‘Bruised’ Review: Halle Berry Delivers The Best MMA Fight Scene Ever | This Is CineMMA

‘Bruised’ Review: Halle Berry Delivers The Best MMA Fight Scene Ever | This Is CineMMA

[Music] welcome back welcome back everyone to another episode of uh this is Cinema M May fighting’s martial arts movie podcast time once again for the old lumpy bumpy uh no sorry that we are not uh we are not doing uh fight valley again as much as I’ve wanted to do I did want to turn that into a two episode series I was denied instead we going with another female Le budding film it is uh it’s time for bruise guys this movie is produced directed starring The Majestic hi Berry this 2020 film CES Barry playing Jackie Justice a once promising fighter who’s fallen on very hard times but gets on a Road to Redemption that ends up with her fighting uh a a world champion played by MMA Superstar Valentina chevchenko so I’m very excited to talk about this one I am joined as always by the Wonderful’s wonderful that’s how you pize wonderful wonderful Jed Michu and eky L say hi fellas there’s Jed too busy groovin getting down a little uh a little distressing sign in the background oh yeah I’m trying to enjoy the Good Vibes right now because the rest of this program will not be good vibes yes we should we should uh warn let’s give a trigger warning ahead of time guys uh the spoiler free the spoiler free synops is over so spoilers are coming and a little bit of a trigger warning this movie involves domestic violence uh uh talks about rape it’s it’s pretty heavy incest incest incest I think I think some child abuse as well it’s a pretty heavy heavy heavy heavy film yeah let’s cover it all anything else I’m I don’t poverty in general yeah yeah alcohol substance abuse and graphic violence like it just it’s pretty violent again this movie is called bruise there quite a bit of bruising quite a bit of bleeding and we’re going to get into it uh having uh explained to people already what a Feelgood time this movie is can we get your elevator pitch for Roost yeah so the elevator pitch is pretty straightforward uh do you guys remember the movie pursuit of happiness with Will Smith where the the title has happiness in the name but the film is actually just a Relentless onslaught of sadness then capped off with the happy ending bruised is that only without the happy ending and if it’s all kind of MMA related that’s a pretty good sell I like that I I don’t remember how well this movie did I don’t think we got streaming numbers for this Casey what was your first impression when you were finished with the movie what was your first thought when you were done when you made it to well much like Hal Berry’s character Jackie Justice I am also bruised right now like I have a nice low wow know you’re a method you might be the world’s first method podcaster yeah I wanted I want I wanted to fill with Jackie Justice’s feeling um but no actually I do not because the things she goes through in this movie are so freaking horrible this movie is uh it is uh it’s a it’s kind of like trauma porn it was just like oh like what what horrible things can we put on one character and then throwing some cage fighting that’s what it was yes this movie opens up with uh well a couple of important things first the first two people we actually see are professional fighters Gina Crono and Julie Ki who who hardcore M fans will remember uh were in the were in the first ever televised women’s MMA vout shout out to Elite XC so that was a big deal we then get a montage of also also also that was that that event was the first MMA event I ever worked on I worked that was the first one yeah that was first League Stephen I I I built the um me and two other editors we built the countdown show for that so we shot all the uh back shot all the footage of Gina when she was just this um young um Muay Thai Prospect out of Vegas yeah and where Were You On fight night would you have been around cage cage side I wasn’t there for fight night I was not there for fight night I but I worked on all the promotional materials and did like shot interviews and everything that yeah so yeah yeah so it was um yeah it was it kind of weird full circle is you’re canonically in this movie like you are in the bruised Universe yeah Tech you’re not on screen but you are some somewhere because you were involved yeah you are in the bruis you part of the bruis expanded universe uh again as shown by the bruise on your face so we see that we see a bunch of clips of other big moments in women’s MMA and then we see we get our introduction to Jackie Justice who unfortunately is seen running away kind of pulling a Chelsea Chandler in the movie uh but actually running all the way out of a cage as she is in the middle of a heated cage fight it’s quite traumatic and then we fast forward we catch up with her a few years later she is unemployed living with her man oh sorry she’s not unemployed what what do we what do she becomes unemployed Jed what happens what’s the first uh horrible thing we see happen and then Casey I want you to give us the rest of yeah um po Jackie’s terrible day Chad what’s our first thing we see of she is cleaning um apartment a house I guess not really an apartment a town home and nothing terrible about that it’s an honorable profession but then while she is changing in this home to swap out of her work gear or whatever the teenage is aged son uh takes some some photos of her in a state of undress and then won’t delete them Andor give it back so she hits a child which is fine honestly because he’s being a real prick but uh yeah tough start to the movie and I got to tell you that’s that’s one of the less unsettling bad things that happened in this film so off to a rolicking start yeah that’s just the morning and understand she is she is so now she is unemployed Casey you uh as you watched the film I think just before Jed I did and you kind of you were so overwhelmed you sent us a message I don’t know if you want to load that up of uh how rough the rest of that that happened and then the rest of this day was yeah I got uh let me bring that message up because it a lot happened this is on the first 15 minutes of the film first 15 minutes and one day our first day with this character yeah one one day of her life in the first 15 minutes so okay the first 15 minutes so uh oh wait we have a lot of messages about this I realized okay so after she does that she catches him she smashes phone she gets home so she goes home and then I we we don’t get introductions to characters but we assume this is her boyfriend and she gets home her boyfriend already kind of found out about it verbally abuses her they get in a giant fight the Jackie Justice says the great line um oh was it you’re a part-time limo driver but a full-time loser so they’re very mean to each other then they have some wild angry sex in the kitchen so this just kind of comes out of nowhere um then later that evening wait when does when does she start spraying the the the alcohol into her mouth I think that’s when she gets home from the I believe she does that before she fight oh is that before Oh start fight because sleep when she arrives yeah that’s what it is so before that apparently she’s alcoholic a secret alcoholic who’s been pouring liquor um whiskey into empty bottles of house cleaner sprays it in her mouth and hides it under the sink cleverly H come back come back sure then the boyfriend goes you know what we had some great angry sex let’s go to an underground cage fight I’m not going to tell you though but we’re going to show up at underground cage fight which I don’t know I’ve been working in this industry almost 20 years I still have not come across these underground fights but when she gets there the wonderful MMA fighter and Grappler Gabby Garcia is playing werewolf I think werewolf werewolf correct werewolf yeah then we proceed to watch werewolf murder a woman with her bare hands then a Russian gangster decides to mock Jackie Justice like hey why don’t you fight her in a very bad thick Russian accent she refuses they make fun of her Jackie Jus is tries to leave but then werewolf G Gabby Garcia attacks her then Jackie Justice grabs a jar a make there’s a just a mason jar right there slams it on Gabby Garcia’s head she falls down Gabby Garcia oh no she doesn’t fall down Jackie Justice then shows off her Immaculate grappling skills and goes for a single leg single leg X takedown which is the first really good grappling we’ve seen in actually all the MMA as far as like leg attacks in all the MMA movies so far it’s pretty slick it was slick I was like oh cool but there’s a lot of broken glass on the ground too so I don’t know how strategic this was but takes her down and then proceeds to headbutt werewolf into I guess a coma then they drag out they get into their car then we meet another character named Immaculate who turns out is the movie version of um the Invicta FC promoter uh so I guess we find out the Invicta FC the promoter was there uh yeah and then Casey let me pause there for let me pause this day is not over this day is not over by the way this day is not over yes so immaculate played by uh John Wick a lot of people know him from John Wick Shamir Anderson the from John Wick four other things as well of course just thinking of a big movie everyone would have seen uh yes there is no Shannon NEP in this universe there is Invicta as you guys can see uh uh Casey is wearing his Invicta gear and Invicta is kind of the we can’t say there’s no Shan and nap she’s just not in Char inv this is true perhaps this is a world where Shan has taken more of a hands-off approach and hired this ENT entrepreneuring young man Immaculate who