. These days, UFC and MMA in general are all over the place and many movies with low budget are made in that vein. Some works good, some just not. The Philly Kid(or Born to Fight as its title in Canada on my DVD case) is one that pretty much work very fine. My only problem is about the intro sequence. The way its show is totally unbelievable. That he kill the thug is OK and could happen, but when the cops arrive, that his friend still hold the gun, that the cops are trigger happy and shoot even tough he dosen't aim them at all and more specifically the 10 years old grudge of the cop just because he was present(and yet cooperated in his arrest) when his dying friend Accidentally shot the other cop dosen't make sense at all. Then you see how dirty and rotten that cop is anyway and you can't really understand why he kept that grudge for so long and all. Overall its a pretty bad plot point, but the rest of the movie and the rest of the characters are all fine and nicely done. One important thing tough that really annoyed me on my first view of the movie, i was expecting Michael Jay White to be one of the important characters considering he is on the cover yet he got only a VERY small role, merely an extended cameo and he dosen't fight at all. I am glad i made my review on my second viewing cause it could had alter my review of an otherwise pretty good movie if i had done it on the first view. I know they put him on the cover to make people rent/buy the movie, but its disappointing to expect something and be fooled. But like i said otherwise a pretty nice movie, this is one of the situation where i would like IMDb to include ratings with 0.5. Cause i think this movie is a solid 7.5 rating, so i will go to 8/10 cause it deserve it more than 7.

Good plot, so good that it made me believe it was a biography, not less bad, well tied, unfair, with emotion, persecutions, shootings, blackmail, many wrong choices, and good people, good plot, well intentioned, exaggerated , fair, pleasant, intense...

You have to remember that most MMA films are from an alternate universe where the normal rules of film-making do not apply. Most MMA films are nod-nod-wink-wink "vanity" projects done mainly so the producers and stars can spend the next few years bragging they "did a movie." Scripts, acting, direction, all usually terrible. Every now and then you get a project like Warrior -- possibly the best MMA film ever done -- and you remember that it is indeed possible to do something that rises above the rest. Philly Kid is no WARRIOR but a decent script, a decent star and the frenetic pacing of Sean Connery's son Jason (as director) keeps it moving along nicely. In fact, whereas with most MMA efforts the challenge is listing all the reasons that it failed, with Philly the challenge is figuring out how it could have been even better? Chatham does a great job. He not only seems willing to tackle his next fight opponent, he seems willing to tackle a script that constantly has him playing catch-up. This a character who has literally no control whatsoever over his life until the final scenes of the movie. I think that is the problem. The intention was likely to setup a "story" problem and then reverse it (just like in a real fight) but by the time Chatham's character comes into his own, it is arguably too little too late. And for that single reason, in the opinion of this reviewer, this solid effort never rises above the rank of wannabee. But for the genre, it is not bad at all.

The Philly Kid is a film about the Mixed Martial Arts fight game and if you think it's set in Philadelphia as I did you will be wrong. It is set in New Orleans and curiously enough nobody in that whole cast speaks with anything remotely resembling an accent you would find in New Orleans. You might as well have set the film in Philadelphia. Other than that this is a pretty good film in the tradition of such fine boxing films like Champion, The Set-Up, The Square Jungle and the more recent Split Decisions. Young Wes Chatham and his friends Devon Sawa and Kris Von Damme are just out for an evening and truly and innocently get involved in a cop killing. Von Damme is dead, Sawa is wounded and Chatham does 10 years for something he didn't do. Chatham was at one a promising college wrestler and when he gets out he finds Sawa in heavy to some gamblers. He learns the mixed martial arts game and agrees to some fights to get Sawa out of debt. He also falls for Sawa's sister Sarah Butler. Like those other cited films The Philly Game is very honest and lucid about showing all the crookedness and double dealing that goes on. It's realistic and at times very brutal. Chatham has to navigate between gangsters, crooked promoters, and one bad crooked cop. The fight scenes are as realistic as when I've looked in on real mixed martial arts matches. My favorite scene is when Chatham is drugged during a match and still comes out on top. All due to a fighting heart and an old wrestling maneuver. The Philly Game did not get much notice coming out, but it's an undiscovered diamond in the raw if you look.

We watched this on Netflix with my friends one night and man am I surprised we managed to complete it, it was probably because it made us laugh so hard and in that respect it could be given a few stars, the problem is that it wasn't a comedy. Nope, instead, it was a poor attempt at something which failed miserably. I have seriously never seen a script that was as ridiculously mediocre, cliché driven, boring and retarded as the one that this movie was based on. The acting was very average and only added to the fact that you simply could not take this movie seriously. Every scene was shot like an amateur would shoot it. Everything that happened was not believable. I mean I didn't find one redeeming factor in this whole film. This is at the level of old b-grade action movies of the 80's and 90's, except that it was done in the 21st century. I mean usually even if there is a bad action movie now days, it simply does not reach the level of amateur camera work and retarded shots as this one. The script is usually the biggest flaw, maybe some retarded acting, but at least the directing is generally to at least some extent acceptable, but here. Oh man I don't understand how anybody could succeed in doing something so retarded. The behavior of the people in this script was taken straight from a soap opera, the emotions and expressions were not believable, rather made you laugh. It was all just so stupid that you ended up laughing the whole movie. I'm not gonna even bother going to the details. If you are going to watch this film, prepare to roll on the floor.