UNDISPUTED 2: LAST MAN STANDING (2006, Isaac Florentine)

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A professional boxer and former felon thinks he's done fighting in illegal prison tournaments. The Russian mob has other ideas.

Starring  Michael Jai White, Scott Adkins, Ben Cross, Eli Danker, Mark Ivanir, Ken Lerner

Written by  James Townsend, David N White   

Produced by  Boaz Davidson, David Varod, Danny Dimbort   

Duration  94 minutes   

 

When it comes to action movies, I have a secret shame. A shame that causes me no little anguish.

A little background. Growing up, it was all Arnie. COMMANDO, THE TERMINATOR(S), PREDATOR, TOTAL RECALL. And to a lesser extent, LAST ACTION HERO and THE RUNNING MAN. Although not RAW DEAL, never that one. (Does anyone out there actually like RAW DEAL?)

Later, I started to warm up to Stallone, as well: FIRST BLOOD, TANGO & CASH, DEMOLITION MAN and (especially) CLIFFHANGER. I would also come to respect how he could write and direct, too.

Between those two titans, there was always a smattering of Willis, Van-Damme, Lundgren and Seagal in between.

But as the 1990s drew to a close, so did the box office dominance of these muscle men. I consider FACE/OFF (1997) to be the last great 'classic' studio action picture. BLADE made a solid impression a year later, but showed worrying signs of ushering in the superhero apocalypse that was to come. Then the most overrated movie of the 20th Century, THE MATRIX, hit big in 1999, ensuring that nerds' fantasies of breaking free from drudgery to wear costumes and wield special powers would dominate action cinema for the next 25 years.

So, the age of the R-rated/18-certificate action movie was over. I gritted my teeth as the appeal grew broader, CGI started to dominate, and the mayhem got watered down. Adapting from source material for people who still need their books to have pictures became the norm. A little part of me died; I mourned by keeping my physical media collection, and keeping it close.

This is the source of my shame. That I gave up. That I rolled over like a cowardly henchman in the final stretch, when he realises he that he has no chance against the hero.

And yet, it wasn't over. Not really. Like a tournament in a JCVD movie, the action scene merely went underground. It just carried on in the direct-to-video market, which is still flourishing today. (The term 'DTV' endures, even if we've long moved past going direct to video or even DVD and into the age of streaming.)

The budgets went down. The aging stars adjusted. New icons emerged. The quality may be patchy, but no more than it ever was.

Diving into the DTV action pool is well overdue for me – although, in my defense, I did recently check out the rightly lauded latter-day UNIVERSAL SOLDIER sequels, REGENERATION and DAY OF RECKONING. 

And handily, the players involved with UNDISPUTED 2: LAST MAN STANDING happen to make it a pretty good DTV action primer. For starters, director Isaac Florentine (NINJA, ACTS OF VENGEANCE) is one of the sub-genre's leading helmers. Star Michael Jai White (SPAWN, EXIT WOUNDS), meanwhile, is a charismatic leading man – and if you've never seen his hilarious BLACK DYNAMITE, please do. 

But as well as those two, UNDISPUTED 2 features Birmingham-born Scott Adkins (ACCIDENT MAN, CLOSE RANGE). He's the poster boy of DTV action, as well as occasionally dipping his lethal toe into Hollywood's waters: THE EXPENDABLES 2, ZERO DARK THIRTY, JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4.

So, watching UNDISPUTED 2: LAST MAN STANDING, then. First thing to note is that it's not to be confused with this movie. The director of that, Walter Hill, actually helmed the first UNDISPUTED, as well as middling Arnie vehicle RED HEAT. Do try to keep up at the back.

Anyway, Michael Jai White plays George Chambers, a boxer who, as played by Ving Rhames in UNDISPUTED 1, won a prison boxing tournament and was then released. We catch up with him as he's trying to get his professional punching people career back on track. Currently, he's touring Russia, while doing a Bill Murray in LOST IN TRANSLATION on the side: hawking booze in cheesy commercials.

This film is set in a world in which the mega-rich elite watch privately televised mixed martial arts fights between hardened cons, broadcast straight from the prison and run by the Russian mob. Currently, this pseudo-sport is dominated by Atkins' character. He enters the ring like a celebrity: hood up, the crowd chanting his name: "Boyka! Boyka! Boyka!" There may as well have been entry music.

Since Boyka tends to obliterate any mug foolish enough to touch gloves with him, no one is bothering to bet anymore. The mob's solution? Frame former champ and Mike Tyson-substitute Chambers for cocaine trafficking and throw him in the same slammer, putting him on a collision course with the mighty Boyka.

Look, I'm going to be honest. Boxing has never done much for me. Mostly over in a couple of rounds, primarily two fighters grappling up close and rarely landing any blows. And yet it's surrounded by immense hype, the fighters slag each other off in the press, etc.

MMA, however, I think I could get into. All I've seen of it comes from the movies, but it seems a lot more dynamic: spinning kicks, throws, exotic combos. And that's certainly what we get here. Florentine shoots the bouts with intensity, keeping both fighters in frame most of the time, giving a good sense of where they are in relation to each other. But also going in tight for some brutal close-ups and sprinkling a little slo-mo here and there. Plenty of blood flying out, bones breaking. Lovely.

UNDISPUTED 2 is not only an unlikely sequel – the Hill-directed original hardly set the world alight – but it also birthed a further two instalments. Both of which featuring Boyka as the hero

That Adkins, I'm telling ya. The hardest man to ever come out of the Midlands. Our beloved action genre is in good, sweaty, blood-caked hands. Long may it continue, and shame be damned. Everybody: "Boyka! Boyka! Boyka!"

Three stars out of five.

 

 

Valid use of the word ‘last’?  If you lose one of these fights, you are not the one who remains vertical. So, yeah, I'd say so.

What would FIRST MAN STANDING be like?  A tournament film focusing on a fan who is always the first to get off his feet and start applauding during the fights.

 

Previously:  THE LAST KISS

Next time:  THE LAST BUS

Check out my books:  Jonathanlastauthor.com