uh did 15 years in prison for murder we find out he’s H was part of a he got caught up in the gang life you know sometimes you you got to you got to kill someone I I forgot that part he listen he paid his he paid his debt to society he did 15 hard years in The Slammer and now he is really over qualified at this point I think to run an MMA promotion so uh it is yes Invicta is run by Immaculate that’s the only name we get for him and yes he decides to to uh he sees Jackie Justice and says hey she used to fight the UFC maybe we bring her back in the fold here so Jackie Justice who’s now retired after kind of murdering a woman gets off kind of off offered a contract to fight in evicta FC so that’s like that’s good I guess she’s back I’m back baby so because the day in the day could end on a high note maybe they they travel home then it starts storming it’s raining very hard now in Newark New Jersey and then at their home is Jackie’s mom who maybe she hasn’t seen in a while and Jackie’s mom is there to reveal the news that hey Jackie here is your long lost seven eighty old six seveny old son who just witnessed his baby his daddy get murdered and now he won’t talk about it and um yeah and here you go and this is your first day of Jackie Justice yeah and and it should be noted not really not long lost knowingly abandoned we should say ja Jackie Jackie which you kind of find out through this you know throughout the story for whatever reason was not and she did not feel she was in a position to raise this child and essentially left it with the father and said here you go you’re a single father now so it’s not a great first impression of Jackie Justice uh and her life it’s not a lot of fun and Jed I think that’s kind of a theme of this film not a lot of fun is that I don’t know I don’t I feel like you zero fun yeah zero fun sir like there there is nothing nothing enjoyable about this film I we’ll obviously get into our ratings at the end of this I think you’ll kind of understand where I’m coming from as we process this but under no circumstances do you fire this movie up because you I just got a couple hours to kill it’ be a good good little Happy Time waster with my significant other on a Friday night that’s not what this about so don’t head into it thinking it’s that way yeah it’s rough it’s rough man and and we are I am not uh we understand the life of every fighter is tough they’re telling a story here they’re telling they’re trying to tell kind of a rocky type story uh and so they guess I got they got to sink you really sink in the deps this is hel Barry’s directorial debut we’ve all kind of agreed that she seemed to want to throw in as much toughest is she’s she directed as if she would never direct another movie again know she threw she threw everything in this movie uh so we got again to some of the story lines before we do and and we’ve already touch we’ve already touched upon many before we throwing joy in this film yeah this is is backtack movies by the way you know we did we just did uh Miss for kundo with the Jose Aldo biopic and our our biggest complaint was where is the joy in this film where is the Jose The Smiling jiio Jose Aldo that we all know and love nowhere to be seen so this is back-to-back movies where we’ve been kind of like man I just is isn’t is we always say MMA is supposed to be fun and you do not see any of that in these two movies uh that we we have reviewed these lastek for kundo is like it’s like a jackass movie compared to this as far as far as levity and humor this is this is this is like the zone of Interest there’s nothing happy about this film um I mean zone of Interest a very critically acclaimed movie so maybe not not a terrible comparon movie you can be a good movie that’s not unhappy and I’m not telling you what my score is yet well we’ll get to it but this movie is deeply un unhappy like it is a deeply unhappy film let’s get to the punishing punishingly unhappy Char porn really is not wrong like not a wrong way to describe this film yeah let’s let’s get to the positive first then let’s start with that especially since it kind of leads into our first question that we ask every week on the show uh how much MMA is this movie and we like to evaluate based on a white belt to Black Belt scale and I don’t know if we’ve had a black belt martial arts film yet we thought that the Josie Aldo movie would be a very obvious black belt pick uh it wasn’t there wasn’t a lot of fighting kind of didn’t we give it like didn’t we give it like a blue I don’t know where we said all agreed on it but none of us gave it black I don’t know even know if we went brown belt I think purple’s the highest I think we hit yeah which is strange considering it’s a movie about one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time that should have been automatic black belt this movie uh again obviously was worked in conjunction with the UFC with Invicta it’s about a woman uh trying to get back into M fighting you would think that’s a black Bel movie there’s really only one fight in the movie and so I think we’ve all fallen short of that so it’s a great fight we’ll get to that fallen short of it I’m giving I think this is a clear black belt film oh you did give it a black belt okay yeah yeah I gave it a clear uh I don’t know if you mentioned this this the second time we recorded this podcast so we already had this conversation uh yeah no I think this is a very black belt film to me um I understand the argument that you know it’s a character centered piece and not like a MMA centered piece in some ways and I get that uh but I think that both in Form and Function this movie is intrinsically MMA the the lead character is an MMA fighter the the plot is directed by her fighting in MMA all that specifically and then also just functionally this is an unflinching look at kind of some of this Cedar unfortunate aspects of MMA be it coaches and their relationships with Fighters and grooming from straight up is a thing uh the managerial relationship between Fighters the fact that Fighters don’t make a lot of money and have to work other jobs and that if they don’t become wildly successful then suddenly you are you know cleaning houses for some petulant 14-year-old who’s sexually assaulting you like these are these are actual pieces of the atmosphere in real life and I think that this is a very good deep look into that aspect of the sport as well as being just on its face about MMA to me this is a black belt MMA movie uh Casey I think you and I are more like we’re close I think we both said brown belt four or five Stripes like it’s about as I just wanted more I personally wanted more fights which which which shouldn’t be the definition of a of a of a martial arts movie by the way because Jose Aldo movie technically has like three or four or five like fights in it like two or three sanctioned ones they’re not very long but you do see a bit of and and that’s less yeah and that’s probably fights in the less of an M yeah and that’s less of this one has some train a lot of good training stuff technique talk there’s like technique talk like there’s attempts to bring people into the world of of training and preparing and actual fighting and but um we kind of agreed Casey what what was your argument for like why it falls just kind of just short of being black I I want to give it I really do want to give it a black belt but I still think I’m GNA give it like a a brown belt like four stripe brown belt um but everything jet said this does show a lot of the uh the more I guess the cedar side of prize fighting essentially there’s no money there’s no real money into in the sport uh the idea of you being brought in to build up another fighter which I actually I do actually that was probably I wish they I wish they kind of hit that point more the promotional side of it um but um the reason I did like it a lot in MMA aspect is like they did actually show all aspects of MMA they showed her wrestling they showed her doing a lot of groundw work uh a lot of a lot of training montages some of the training montages were kind of silly but a lot of it was good they like her just working of a grappling dummy working positions things like that things that I think that probably the average viewer might find kind of silly or boring but for me I was like oh that’s cool that’s what people actually do in the gym so I did like all that stuff um I guess why why can’t I give a black bow I know I there I wanted more fights I I just wanted I wanted one more I would have loved if they put in one more actual fight I like that I I think one more fight before counter to that AK yeah sure this movie has more fight scene in it than any other MMA movie probably like if you combined all the pieces because the last 30 minutes the entire third Act is functionally a 25 minute fight yeah all of that like yeah I I haven’t done the math but I’m confident if you chopped up the number of fight scenes in masor kundo or uh you know the the 18 times they replayed Dalton killing Jay Heron in Roadhouse that it’s still doesn’t add up to the same time that you get in the Invicta Finale Fight because that is I straight up if the rest of the movie was trash and had nothing to do with MMA this would be a black belt movie for me because of the third Act like just that alone is enough to be like yeah this is a deeply MMA movie let’s get to the fight the fight uh so again she fights uh Luc Lucia Chavez lady AKA lady killer played by Valentina shevchenko why they made her from Argentina I guess just because she speaks Spanish very confusing I don’t know why but more power to and she doesn’t and she barely speaks Spanish in the film so it’s not even