William Rockman, a champion "Terminal Combat" fighter who retired from the sport after accidentally killing a young man while training. Five years after his retirement, Terminal Combat has been banned by the government and has gone underground. The "new" Terminal Combat is just that; one combatant in each match usually does not live to tell about the experience. When Rockman's younger brother is killed in one of the underground matches by his old rival, the King, Rockman enters the tournament to exact revenge on the King, not knowing that the King and his wife, Daria, have been enslaved by Max Brito, the tournament's greedy promoter.
Reviews
"Champions" asks you to give up all your usual demands from movies (script: formulaic, the millionth rip-off of "Kickboxer", direction: shoddy, acting: terrible, even Danny Trejo goes through the motions, production values: none to be found), and concentrate on the fighting. For this strategy to work, the fighting had better be damn good. The fighting in "Champions" is appropriately violent and has its moments, but too often it is slow and not very well-captured by the camera. But the worst part of the movie is the last 15 minutes, when it turns from a "revenge / illegal fighting tournament" story to a "ludicrously easy escape" story. The promised big showdown never comes, and the two would-be opponents agree that "the only thing between us is friendship"! Ugh. (*)
Erm! What can I say? This is dreadful, the voice over is appalling, "all too frightfully pseudy for words, dear boy", the acting is stilted, only in the fight scenes does this even begin to lumber into any kind of life. Louis Mandylor is one of my favourite actors, and when given the opportunity, he has a natural talent, charm and good comic timing, it's obvious he's a naturally gifted boxer as well, but this kind of thing on his cv can do him no good at all.The video box promotes the presence of Ken Shamrock from American Gladiators, I suspect that this will do his cv no good either.A Turkey? I can hear the gobbling from here!
This movie wasn't meant for you to think while you watched it. It's about violence and sex and nudity, plain and simple. Don't try to analyze and deep psychological meaning to it, there isn't any. It is more of a popcorn action flick than anything, it's more funny than it truly intends to be. While the whole concept is interesting, it should and could have been done a little better. This movie is more along the lines of a Jean Claude van Damme flick than a Ken Shamrock thing. You could have replaced Shamrock with van Damme and hardly told a difference, except for the accent. This movie would be great fodder for a show like MST3K.
I really was NOT impressed with this film. The only reason why I rented it was because of the starring roles of former UFC champion Ken Shamrock and former American Gladiator Lee Reherman (Hawk). I used to watch "American Gladiators" religiously, and knowing the projects that other "AG" alumni have been involved in, seeing Reherman in such a bad flick was disheartening (and he wasn't even my favorite Gladiator!). After all, Deron McBee, who played Malibu, got a part in the big budget "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation," to name one. As for Shamrock, his part is merely a blend of his UFC and WWF personae; no stretch at all. Despite me actually staying awake for this movie, I really couldn't get into it. Too many boobs, too much bad acting, no substance.If you're a fan of either Shamrock or "American Gladiators," you just might want to find this one at the video store, if only to see your favorites. Otherwise, leave it and keep scanning the shelves.
