REVIEW: ‘Beyond the Ring’ (2008)

Brazilian-American Taekwondo Master Andre Lima stars with his wife Christianny Lima and daughter Aycha in this low-budget, mixed martial arts drama directed by Gerson Sanginitto (MAXIMUM CAGE FIGHTING) with action direction from J.J. Perry (UNDISPUTED 2). It’s a slow-moving, poorly-acted production with limited action, weak direction and underdeveloped plot and characters, and an awkward supporting performance from veteran character actor Gary Busey. On the plus side, the film possesses a family-friendly story with a positive message, Martin Kove’s (THE KARATE KID) supporting performance is solid and Perry’s MMA choreography at the end of the film is excellent.

For martial arts movie fans there is only one reason to see this film and it’s probably not enough justification to actually sit through the whole thing. That reason would be the film’s only substantial fight sequence, which takes place after a couple forgettable sparring sessions and at the end when Lima takes on AMERICAN GLADIATOR veteran Justice Smith in an underground match in an effort to raise money to pay for a life-saving operation for his ailing daughter.

J.J. Perry is listed as fight director and second unit director which tells me he was likely action director for the film, meaning he probably took over shooting and editing, at least during the end fight sequence. Further evidence is provided by the sequence itself. Aside from the sparsely decorated, no-budget venue, the film suddenly comes alive with tight editing, mildly stylized camera placement and killer MMA fight choreography grounded by authentic moves competently arranged. The surprise here isn’t Perry’s ability. He’s one of the best fight choreographers working in Hollywood right now and previously proved it by producing exceptional MMA fight sequences for action director Isaac Florentine’s UNDISPUTED 2. No, the surprise is that Perry contributed to this movie at all. Perhaps he was doing Lima a favor because his skills are largely wasted on this film.

The script, with its rambling dialogue and amateur twists, is fatally flawed from conception. There is nothing to drive the narrative forward besides Lima’s need to help his daughter after it’s discovered that she has a brain tumor. So, for roughly an hour we get uninteresting, non-action filler that amounts to Lima bonding with his dutiful teenage son, coming to terms with his past as an underfed orphan in Brazil, getting bamboozled by his agent (Busey) in an idiotic scheme to fix Lima’s fight with underground fight champion Zulu (Smith), and going through prerequisite fight training montages backed by cheesy 1980s-style rock music that sounds like a watered down rip-off of classic Sammy Hagar and Survivor tunes.

Although the script is bad, everyone’s acting apart from Kove is atrocious and Gerson Sanginitto’s direction is directionless, I still get the sense that deep down there is a decent movie here that could have filled a gap in the martial arts genre had it been executed better. So many action movies today are all style and no substance, where fighting heroes are portrayed as stereotypes. As an MMA film, BEYOND THE RING falls into the same pattern of other similar genre films by relying on the underground fighting gimmick but I respect Lima and his associates for at least attempting to keep the narrative grounded in reality and MMA authenticity unlike NEVER SURRENDER which had more MMA stars involved but ended up being an exploitation film with no redeeming qualities.

At its heart, BEYOND THE RING is the story of a man who used martial arts to overcome great adversity and build a better life for himself and his family despite the loss of his wife and the potential loss of his daughter. Yet pride and distrust leads him astray until he discovers that sometimes opening up and putting your trust in people who truly care about you is more important than relying only on your own strength and ability. This is where I found the relationship between Lima and his semi-estranged brother-in-law (Kove) to actually be touching. They spend the whole movie arguing and finally come to terms in the end only Lima’s character is humbled. There is definitely room for these kinds of human interst stories in martial arts cinema. This film didn’t do it right but David Mamet did with REDBELT and for that matter, John Avildson did it right with THE KARATE KID too. What’s heartening is that J.J. Perry is next getting a chance to apply his fight choreography to what looks to be a proper MMA drama, Gavin O’Connor’s WARRIOR.