like from Peru like it could have been from Peru why even switch artina like she’s actually Valentina shenko actually lived and trained in Peru she do life in Peru and they said AR why not make her Russian because she speak when she speaks English she has her her clear k kges accent they they didn’t change they didn’t change Keith Peterson’s accent he got he got to be Keith Peterson Keith Peterson I don’t know I sensed a little bit I think he tried to go British a little bit no Keith yes well Keith Peterson’s in there uh so yes this final fight we all agreed pretty damn great as as Jed pointed out there’s more MMA in this one fight than in all the other movies we’ve seen combined it’s a legit 25 minute like MMA fight they they they they cut they cut it a little bit uh but other than that it’s it’s really well done uh you guys mentioned the reality of MMA we we are told she makes 10K to show and 10K to win uh status Jackie Justice which is I think for even an evicted title fight that’s pretty low I would like to think she would but she has no leverage either she hasn’t fought as far as we know in the movie she hasn’t fought for something like four or five years four or five years yeah so because we learned that she she stopped after of course that embarrassing performance which was motivated by her having a child and she says like oh I I I ran away not just from the fight I ran away explain the embarrassing performance yeah we did at the beginning she she she literally exits the cage yes and that is her first she is a 10 and0 fighter who literally her first loss comes via TKO exiting the cage or disqualification I’m not sure we also see this whole running out of the cage don’t we see it from like her point of view is like yeah she jumps the cage wall and is down and you know screaming at her her manager/ booyfriend screaming at her what are you doing what are you doing and then yeah she hasn’t fought since and then we sign out she has a son five or six years later so that’s how we know she hasn’t fought in in five or six years and it’s just thrown into so she had a son before that fight gave up she had a son before that fight yeah gave up her son or or let her let the baby daddy raise the son yes and then objectively a correct decision by the way like I know we’re going to knock on it but like she has a a substance abuse problem and is a pro fighter living with an abusive human being we don’t know we don’t know that she had two we don’t know that she had the substance abuse problem at that time and also she she were I think we’re to understand she wasn’t with the manager as a partner at that time either it was her man and then I think later they become involved either way he was a cop in Florida and seems like his life based on the one video we saw actually was together so uh not a bad call on her part disagree I think she could have maybe sacrificed a little bit and tried to be a mom I agree people should be better but if you’re not going to be better that was a correct decision to make maybe so uh well I don’t know we’ll see because she regrets it and I’m also a little confused so she got pregnant had a kid recovered from having a child so I’m assuming she was out for like a year and a half probably yes and then she made her UFC debut again we don’t know her today my understanding is that she had fought in the UFC multiple times that that is my but they don’t make it clear they don’t they just say she’s 10 and0 they don’t say she’s like 10 and0 and in the they just say she’s 10 and0 my understand but they did say she got a big jump up in competition right in that yeah they yeah because they they say the manager like screwed it up her career or something manag oh you threw you threw her into a fight she wasn’t prepared for so anyway yes there’s some of that in there but either way uh somehow after five years she still has enough of a name to get this title shot uh we don’t know how old she’s in the movie my guess is maybe mid to sorry late 30s late 30s early 40s uh because Hal Bear in real life when she did this movie I think was 53 or 54 years old and she looks fantastic uh she’s doing most of her own stunts we should say as far as we know she I heard she did all her own stunts though there is a stunt double credited shout out to Anisha Gibbs uh in the credits shout out to the fight team as well Eric Brown who did it worked on John Wick one of the John Wick guys as well as William cotay bedc coutour and Noah Shel I just got to shout all the people out because the fight looks fantastic it it is a great again we get a five round fight all the drama you kind of almost for a moment I think what makes so great is you kind of forget it lets you forget all the horror that you have seen for the past oh hour and 45 minutes before this fight and he see some good oldfashioned MMA uh Jackie is presented as a Grappler it’s made very clear she’s not a great Striker she doesn’t look like a great striker in the movie to be honest so with apologies to howy Perry the Striking isn’t great maybe it’s on purpose but the grappling really nice really nice we see a lot of that in the movie we see a lot of that in this fight it’s kind of how she survives it’s kind of how she she turns the tables on uh Valentina shenko AKA Lady Killer and ends up we get the rocky ending she does end up losing a split decision but you know it’s there there’s somewhat of a positive turn around her life and again I just I can’t say enough like this is so much better than the end of Roadhouse this is so much better than anything we saw in the Jose Aldo movie it’s about as good as some of the fight scenes in fight valley I don’t want to quite put it above the CL the climactic fight scene between Susie celic and Chris Cy where Susie C just gets her ass handed to her after after a whole movie of prep anyway uh but no in all serious great great stuff uh what what what stood out for you guys from this fight scene uh Jed it’s just sorry we’re talking about the final fight SC I was doing the fight just the final fight not not the final fight scene from fight valley the final if you want to talk about that I’m here all day but uh specifically the one from br yeah okay um this is the best fight scene that’s ever been in an MMA movie I’m pretty sure like I’m sure and I’m sure Casey will bring this up because he he’s a little more focused on some of the parts of that it is not this is not what a real fight looks like this is a movie fight and movie fights and real fights are not the same they are because real fighting is too cinematic it’s the same way that all sports don’t translate really to to film in the same way because it doesn’t register it doesn’t get over this is as good of a movie MMA fight as I think you can have you can nitpick some of the technical stuff and some of it’s obviously like a little too cool that that could never happen but you get like a pretty clear look of here’s the Striking here’s the grappling here different aspects of all of this here’s an e and a flow of a fight she starts off down she kind of overcomes she starts getting her game going Valentina comes back or lady killer comes back like you’re getting cornering between the rounds of saying like a very real thing of I why is this woman not going away at this point and having a fighter reckon with that it is you’re getting all aspects of like a highlevel mixed martial arts fight conveyed accurately and appropriately given the medium I genuinely think it’s the best MMA fight I have ever seen in a movie and like I said that’s why I would give this movie a black belt if for nothing else other than this final scene it’s that it it really is that good I mean you’re you’re not like your black belt uh awarding to this film is completely Justified if just based on again some of the stuff before and how well this is done uh let me add some more details case before I throw to you we got we got Eve Edwards and Julie KY on commentary shout out to them they’re doing very solid movie commentary uh where it’s both you know they’re trying to sell the passion of what’s happening and they’re acting kind of as Exposition for the viewer especially for viewers who uh you know maybe just flicking on Netflix they like Hal Berry maybe not super familiar with May so I thought they did an excellent job of that and as you said Keith Peterson’s in there as well nice nice little Cameo for him antonina antonina shenko and the rest of valentina’s team are shown they’re in the corner so uh it’s it’s it’s a really great MMA scene it’s it’s it’s so it feels so authentic it feels so so real other than um kind of classic having to very much black out the crowd it’s just kind of how you have to do these things um they did it for the Jose Alo movie too and that was supposed to be in a venue that had like 55,000 people so it’s just how these things go but uh Casey what did you like uh what really stood up for you in the the final the main thing I just reiterate everything Jed said but the main thing I liked about it is that they gave it time they didn’t like Montage the fight scene I mean Montage the final fight they they actually told and this is kind of the beauty in MMA at least of five round fights that’s the closest that MMA fans get to kind of the big boxing kind of ups and downs ab and flows boxing match in five round fights every once in a while we do get that and that’s what they try to basic they told kind of a boxing story in an MMA match which each round no round one round two you kind of know feel the fight the fight go up and down and know and they did a good job with like Julie and um Eve’s Eve um kind of continued the storyline you know know she should go to the ground