Raze

This was a great action/horror flick with excellent acting and many touching scenes as well as some gruesome ones. The characters bring you inside them and you feel the psychological torture that precedes the physical one. Each fight scene is unique and the dialogue is superbly crafted. You can feel the female touch in the making of this movie as the actors are not presented as titillation but as human beings undergoing the most extreme situation. I wish there was more elaboration on the purpose of the cult. It reminded me a bit of the atmosphere of Martyrs, bringing that sense of intrigue and shock. I would definitely see a sequel.

Normally you see this type of movie with men in the main roles and having a go at it. So you might find it refreshing seeing women "beating" each other (it's still just a movie, don't forget that). But it has the same downfalls as the movies with male fighters have. What the movie doesn't do, although they cast pretty women, is exploiting them, in the sense that you'll see them naked (you won't). It's also a nice touch having Zoe Bell in the main role. Some may know her as stunt woman, though recently she also took on some acting gigs. She does her job as good as the script allows it. But the main attraction is the "bad" woman in here. And I don't mean any uber villain, but one of the prisoners (Phoebe) who while is only looking out for herself, actually is the one that has all the highlights of the movie in the end

I'm going to start this review with a secret: I decided to watch this movie because it looked hot. I mean, hot chicks brawling in prison, there's bound to be at least a nip-slip and if it sucks, there's a good chance I'll see some nudity, so I still win. So, as soon as the girlfriend left, I pressed play. Then I saw Zoe Bell cave some chicks head in.... game changer, not what I was expecting at all. At that point I realized there probably won't be a lesbian shower scene. But, as soon as I recognized Zoe from "Death Proof" I got a little excited in another way because I also remembered that she's a freaking awesome stunt performer. From that point on, the movie went in the direction I hoped it would. The action was quality and ruthless. Zoe Bell should star in more action movies, she's one of the few females in Hollywood (I know she's Australian, but you know what I mean, don't be a smart ass.) that I could easily take seriously as an action hero. I'm not sexist, it's just that many women in Hollywood are super skinny and frail looking (like, how much would getting punched by Kate Beckinsale really hurt? seriously?). There were even moments in this movie where I uncontrollably cheered aloud, at home... by myself... in my underwear. For the people with children, if you're even considering showing this to your kids, you're a bad parent. For the dudes with significant others, you might want to watch this one alone. She probably won't like it, and she might question you're sanity because you'll like it.. which will probably come up again in some sort of fight 3 months later. So I recommend putting it on a shelf with the * and wait till she's out to watch it. For the ladies, if your the metal-head/horror movie type, you'll probably like this and somehow find it empowering. I just noticed that all I did was praise this movie and you're probably wondering why I gave it a 7? The story was a little weak and nothing can be perfect...except for "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" Dave

Words fail in describing how depraved this film is - or more accurately the filmmakers - but I'll try. It's one thing to make a file about attractive, scantily clad women who are forced to fight one another to amuse a group of sadistic rich people. That kind of exploitation has been around forever. But Raze takes it to a new extreme of brutal, senseless misogyny. I like watching a well-choreographed fight as well as the next person. But I really don't want to see a woman repeatedly pound the face of another one until nothing remains but a bloody pulp. These women are being forced to kill each other to protect their loved ones; but I don't understand what drives them to overkill, unless it is the deranged psycho-sexual desires of the people responsible for this film. It's horrible. And Josh Waller has become my new poster boy (replacing M. Night Shyamalan) for world's most incompetent, clueless film director. What I think bothers me most is the deceit behind the film listing Rachel Nichols as not only the star, but executive producer as well. What the hell? She is the first victim in the film and appears in it all of 10-15 minutes. (Except for a brief flashback that I guess somehow was put there to remind us she's in it.) Just long enough to have Zoe Bell pummel her enough times to spill her brains onto the floor for our viewing pleasure. I don't often suggest we take all the original footage of a movie and every copy that exists to an incinerator and burn it, but Raze has no redeeming social or entertainment value whatsoever. Truly the worst movie I have ever seen.

It is really good. Unfortunately a lot of people seem to watch it with the completely wrong ideas about it in their head. This movie is not about empowered women and it doesn't make any political statements. It shows how women from different walks of life act when thrown into an impossible situation. For this the organization who kidnaps them chose women who know how to fight or else the whole setup wouldn't make much sense. But it is not like your regular 90 minutes martial arts flick. There is nothing heroic about it. The directing, the lighting, the soundtrack - that's all closer to what you see in horror movies and they way they went about making this film reminded me a little bit of Saw. I gave it 7/10. The acting is damn good and the general mood of the movie is dark. The fighting isn't glorified and flashy like in your regular action movie where male fighters have to fight in a to-the-death tournament. It is extreme, unpretty and direct. If they had given the story a little bit more room for getting into the surroundings and the organization who's holding the fights I'd probably have given it an 8. A few things were to compressed in my opinion.

