By Joe Vannicola.
There are particularly snooty critics who believe that the term "direct to video movie" is synonymous with "garbage can special". I try to keep an open mind since there have been times when I've been pleasantly surprised by these direct to video releases.
That being said, I have to say BEYOND THE RING, while not occupying the "garbage can special" drawer is still nothing to write home about when all is said and done.
The actual fight in the movie lasts only a few minutes with most of the films 102 minutes running time spent showing the lead character enjoying quality time with his son and daughter(his wife died of cancer nine years before) and training for the eventual big match.
BEYOND THE RING tells the tale of a retired mixed martial arts fighter, Andre, who is forced back into returning to the ring to fight in an underground mixed martial arts to battle an opponent named Zulu to pay for his daughters hospital bills. Unbeknownst to Andre, his trainer, Derrick, in league with Andre's business partner Tony De Lucca, has bet against
him and insures that Andre loses the fight by using improper training techniques.
The film does provide the audience with an an amusing sub plot: Andre freaks out every time he sees a trash can. The reason why is quite silly; as a new born infant, someone placed him in a garbage can and although Andre was eventually adopted by loving parents, he retains memories of that traumatic experience to this very day. So, every time he notices a trash receptacle, Andre's eyes bulge out of his head and beads of perspiration cover his face. This by the way passes as heavy duty dramatic conflict. But it's not by a long shot.
In an unusual touch, Andre loses the match to Zulu instead of the usual stock cliche' of
the underdog hero winning the fight after being beaten to the proverbial pulp, as in dozens of other Rocky style fight films. But still, it isn't enough to save this movie from being anything more than average.
Speaking of ROCKY, the theme music used in BEYOND THE RING(as well as during Andre's
training scenes) is strongly reminiscent of Eye Of The Tiger used in ROCKY III. In fact, I promise that you'll be looking at the end credits to see if the group Survivor played and wrote the film's title song.
The acting ranges from decent to downright poor, especially from Andre Lima, the films lead
actor. While Lima is known as a Master in Tae Kwon Do and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu,as an actor
he is as wooden as a telephone pole employing only a couple of facial expressions throughout the film. He is obviously terribly ill at ease in front of the camera.
So, if you can wade your way through interminable fight training sequences and more turgid drama than you can shake a stick at in order to view a brief martial arts match, then you might just enjoy BEYOND THE RING. If not, then you'll probably return this movie to your local video store to demand a refund.