you know kind of know all that stuff so um yeah I just really enjoyed the fact that they gave it room to breathe and um I wasn’t expecting that so uh because usually these films just kind of mish mash into everything one giant round you know for these films my big kind of takeaway though um criticism and like Jed said this is pretty much all action films all Combat Sports Action films every punch is pretty much a Knockout Punch Yeah but they treat it like a jab like every time they get hit it’s like oh that’s a concussion you should be down you’re done but they’re like you know like everyone’s got like Nick Diaz type of chin in this in these worlds but those are movies and um yeah so outside outside of that though I like it I like it yeah I think you guys have explained why this is a great this is great movie MMA this is the best movie MMA that that has maybe been put on film ever um I like what you said Casey about they give they gave the fight room to breathe because I think that’s our what our major GP with maybe the rest of this movie is just this the script Is Not Great the editing is a kind of a mess and if that had been if they had given some of these Mo other moments and story lines more room to breathe and some of the other ones less room to breathe the final fight scene one thing I I hated about the um Auto movie in the the final fight scene is like oh the like they decided to do every zoom and Camera Twirl in that movie in this movie everything’s basically very the the edits and Camera moves don’t get you dizzy basically you know you’re you’re you you understand what’s going on even though there’s fast editing and Sharp Cuts and stuff like that and like zooms and stuff Everything feels like you’re in the fight so um credit to Hal Berry for directing this um her the final fight scene uh very well and because a lot of the you know what I mean like they just become this big Mash of just edits and you just get lost in it so um I never felt lost when I was watching the final thing the final fight scene yeah and again I don’t know how much she used her stunt double if at all again I assume there was at least some but based on like you said the way they filmed it it’s a lot of long shots like it you you really you feel like it’s talian there you definitely feel like Italian if they fooled us with some movie match magic I’m impressed you know but I tell you it really I think like it really felt like it’s in there now that I think about I was never taken out of the scene going oh that’s a stunt double yeah now I think about it it I’m sure there was a stunt double it had to be you know for some of the throws I’m sure just you just you know you just don’t want to do that to your main character you know they get hurt but um no they did a good job yeah watch the final 30 minutes of the movie people you skip the first no you need the context you need her you need her struggle and hat off is Valentina shenko as well who again has to learn mie Val you you’ve I know you’ve done a little bit of that kind of training and that’s not easy for someone who’s a real a real life like killer to kind of dial it back and also you know perform in a way that works for the cameras right it’s just way different um so I’ve taken a movie fighting class we did one here at our gym um because you know Atlanta Hub of film making or whatever uh and it’s just like it is over-the-top theatrical performative it’s not the same and so they are very different skills but kind of one of my big honest takeaways from this is like oh Val shenko is good at this like that she doesn’t get a lot of speaking parts and I would not say that she like thrives in line delivery um because I don’t know it’s a different set of skills but she’s athletic enough and I would venture to say that her kind of background in dancing which is a a lot more like dance choreography is a lot closer to fight choreography than just like a fighting background frankly I would say that she she comes across very believable in what she is doing in a way that I don’t think others have have nearly the success with so like the the thing that jumps to mind is they wanted to make Ronda Rousy a star and so they put her in a fast movie and I get the core concept Ronda Rousey is bad at all of this and so none of it worked whereas like I can understand putting Valentina shevchenko as like the the big bad or not the big bad but like the medium bad who doesn’t have that many lines but just gets to be the physical counter to you know Michelle Rodriguez or whatever that makes sense and I honestly watching this like oh shevchenko should get more chances to do that I think she could carve out some some set of this this kind of space for herself if she got that opportunity because she was good in that part of it yeah and even regarding like just the act for the most part I didn’t just feel like she was being Valentina shenko if that makes sense like and again she doesn’t have a lot of lines she doesn’t have a lot of acting to do in this movie outside of the fight but there’s moments where she has to be sort of a more heelish arrogant evil sort of not evil but definitely heelish aggressive character and we saw glimps of that and I’m kind of like okay cool like I I she’s at least trying not to just do herself she’s not just Connor in Roadhouse doing Connor to the to like 150% of Connor or 200% Conor she she did I think she’s a she’s a better actor in The what I saw here than Conor McGregor was in Roadhouse but maybe that’s not a very high bar maybe I’m picking some some L hanging fruit here U but yeah I thought I thought she did fine H could have moments I I’m not sure he is not a good physical actor but he could have moments of line delivery it it’s tough yeah yeah uh this fight scene also had my favorite uh move in the in the movie imagine if they if they casted Valentina as the heavy in roadh housee just just saying it would have been Hey listen Road House 2 as of this recording we have heard that a roadh housee 2 has been green lit and I don’t I think you know you’re going to bring back Connor obviously I think you got to bring in more MMA power definitely bring in a woman fighter you could do a hell of a lot worse than Valentina Valentina would have actually made sense when Roadhouse was gonna be Ronda Rousey’s thing oh that actually Valentina actually would have made sense as like yeah the opposite to her there um I want to say yes the spicing had my favorite move of the movie which was Valentina doing an Ali Muhammad Ali foot Shuffle and then Anderson Silva front kicking Hal Berry in the face completely realistic uh but hilarious is incredible it’s so good it’s so good and it work and you know what Jackie Justice just eats it and keeps on going keeps on grinding so uh that was a I don’t know if any moves in the movie uh anything that happened in training maybe jumped out at you guys at all so one of two things jumped out of me the first one is the only nitpick I I’ll have about this sort of stuff ostensibly she is a Grappler like that is a thing that they say Point Blank you’re a Grappler multiple times yeah like like they drive that point home and and it is true because she’s a bad Striker and they also drive that point home both verbally and like in what they show you at one point she gets taught we haven’t really talked about uh buddon or whatever but budon teaches her literally Day One Mount Escapes in training it’s like she already knows this I would hope so so that’s like the only like fight related scene that nitpick because it is so absurdist to me see I okay so I didn’t have that problem one I’ve never trained well briefly at some gym for like a month maybe so I’ve never properly trained as you two gentlemen have and listen she’s been out of the game for a long time and at sometimes you know you just gota you got to bring it back to the fundamentals right you don’t think you don’t think khabib you know the khabib is uh is they don’t take some time like khabib here’s how you do a Single Leg Takedown you don’t think he needs you know just just a humble him to ground him I do not believe they talk him through the steps of it that’s not it’s not a thing I I don’t I don’t think so I could be wrong uh that one that was like the only time where and I know Casey with other films you have kind of said that sort of took you out of the movie watching like some of the bad technique and stuff that was the only time where I was like this is ridiculous and I got sort of set back from the movie which frankly given how sad the movie is was kind of nice to take a break from if oh the in the training montage there was one part all of like they’re like by the pier or by the port or something and they’re they’re doing doing kettle bells and doing like she had a Bulgarian bag which I thought was like extremely accurate and but then of the one scene she’s in the freaking River or in the ocean I was like that doesn’t look sanitary I was just like you remember she was just all of a sudden like she’s jogging then they have her just in the water like treading in it’s like I know New York has pools they got to have you don’t you don’t need to jump in the river to do this yeah you gota be tough um but uh yeah I I know that scene you’re talking about I took that has more just that was more I think more educating the audience but yeah that she was saying very this is very clearly educating the audience and that’s why it’s like it’s it stuck out to me as like here’s a this is for you viewer and not like here’s a natural part of the flow of what’s occurring here I did I didn’t miss the fact that there wasn’t there weren’t like because I’ve never seen outside of the tiest level