Gender twist on a familiar plot. Women are abducted and forced to fight each other to the death for the amusement of rich people. Rachel Nichols gets the Janet Leigh treatment, introduced as if she were the star but killed off very early. The real star is Zoë Bell, who's reunited with her Deathproof costars Tracie Thoms and Rosario Dawson (the latter of which is supposed to be a surprise but IMDb's trivia section spoiled it for me). Bell, for those who don't know, is an accomplished stuntwoman who's done surprisingly well when given acting jobs up until now. Here, however, I'll just say that as an actress Zoë makes a great stuntwoman. When it comes to squinting her way through action scenes, she's a regular Clint Eastwood. The rest of the time she's pretty weak. Rebecca Marshall chews scenery as the fighter who likes killing. Doug Jones and Sherilyn Fenn are the bad guys but they're sadly given little to work with. The fight scenes are brutal and bloody. I won't compliment them for their choreography as they aren't staged to be dramatic but to be realistic. How is that entertaining? I'll take Lionheart over this nauseating mess. Depressing ending is the cherry on top of the crap sundae.

Gritty brawler with some of the best fighting scenes since the Undisputed series. The plot is familiar, a tournament to the death amongst contenders who'd rather not be there, there's not much innovation in this film. However, where it doesn't innovate, it does brilliantly with its subject matter. The fights are all well choreographed and bloody. The thin veil of a storyline provides enough back story on the characters so that you get emotionally vested in the outcomes of the fights. Of particular note is Rebecca Marshall, her portrayal of Chloe is outstanding, channeling a crazy/psycho vibe that makes you want to watch her next match to see how she kills her opponent, yet at the same waiting for her demise. The weakest part of the movie is the ending.

Who doesn't like a decent, bare-fist (and kicks and what have you) cat fight? However the fights in this brutal film do not end at KOs, you guessed it. The ladies have to fight each other till the very end. There is however some hair pulling/tearing. The film has some very attractive women going at each other and not Dwayne Johnson and Dutch from 'Predator, 1987' so yes, it's sorta like a feminist film saying bad things about feminism. If you ever liked or still like the B films from the Sixties' films like, 'Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)' that exploit the then newly invented 'emancipation', you will like 'Raze'. More films for the sake of commonality would be 'Martyrs, (2010)' and '13, 2008'. Perhaps my nose will be be pretty close to the grindstone if I say the action sequences in the film (highly realistic and pretty close to Fincher's swing at us back in 1999) reminded me of Tarantino's much disliked Grindhouse, 2007. I liked Snake Plisskin as the maniac driver with a killer of a muscle ride (Death Proof, 2007) and also the treatment of 'Grindhouse' - (Planet Terror is a favorite). Plus Zoe Bell, the lead actor in this film started her career as an actress in 'Death Proof'. Before Tarantino offered her the role, she was a stunt double at Hollywood. She is ferocious in this film, and fights with calculated rage. Watch out for the 'Cody vs. Phoebe' sequence, it does not have Sabrina (Bell), but watch it closely for reasons only film lovers would appreciate. The plot is paper thin, only a handful of dialogue make you feel, however the direction is fast and the pace quite intense. No wonder they call it a 'pacemaker'. Bad Joke, however apt for this review. For you see, this film belongs to a quite peculiar and a risqué genre: 'kill stranger and win freedom'. A genre made popular by J. D. Salinger and then Kinji Fukasaku made the mother of them all in 2000. Also watch out for the cameos. I liked it, it was entertaining, if I may.

After reading several reviews claiming this movie was sexist and what not,I was a bit reluctant to watch it;I mean,you watch a movie to have a good time,not to spoil your mood,right? So anyway,I did watch it and it deeply disturbed me. First of all,it is not sexist or against women or anything..it is based on the creepy people who get a kick out of bare-hand-naked-weapon woman-on-woman death fights. There have been similar movies in the past with men being captured and made to fight,but this one has women instead. And that makes a lot of difference. I liked how they've shown the way these women operate when put in such depressing conditions. Inspite of all the gore and helplessness and literally,no ray of hope in any form,some women still bond and such moments make good breathers in an otherwise dark movie. Coming to the performance,I loved Zoe Bell,Rachel Nichols and the ones who play Cody,Theresa and Pheobe. Had it not been for Pheobe,the movie would lose it's dark charm.So she did well. Overall,I wouldn't call this movie entertaining,at least for women.It is dark,brutal and very violent.Watch it for the spin in the otherwise washed out death-tournament genre and if you are not faint hearted. Also,it's a bogeyman in my collection,because I never imagined a horror without a ghost.The horror rating is justified. Watch it.

There is no general theatrical or digital release date yet for Raze (as of this post), so I can't tell you when you might see it, but it's worth a look for fans of horror or, well, tournament fighting movies. This movie is very lean. It doesn't include anything it doesn't need. Women who are athletic or who have some sort of fighting experience are being kidnapped, held in some hidden underground prison, and forced to fight to the death, for the entertainment of rich folks of course. If the women lose or refuse to fight, their closest loved ones will be killed. Doug Jones and Sherilyn Fenn are the cheerfully creepy married couple running things. Zoe Bell, also a producer, is one of the fighters, killing to help protect a daughter she hasn't seen in many years. Other fighters include familiar faces like Rachel Nichols, Tracie Thoms, and Rosario Dawson. It's very dark, and brutally violent, but not exploitative. It's not "sexist sh1t!" as one unhappy viewer shouted at the director and star after our screening (though he still stayed for the entire film). I couldn't say anything about the most surprising or rewarding bits of the movie without major spoilers, so let me just say do NOT be deterred by the low IMDb rating. It's a good one!