John Allman

If you’ve ever wandered the aisles at the video store or surfed the DVR pay-per-view options and seen a bunch of movies that you’ve never heard of, chances are John has watched them. Why? He loves movies. All kinds of movies. Good, bad, so-bad-they’re good, even the truly unwatchable ones. He mostly loves horror and science-fiction and drive-in exploitation movies that most upstanding model citizens wouldn’t dare watch. Then he writes up his thoughts so you can decide - watch, don’t watch or avoid at all costs. Sometimes he even gets to talk to the cool folks who make some of your favorite films.

 Blood, Violence and Babes
 John Allman

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The Tournament

Posted Nov 11, 2009 by John Allman

Updated Nov 11, 2009 at 07:35 AM

The Tournament
Genre: Action
Directed by: Scott Mann
Run time: 95 minutes
Rating: R
Format: DVD

The Lowdown: A tight, taunt, bloody head-exploding good thriller, “The Tournament” takes the low-budget, older 1997 release “Mean Guns” premise and adds a mostly A-and-B-plus cast.

“The Tournament” spins on a solid but unlikely storyline: Every seven years, 30 of the world’s greatest assassins are gathered in an unsuspecting city somewhere on the globe and given 24 hours to off one another. The last remaining assassin gets $10 million and everyone who bet on that person gets considerably more.

“Mean Guns” featured genre heroes Ice-T and Christopher Lambert, who are no stranger to good, B-grade action flicks.

“The Tournament” has Robert Carlyle, Ving Rhames and Kelly Hu, plus a colorful turn by Ian Somerhalder as a reckless Texas killer.

Hu is hot, Rhames does his best Marsellus Wallace going medieval and Carlyle plays a drunk priest who gets mistaken for an assassin.

There’s enough exploding bodies, blown-off appendages and splattered blood to satisfy gorehounds. And action fans will enjoy the way director Scott Mann handles the pace and keeps the plot hurtling forward.

This one is unexpectedly good.

The Stuff You Care About:
Hot chicks – Who’s hot? Kelly Hu, that’s who.
Nudity – Brief.
Gore – Yes.
Drug use – No.
Bad Guys/Killers – They’re all killers.
Buy/Rent – Rent it.
Release Date – Oct. 20, 2009