Fighters like say like a Jon Jones or even a Connor she was Jackie Jus is seemed to be getting private training for her entire fight and I’ve just never seen that for an M MMA fighter you MMA like it’s we always kind of joke it’s it’s a team sport because you do train has a team and I so that was I I think I that’s why everything kind of felt like this was a boxing film except that they were they had grappling because every the the training felt very boxing like even the coach had a whistle I’ve never seen a whistle in a MMA gym I’ve never I just never seen a whistle yeah we should make we should make it clear so this movie was written by I want to say it’s her first movie as well Michelle Rosen farb who had been spending a decade trying to get essentially what was the project that would become bruised off of the ground it was originally a boxing film sent around an Irish woman who was to be played by Blake Lively so yes if you guys see the DNA of boxing this film it is it is essentially a boxing film now that was later dressed up with MMA uh when they recast with Hal Barry of course it changed uh the angle of it Blake lby would have played an upand Comer as opposed to Hal Barry who’s uh someone trying to come back into the fight game so yeah there was there was some differences here and I I think Michelle Rosen farb acquaint herself pretty well but I I think we’ve said it already her and Hal Berry definitely stuffed this movie with plots it’s got a lot of plot uh you’re right we should talk about buddon uh played by the the lovely and talented uh I keep forgetting her name I don’t know why I’m doing this to myself um what am I what is wrong with me Sheila sorry I apolog Sheil Sheila Adam yeah she is f she is fantastic in it she looks great uh she’s a very well- trained actor there’s a lot of great there’s a lot of like Broadway trained actors in This film uh her Hal Berry’s mom is played by Adrien Len Adrian Lennox she’s she’s a Tony Award winner there’s a lot of acting in here uh but just to focus again sorry on budon um this is what we talked about before where she gets into a relationship with Ali Barry they’re very close working relationship and then they uh you know they they get it on they get it on for lack of a more mature term uh we are now two for two and they get it on at a at a point in the movie where Jackie justice has has a lot of like emotional she’s very vulnerable she’s very vulnerable this is not a time this is not a Time when a coach when a mentor figure should be propositioning their student there’s probably never a good time for it this is really really not a good time uh especially since it lead does lead to further conflict between the characters with Jackie wisely stepping away from the situation uh and saying I listen I have a fight coming up this isn’t a good idea and uh buddon being very hurt by it and then going on a bender and becoming unable to go to her fight so it’s messy as hell but I think we said like it’s it was kind of cool that they showed this very unfortunate side of the combat sports game um and that’s the problem with this movie like the movie could have been about that it could have been about that it could have been just about a single mom trying to fight it could have been about sh herant incest Survivor you know it could have been we keep saying by the way we keep saying that we should explain there’s another traumatizing storyline where hi Barry when she’s having a fight with her mother says wow how could you how could you have just looked away well when I was a little girl our uncles and Men you were having over were were were molesting me were were sexually assaulting me so that’s in there and it’s not just kind of honestly throw it in too yeah what if we just put a little dash of this Horror in here as well it’s terrible yeah it’s it’s tough man it’s it’s real tough and yeah and that like you said if they had picked some like that could have easily been removed taken away and yes let’s concentrate more on this there’s so little room uh for the coach story line to breathe that when Buddakan shows up later she’s like badly beaten up and there’s she just says oh I was in the hospital it’s a long story and I’m like I kind of want to see that story bruise two ADV like I don’t know is that something you could just hand The Adventures of budon like they just handwave that away like oh yeah something happened to budon it was bad I’m like you could have shown us that and not shown us so not thrown in two other uh trauma including the son by the way like we said he’s witnessed his father’s murder which again is not no that doesn’t go anywhere he’s so traumatized he can’t talk throughout the movie uh it is man it is just it’s it’s bad it’s rough and the all the talent in it all the cast is doing their their best God bless them they’re doing with the camp all acting is quite good we weal like we talked about it the first time I recorded this uh the wonderful Stephen McKinley Henderson again very decorated theater actor television actor people most people now will know him from the first dune film he’s does he doesn’t get anything to do in this movie he he pushed into a he’s pushed into a secondary role because they have the buyon character and then he’s only allowed to step forward to the end because she’s not available and even then the final scenes it’s just him going like get her Jackie get her lock her up lock her up like this is a this is a an award-winning Broadway actor and they give him nothing to do and he brings great presence to every scene he’s in and they just don’t use him so man there’s just some decisions made in this film that there is a much better film in here I know I feel like we’ve said that a lot well we didn’t say that with fight valley because that movie was perfect but or or you guys said there was no saving it whatever I mean you know agree to disagree same same same idea uh but this one and the Jose Alder movie man it really feels so obvious how we could have made them better and U it’s little frustrating because this movie is what like two hours 10 minutes or something over two hours yeah 18 is its official oh my God yeah so imagine this was 90 minutes and cut out about like get rid of the buyon character great actress but that character just was not just just get rid of that get rid of it completely cut out a couple of the trauma line trauma story lines and then you might have something much better because this film wasn’t wasn’t critically well reviewed either um by by outs very average yeah very average and that’s what kind of that’s just I guess that’s what’s most disappointing about this movie is like I think for all of us we saw something there they had the talent they had the budget they had the um the good cinematography they had the locations but then they just wanted too much and we need less we just need less it was just it’s a weird thing to say out loud but this movie was too much and it needed less and it would been a lot more if it was even the stuff with her son Manny like and I think they both do a great job like some of that stuff landed like I I did enjoy but there wasn’t enough happiness like I wanted to see some happiness for them even the end of the movie is not really happy ending we want to remind people she essentially made 10K for an MMA fight and the end and the movie ends with them literally being homeless and having nowhere to go but they’re smiling she’s like she’s like I don’t know where we’re gonna go Manny and I’m like this is where you the find a place to go we’re just gonna find a place to live uh and again one example is so this throughout the movie they pushed this whole thing where she’s like I’m I’m big and you’re little and and big protects little and it’s these nicknames so she’s big he’s little those are the names they kind of try to sell so at the end when he finally speaks he breaks the silence he says says thank you big and it’s supposed to be this big emotional moment and it just doesn’t land if like if if they had not done all that setup and just had him call her mom at the end that would have I think I would have shed a tear I CED pretty easily in movies that would have got me the thank you big thing did nothing and again there’s just not enough moments where they B where all their bonding is over trauma there’s not one scene where like oh they go to the park or something and have a nice moment no everything’s like seven they hear there’s a horribly sad scene where they’re walking on the street and they hear the song that she knows that he sh sh just so on the nose just and it’s so sad it’s so sad and I’m like why why did you need more sadness here uh it’s tough it’s tough we even had the little kid have to piss himself you remember he pissed himself oh God like it was just like that’s there was so much there’s a whole scene of the kid pissing himself that brought back a lot of childhood tra that brought back a lot of childhood trauma for me I was I Was a Serial pants sweater I didn’t even see that when I’m watching my MMA film I kind of wish I hadn’t put this on wax but you know what this let wa wait we’re going I’m talk about ity some broom here there’s no time there’s no time so uh the big little thing that was one of many standout quotes from the film guys uh what quotes from the movie well first let’s say did they say the name of the movie we had a dispute about this already I said they they kind of didn’t but they literally did they absolutely teally did technically did they spiritually did not yes thank you Jen I’ll I’ll read the exact line uh after after her fight with Valentina Jackie goes home and sees her son and she’s just like I’m a little bruised