Unchained

Unchained_720p(480P)

source: Unchained

Some Asian filmmakers have a genre which I call "Peril"? In Peril, a female superheroine is fighting villains, often monsters. She does well enough for a while. Then the villain, or the monster begins to win. Then, he abuses her. To some people, this is a form of entertainment. This film is not a message of female empowerment. It is Peril, at the hands of some Charlie Manson kinda guy. But seen on Tubi, the free streaming site; which has many films. Even this one. Oh, and now, live TV.

The movie is great for what it is. But you already know its not a big budget studio flick. However, it is several steps above "indie" as it's well shot with great sound and delivers on its premise of chicks kicking butt. Unchained is Grungy Midnight Cinema. Girls brawling. The lead actress, Mair shines and capably carries the movie. I looked up the cast to see what else she was in. While doing so, I noticed WWE star Taya Valkre was also in Unchained which may be a boon for some of you viewers, note I'm not an avid WWE viewer. I also saw Tim Chizmar produced this, I've actually seen other stuff by him, he's done a lot, so if you're a fan then you'll dig this too. Anyway I see that Mair also has a bunch of credits (mostly indie looking) so she's actually a seasoned actor and that explains why she has the chops to carry this flick. Anyway, if you want a really cool big budget blockbusting superhero flick, this ain't it, but if you wanna see chicks kicking butt and getting revenge then have a look.

This is a cool low budget movie. Direction is dope, camera work is great and music is banging. You can see it is low budget but it works and I dig the ending. Main problem is the acting. It ranges from good like the ring master guy and the baseball bat guy to some of the girls being pretty bad. At least they are pretty. Fight stuff looks really epic. Real Tekken feel. You get the feeling with a bit more money they could have made something really great.

My first thought was "more exploitation"? I was pleasantly surprised! The cinematography was good. Music was good. The acting was a bit stilted in places. I loved the opening scene with her walking in slow-mo., music spot on and build up of her frustration of finding no work. My favorite part was the fighting. It was literally like a video game sequence. I'm a big fan of Taya/Franky. I wish she had a fight scene. Then I understood, budget? Must have been pretty low not to take advantage of that. People all over complain about Eric Roberts. He's still good! Get over it. I liked the way he delivered his performance.

One of my favorite independent movie games to play is "how will people work Eric Roberts into their movie?" Much like John Carradine, they often shoot him completely independent of their film and then splice him in, getting his name recognition while not having him matter at all narratively. I applaud this notion and a reminder of the better times of Z-grade cinema when a Mexican werewolf movie would suddenly be a mummy film and Carradine would be out there standing in front of a desk trying to scientifically explain it to us while hiding a whiskey neat in the side drawer. Eric comes in here as the memories of our heroine Aella (Mair Mulroney), a girl who can't get work until a job offer comes to audition for a movie about a female fight club. She gets hired, knocked out and shows up in a private video feed - hello Red Room - to fight for her life while people watch online. To make this even better, the director's name is Raphaello. That's it - one imagines that he's two of the Ninja Turtles joined up to make a fighting film. Or maybe just the guy who also made Rogue Planet Gamma and Bloodbath: The Motion Picture. One of the selling points of this movie is that it features pro wrestler Taya Valkyrie, currently known as Frankie Monet in NXT, who is the wife of WWE superstar - and star of low budget action movies on the side - John Hennigan (Johnny Nitro/Retro/you fill in the blank). She's the trainer of the girls, Regina, and she's someone trained to do fighting yet never fights in the film. Instead, she works for The Warden, who threatens women throughout the movie. Rock Riddle is also in this. He was a pro wrestler who got his start running the Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson fan club before getting into the ring himself. He also shows up in The Van, Blue Sunshine, Paradise Alley and a few other movies. I mean, we could use more women being coerced into fight club movies. This one barely scratches that itch. But if you want to see it, Unchained is available digitally from Leomark Studios.

The whole thing was a pain to watch. I jumped my way to end, and even that wasn't fast enough.

Do yourself a favor and do not waste your time watching this movie. Worst acting you will see, even the CGI is as bad as bad can be.

I'm not sure the two previous reviewers had actually watched this movie right to the end. I have. It's true that the scene near the start where Mulroney and friend are discussing a night out is tedious and Catalano's acting awful , but things look up from there. I like the musical score. I want to hear more from its composer Alexander Kotziamanis. And when you consider how low a budget this movie had, you will have to admit that Raphaello, who directed and filmed it, did good.