Arena (2011) 6/10

Starring : Kellan Lutz, Samuel L Jackson, Johnny Messner, Katia Winter, Daniel Dae Kim, James Remar
Director : Jonah Loop
Running Time : 95 mins

Following the death of his wife and unborn child, David Lord (Lutz) heads to Acapulco to drown his sorrows. He meets a woman named Milla (Winter) and they head back to his place where he is tasered and kidnapped. He awakens to discover that he is being forced to take part in an online sensation called Death Games, a gladiatorial style contest run by a man named Logan (Jackson) in which competitors fight to the death to provide online entertainment.

Considering this went straight to video, this action movie wasn’t that bad. Stylistically speaking it doesn’t look that great, but a clever reference to blue screen early on in the movie puts paid to any complaints about the fighting sets. Fans of Jackson might find him a bit lazy in this, but I did like the scenes with the avid internet viewers and even though Lutz is pretty one-dimensional, he did a reasonable job in the role.

You’ll like this if you liked : Tekken