up but I’m good she doesn’t emphasize that Sor the way she just says is I’m a little bruised up but I’m good so there’s no emphasis on bruised so it almost do the issue is if she just said I’m a little bruised I would say that it’s 100% said bruised up means that the the title is said but it’s not like a bruised pause it’s not a bruised declarative end so it it is is just forced in the middle of a line and thus it is technically there it’s not spiritually the same as when they repeat Roadhouse 800 times in the first 12 minutes of Roadhouse you guys know where the Roadhouse is I’m heading to the Roadhouse it’s 10 miles up the road to the Road House Down fight valley and turn right you’re at the road housee yeah but fight valley is well where’s fight valley you’ve never been to fight valley oh don’t go to fight valley I’m like wow I I can tell you’re not from fight valley yeah yeah they said a lot in this so this time they somehow only say the word bruised once and they don’t even emphasize it but Casey you’re satisfied with that they said it I was satisfied oh I was yeah okay no I was disappointed but also I was I didn’t think we’re going to get it so we got it the very was it the very final scene pretty much the the third to last line in the film yeah yeah I wish I wish he did look at the camera and wink but yeah what are you gonna do yes again give me some Joy give me a laugh um real quick we’re talking about Joy did you guys did you guys watch the ironclaw no yeah you didn’t see the ironclaw AK I haven’t watch I don’t watch movies except for this podcast very disappointing but the ironclaw I think when honestly a lot of similarity here a lot yeah that’s what I’m that’s what remind me but the ironclaw is a movie obviously uh based on the Von Erics and everything they actually had to make that story happier because the actual real story is too sad and that’s what this movie kind of hurts from it’s just too sad and even even even Theon even ironclaw they gave it kind of a happy ending even though it wasn’t a happy ending but you kind of felt happy at the end of the iron claw this movie I guess they were trying to do that with the whole uh the kid talked but they’re still homeless yeah thank you big yeah I saw what they were trying to do it just didn’t hit and the ironcloud is a great movie I highly recommend everyone watch it um but um very sad movie very sad movie Casual Friday yeah but no but iron is incredibly sad but they but I didn’t it didn’t feel like I didn’t feel like trauma porn like this movie was like it’s such a fine line and Bru didn’t didn’t hit it I hadn’t I did not consider the ironclaw like I just hadn’t thought about it in this context but you bring up a really good point Casey because I do think one of the fundamental failings like if I we you know if I could change anything it would be an editor and I would get rid of the entire budon plot um there’s just too much that’s the main one yeah and the film would still work if you just did that but if I could kind of make two changes and I hadn’t really thought about this until you just kind of crystallized it in my head because there is no levity there is no happiness there is nothing to attach to the sadness in Iron Claw is more substantive because you you have moments of joy and and happiness and here’s I don’t remember any of the characters names um here’s High School Musical dude who looks real weird but he’s with his wife and here he is hanging out with his brothers and there’s the interpersonal connection here and there’s a positive moment which can then show in contrast to yet another brother dying because that movie is just Relentless onslaught of Brothers dying and so it is sadder like I felt more sad watching ironclaw which you know like that’s that’s what it is trying to evoke those emotions out of you this one I immediately was like this is horrible and then because I stayed in a a constant state of everything happening is unfortunate there was no like oh now when when she says I can’t believe you you know Mom let them rape me that doesn’t land in the same way that punch would land if I didn’t see it coming because I’ve got my guard up like what other bad shit’s about to happen here and so it does and it’s like oh here it is here’s the next bad thing there is no contrast of joy in it and the film desperately needed that to land more effectively like you said AK the stuff at the end that goes over better if there are happier moments in the middle somewhere but because it is just tacked on the end it doesn’t it doesn’t hit yeah like how great would the scene would have been like you know again the one where they hear the song that the kid knows and makes them sad if she had changed the radio or change and then put on like a different song like oh then they’re suddenly happy together and that’s their song now the budha all the budun scenes If instead of those those scenes are her relating with her child in a way that is fun and and interesting this movie is a 10 times better like honestly instead of her going to the diner and talking about life with the character who kind of doesn’t have a payoff or serve a purpose it’s just like hey you and me are going to go to the zoo today and hang out with the platypuses or whatever like it would just be a substantially better film yeah I guess when when they when they when they started pushing the Buddha con relationship ship with her and Jackie Justice I was as a viewer I was actually really disappointed cuz I I like like like Jed said like I had my guard up and I was like H they’re throwing more when because he knew when they started making out exactly’s going you knew was gonna happen it’s like no I I thought this would be like I don’t know there there was something they they went to the obvious because we all kind of felt it g be like oh don’t but don’t do it and then they did do it and it was just like I think yeah it was just you needed something a different movie yeah that is a different movie shoehorned into this movie because I think you’re the one who said it you know hi Berry just wanted to put it all on all out there she had all of this and she wanted to get it all and it it it just doesn’t fit this movie is a more linear successful film if the budha if it is either about budon and that relationship or do about Jackie Justice and her son and that relationship it cannot be about both yeah again we will say uh this you know this sort of relationship and that particular the lesbian sex scene was someone important to hie she did mention an interview she said um she’s very used to of course being in love scenes that are filmed by male directors so it it’s very empowering for her to sort of film her own love scene uh so yes whether that makes the scene work and or not or enjoyable or not is debatable but you know good for her as we said she wanted to throw a lot of stuff in that was clearly I think very very clearly a Halle Berry call and uh listen she’s living her truth with this film you know that’s that’s for sure this is Joint yeah it’s a good scene it just doesn’t it it detracts from the rest of the movie because there too many thing like getting rid of Buon and just having um Stephen Wilkerson is that his name right steephen McKinley Henderson Stephen McKinley Henderson yeah just having him be the coach and not even elevating his character much like just doing doing the budhan stuff and then or one inspirational speech give us one like positive inspirational speech just one just one sports movie thing one speech and then the rest of the time she’s hanging out with her son and they’re developing a relationship and so when he speaks to her it is more meaningful as opposed to I’m still not sure why he speaks to her in the confines of the movie because just prior to this he stopped living with her because she was a bad parent so it’s yeah it it has some real edit editing failures in this I can’t I kind of wonder if they would to change Bon’s character has just like a training partner in the gym or something I don’t know and and then the was like was was the actual coach he was the actual coach and then you met this training partner who also is also going through these troubles too in life because she was a former addict too I think they they mentioned she was an addict um I think alcoholic um and I don’t know it was just yeah yeah it just once they threw that in I was just I think yeah I think it just made the movie too much and then it was just it was just hard to go back from that if you’re if you’re going to stack the deck against the character you can only stack them so high or you better be prepared to find a way to resolve all those things in a mostly satisfactory Manner and there’s so many threads like we said by the end of movie all we know is she has $10,000 in her pocket for tax and no place no place to live and she still has she’s still a single mom she still has a son who is just starting to come out of his shell thank goodness but it’s it’s not enough optimism at the end considering because they stacked the deck too high there’s so much unresolved I’m not saying it all has to be resolved at once it’s not magically resolved in one day but you just don’t even get a hint that some of this stuff is going to be dealt with properly it’s it’s rough it’s it’s rough to it’s a rough thing to swallow down at the end um I want to just get in my favorite quote from the movie real quick yeah yeah we just touch upon it quickly uh Jackie early on says I think this is after she beats up werewolf or something she oh no sorry it’s after she losed her job because the the the uh kid who she’s house she’s cleaning for is a freaking pervert um she says after she