Today’s quick review: Die Fighting. After years of honing their martial arts skills in Hong Kong, Fabien Garcia (Fabien Garcia) and the rest of the Z Team (Jess Allen, Laurent “Lohan” Buson, and Didier Buson) try to break into Hollywood. Their best attempts come up short until an anonymous filmmaker drags them into a movie of his own. Kidnapping Fabien’s girlfriend, he forces the stuntmen through a gauntlet of real fights for the camera.
Die Fighting is a budget martial arts action movie about an aspiring stunt team thrust into a real life-or-death situation. The premise is a thinly veiled excuse for the Z Team to show off their martial arts prowess. The plot is next to nonexistent, a series of arbitrary fights dictated by the filmmaker. The acting is amateurish, and the direction is adequate but noticeably flawed. As a story, Die Fighting brings little to the table.
The film’s one saving grace is its stunt work. The Z Team has genuine skill at martial arts, and the movie gives them ample opportunity to showcase it. The fights are fast, crisp, and packed with athletic feats. However, the film fails to make the most of its fighters’ talent. The fights never show much creativity, taking place in the same types of locations with the same thin justifications and a bare minimum of props to vary things up.
Die Fighting makes for a decent popcorn watch if you’re amenable to budget movies and in the mood for some mindless action. Even if its stunts aren’t put to the best use, they are impressive enough on their own to entertain. But anyone looking for anything close to the full movie experience will be disappointed. Most viewers will be better off with one of the many other films in the action or martial arts genres.
For a similar flavor of martial arts action, try the work of Jet Li. For a violent martial arts movie that makes much more out of a similarly limited premise, try The Raid: Redemption. For a death match between assassins with more variety and a slightly bigger budget, try The Tournament. For a more outrageous, tongue-in-cheek action movie about a man forced to commit crimes, try Crank.
4.8 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 5.5 for strong stunt work held back by poor execution of almost everything else.