roughs him up she she tells her manager booyfriend uh that was super unnecessary and it’s not I don’t love this because it was a reference to whatever the Jorge mol thing which it just happened I think the year before this movie but because that’s the only filming it yeah that’s like the only MMA line they kind of throw in there they they don’t get cute with it there not like in between rounds Valentina going like I’m not impressed by your performance or anything like that they they threw in one line to let them know like hey we like MMA and we thought this line is really cool and and it fits the scene it fits the movie and that’s it they did not try and shoehorn more Ane dialogue in and so it’s the it’s the ABS of it that I’m really appreciating here I don’t know if you guys got any any good lines that you loved um my favorite line oh sorry my favorite line is uh just Eve Edwards in the final fight scene he is that you know he’s he’s commentating with uh Julie Ki and at some point I don’t remember what round or whatever he just says revenge is a dish best served on the feet which is uh just a terrific stupid line like it’s a terrific bad movie line and uh I like it a lot that’s my favorite line can you use that can I see you tweet that somewhere in the future like there’s a big knockout or something at some point look every Alex preira fight is defined by that of oh you took me down revenge is a dish best served on the feet that and uh you have to destroy the play what is it you have to kill the Playboys kill the Playboys kill the play annihilate the Playboys annihilate the Playboys annihilate annihilate the Playboys lines in movie shout out alic Casey any big lines here my favorite line because just so such a writer you can tell a writer wrote this in a coffee shop they were like yes when budon is uh coaching Jackie Justice and budon says you have to level change and if you don’t mix it up she will level you so bad that’s good that’s good good advice it’s catchy it’s easy to remember I like I like that said that I was just like wow like we’re we’re we’re going to get to the review in a second uh first do we all agree if Jackie goad talk about this at all right I I don’t know I don’t remember exactly the part of the film this happened in the middle of training montage there was a rendition of Hallelujah in the movie remember why was that this this is when she’s finally starting to turn things are kind of starting to turn to turn around she’s she’s getting rid of almost all the alcohol I don’t think she gets rid of the spray bottle but she’s like doing her best she’s she’s she’s pouring out all the bottles of alcohol her terrible horrible boyfriend manager is kind of just like wandering the streets and I think catches up with some of his old buddies I think we see buddon as well like there’s some they’re kind of hinting like this is this is the part of the movie where we see her in Earnest start becoming a fighter again she’s fighting back Casey she’s retaking control unfortunately that scene is followed by again six other scenes of just horrible horrible horrible stuff so it doesn’t really work but again that freaks of first time directing itis like you know Hal bar was I had this scene in mind like can we get Hallelujah can we get a version of Hallelujah in there like this gonna be so powerful but it just doesn’t land that well with everything that happened before and whatever happens after yeah it was just yeah I was just like oh it’s just too much I know too much it’s it you could see again we all have I think a scene in our mind like man I would love to take this song and like I do a montage to this and that’s what she wanted and she got it and you know what uh mileage may vary do we all agree Jackie if she continued let’s let’s pretend she gets some more money and actually gets back on track she would be a title contender in the UFC she’s again she’s a bit up there in age she’s a bit up there in age but I think she title Contender no but I do think she’d be you know top 15 top 25 based on what we know from the movie and sort of getting robbed out of a decision win over the victed Champion you scor for historically I think Jackie based on the edit looks like she should have won that fight um but couple of close rounds in there not a robbery I guess maybe um just because she the rounds she lost were definitive but uh seemed like she probably won the fight but you know invictor Champions have a track record of success in UFC she functionally was an invict should or could have been an invictor Champion a little older so I’m not sure she’d actually fight for the title but top 20 top 15 flyweight for sure yeah we should be clear it is she does fight for the flyweight title on this um she’s definitely picking up some fight of the nights I think maybe um maybe a uh a performance bonus get a slick submission in there she’s tapping somebody out Casey she clearly is UFC level I would even say she’s like maybe like a Lauren Murphy type of fighter like that’s a good comparison like hell of a chin take a beating but in the end it was really her ground game that’s going to lead her to success and and you know up up there in age um I know Laura Murphy had come has come back from some substance abuse problems in the past he’s mention very about it yeah very open about yeah so hey man bruised actually the Lauren Murphy story it like if I was Lauren Murphy I would be like I wish I I wish I could have at least like been in this movie like I wish I could have had a part in this movie or some and even some Consulting because yeah she she had a she had a rocky road she had a rocky road to becomeing a world TI it’s a great it’s a great story Laur the Lauren Murphy story is great too like like yeah it’s kind of weird like just just do a biopic on Lauren Murphy and then Lauren Murphy just losing a not sure hi Berry could play Lauren Murphy Susie Cel though Susie Cel I uh yes um hey hey and Lauren Murphy and haly Berry both lost fights to Lucia Chavez Lu the lady killer yeah uh I think we will also agree though that um if she moved up to 135 she’s just gonna win the title not win the title because uh Kayla’s there now but she probably everyone gets to fight made 135 yet yeah that’s true she technically has not made 135 on the dot yet uh but yeah Jackie Justice Hal Berry Bravo a great performance and and I think one of the better I I would pick her to beat up like KNX I like there’s a lot of there’s a lot of people in these other movies that she she would clear out fight valley like I don’t think I would pick her to beat up Knox Knox went Toe totoe with Knox just went toe-to-toe with Dalton who was the middleweight champion of the world for he never was that was hold on that was overturned for Via murder 12 cont no contest via murder we are murder he was never the the not recognize we do not recognize him as a middleweight champ uncrowned champ and knock Toe to Toe with him I still rank him above the dead Jay Heron I’m just saying sure he he won fight yes J was dead Jon lost the fight and the war guys wa 18 months he’s out of the rankings okay let’s uh let’s review this movie Casey I don’t know if you want to put a fancy graphic on now or do you want us to do oh we should review first we should review first I’m sorry yeah yeah well I have a Graphic for how we rate all the movies of course of course let’s let’s uh let’s prepare guys get your fists ready again everyone this is a uh each of us has up to two fists so it’s a six fist System case if we can get a a drum roll please here and we’ll show our drum roll we will show our fists we’ll show our fists knuckle up [Music] boys oh Jed went with one wow I’m a little surprised one for me as well Casey zero so for our podcast listeners one from Jed one for me Zero from Casey I thought I thought Casey was gonna give one and Jed you were gonna give zero so uh Casey first why the why the zero I am an editor at heart oh and this it’s gonna be a tough movie for you then this movie need to be edited it needed to be edited um you you you said it great earlier AK uh what you say she had Direct director Titus or something I don’t know first first time first time director itis yeah first time director itis and and it really hurt and she needed a editor that was going to be ruthless and that this movie needed a ruthless editor and editors have to be ruthless you got to we always say you got to kill your babies a lot and yeah I know I know Hal Berry wanted to direct her own her own sex scene or whatever but it had to go and that was just th those are just too much for me just too much and and um yeah so in the end and and like like I kind of talked about this in the the Aldo movie I did not like how they put the the um domestic violence kind of aspect in that movie but really with no resolution or real no real conversation on it and this movie they just the way they just way she just dropped in the rape and the incest it was just no I was just like you can’t do that sorry you can’t do that it’s just too much and um because of that I unfortunately I had to give it no fist but um great effort what like I said Watch the watch the last Act of the film just watch the skip the first two uh 40 uh hour and a half watch the last act and then I think the film is fine but otherwise it’s too much Jade you had a lot of similar complaints so I’m a little surprised so how did it earn how did it actually earn a fist on your scorecard so I felt really conflicted trying to figure out where I wanted to kind of put this for my scoring and I have to this point given if if it’s two fist I think the movie is great and I would actively tell friends to watch it that’s kind of my Baseline and if it’s one fist it’s I would not dissuade people from watching so yeah that’s it’s a reasonable film to watch it and I think this just clears that bar because I like I have all the same issues Casey has with it I do think it does enough things well that it deserves better than fight valley I if that’s a simple way to put it the acting in this film is very good the story is a little bit jumbled and certainly needs editing but overall you’re getting something that is a real piece of film making there are enough hot and and the final scene alone is good enough that if you’re just an MMA fan and can make it through the two hours before I guess the hour and 45 minutes until the final scene you get paid off in the end with that maybe if not in the story arcs and so because it is you know it has good cinematography the score is good the the dialogue is honestly not that bad it is just it has that one major flaw that holds it down I still don’t think that if if someone I knew was like Hey I’m going to check out Bru have you seen it I’d be like yeah uh I would certainly let him know it’s not a happy time but I wouldn’t be like you should not watch that and so it’s it’s going to get a fist for me interesting well this puts us into oh I’ll oh sorry I’ll quickly explain my review uh again that final fight scene really is just enough just based on that and and I did enjoy some of the drama I I thought Hal Barry and the young actor who played Manny there was a connection there I just wish they could have let them have a little more F they I say they she directed herself I wish there could have been a little more fun in there a little more that kind of bonding as opposed to just trauma bonding which is you know a real it’s a thing in real life it’s not the most compelling thing to watch on um on screen that’s St so we needed more of that but overall I thought the the fighting content was solid I don’t want to say I loved the movie or even particularly enjoyed it but I didn’t like regret watching it I haven’t regretted really I haven’t regretted watching watching any of the films we’ve done guys but this is this is so this is two out of six we have a conundrum here guys we have our first tie we our first tie so uh Casey before I say how we’re goingon to settle this could you um could you throw up sort of uh our our tier list of what is so far the five greatest MMA movies of all movies of all time yeah this is the this is the fan of let’s so again in progress obviously guys in progress but science takes time so there it is we have Blood and Bone at number one M for K Mundo at number two Roadhouse number three fight valley number four h and brw is unranked it’s not number five it’s unranked yeah right so uh it is Brew by our math it will move above pite Valley again agree to disagree uh and it will tie with Road House which we also gave two out of six now here’s how we’re going to decide this Casey I remember you gave Roadhouse a fist yes you gave Roadhouse a fist because I gave it no fists so clearly you and I are on the opposite sides of this so my vote would be to have bruised ahead of roadh house your vote would have to be to have bruised behind Road House Jed you will be the decider here you will be the I think you have to be the decider one right now it’s one for Bru I hate it yeah one for Roadhouse Jen where’s this gonna go does this go before is this number three or number four I have to put this at four oh I don’t feel good about that decision frankly but one of these movies while I think is objectively I think objectively bruise is a better film than Roadhouse because Roadhouse has so many huge problems with it one of them I would watch again and one I would not and the one I would watch again is Roadhouse I might not be stoked about it but there are at least there’s levity there’s joy to it the opening hour prior to Connor’s arrival is quite good um so I think that that’s going to elevate it above if if I have to because I think if if I had two friends come up to me like I got to pick between watching these two movies I would send them to Road housee more than fair I do think we all agree uh we would take if we could take just one scene we would all pick the fight scene from bruised over anything in roadh house okay but if we’re taking the movies I honestly pick the fight scene in bruised over anything in any of the movies we have watched thus far Blood and Bones some good stuff in there Susie celic every time she’s on screen in a true MMA fight yeah Bru by far mixed martial arts fight yeah bru one scene that one scene stands out it is unfortunate that it’s just not a particularly enjoyable watch and I think this is I think we are making this list not just for like hardcore ciles but for people who are looking for a martial arts film to kind of sit down and enjoy it’s it’s a tough ass to get people to sit through the entirety of Bruce just to get to that one scene which is worth it it’s great but if I you’re right if someone said I’m looking for a martial arts movie to have have enjoy Roadhouse bruised nine out of 10 people are probably going to want to watch Roadhouse instead a weird thing because I know Bru is a better much better movie we all know this we all than say fight valley but some reason like I don’t I don’t like saying this out loud I actually enjoyed watching fight valley more than Bruce that’s insane that’s not insane there you go finally finally we have gotten this is all of this was so I could get Casey to this point yes Casey go on because fight valley was shot on a couple of iPhones by like by like Junior High kids and what and for and for a budget of $14 and and far as we know no women by the way were involved in the creative side like I don’t all all men I mean and I Val Am Bru had both two very unnecessary lesbian sex scenes but I don’t know for some reason like I I I I don’t know I I enjoyed watching how bad fight valley was was then cuz Bruce had potential and like the potential that’s what that’s what kind of hurts me cuz like there was so much money and talent that went into bruised even like even look at this poster that’s a great poster that looks freaking cool you know that’s a very well-designed poster have all the posters on the screen this it looks the best so there were so many there were so many talented artists that went into bruised it just we we’ve said it a million times it was just too much and I kind of and I almost kind of hate it now because of that because it could have been something and it didn’t you know that lost potential I just love but F Valley never had potential I love the poster now F Valley made me angry with how bad it was I stand by it I stand by it it oh listen it is offici that’s just me it is officially the fifth greatest mime movie of all time behind Bru behind Road house behind the strong stronger than the world and behind Blood and Bone so I have any say in it it will be the the last every time as long as I can keep putting that thing in the back we got nope we got a lot of OB Something’s Gonna Get zero fists eventually my one fist will save fight Valley from ignominy so next week guys we’ve said after uh strongest stronger than the world we said boy we need a movie that has some strong female characters I think we got that this week so there you go that’s checked off now after both these movies we need something with joy we need something with levity I have not seen this movie but it has Kevin James in it so I imagine there has to be at least a few in here we’re going to close out our first season of this is Cinema with uh the very popular MMA comedy Here Comes the Boom staring starring many M Fighters came this is going to be number one at the end of the season I hope so because I thought Roadhouse was going to hold on to that number one spot for a while and it held on for about what a week a week or two I don’t even know so and then gave it up you know I’m just glad we talk about fight valley so much guys fight valley I I should remind every week that’s free to watch on YouTube fre on YouTube free to watch cost you nothing cost you nothing it’s a 90 minutes 90 YouTube it’s on YouTube there’s full frontal nudity spoiler yeah and if you watch and if you and listen if you watch it two time speed 45 minutes so really you have no reason you have no reason not to watch fight valley reasons not to no uh next week here call the boom thank you JMU thank you Cas lien uh it has been so much fun and I can’t wait to actually have fun watching a movie yeah God so uh thanks to everyone for listening and we will see you next time love you all

Halle Berry kicks ass!

On the latest episode of This is CineMMA, the MMA Fighting movie review crew walk the long road back to redemption with the 2020 drama “Bruised,” written, directed, and starring Berry. The Academy Award-winning actress plays Jackie Justice, a onetime #UFC star who gets a second chance to kickstart her cagefighting career when she gets the offer to fight an #InvictaFC champion, played by Valentina Shevchenko. But will Justice’s traumatic past derail her ambitions?

In our second crack at reviewing a female-led MMA drama (shout-out to Fight Valley!), Alexander K. Lee, Jed Meshew, and E. Casey Leydon pay respect to Berry and Shevchenko’s incredible work, while also pointing out what the film gets right and what it gets wrong about the world of fighting.

Is Berry vs. Shevchenko one of the best fight scenes ever? How much trauma can one character take? And what did they do with Invicta FC boss Shannon Knapp in this movie?

Mend your wounds and spend some time with us for the answers to these questions and more.

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