bkoganbing The Philly Kid is a film about the Mixed Martial Arts fight game and if you think it's set in Philadelphia as I did you will be wrong. It is set in New Orleans and curiously enough nobody in that whole cast speaks with anything remotely resembling an accent you would find in New Orleans. You might as well have set the film in Philadelphia.Other than that this is a pretty good film in the tradition of such fine boxing films like Champion, The Set-Up, The Square Jungle and the more recent Split Decisions. Young Wes Chatham and his friends Devon Sawa and Kris Von Damme are just out for an evening and truly and innocently get involved in a cop killing. Von Damme is dead, Sawa is wounded and Chatham does 10 years for something he didn't do.Chatham was at one a promising college wrestler and when he gets out he finds Sawa in heavy to some gamblers. He learns the mixed martial arts game and agrees to some fights to get Sawa out of debt. He also falls for Sawa's sister Sarah Butler. Like those other cited films The Philly Game is very honest and lucid about showing all the crookedness and double dealing that goes on. It's realistic and at times very brutal. Chatham has to navigate between gangsters, crooked promoters, and one bad crooked cop.The fight scenes are as realistic as when I've looked in on real mixed martial arts matches. My favorite scene is when Chatham is drugged during a match and still comes out on top. All due to a fighting heart and an old wrestling maneuver.The Philly Game did not get much notice coming out, but it's an undiscovered diamond in the raw if you look.

raimorio We watched this on Netflix with my friends one night and man am I surprised we managed to complete it, it was probably because it made us laugh so hard and in that respect it could be given a few stars, the problem is that it wasn't a comedy. Nope, instead, it was a poor attempt at something which failed miserably.I have seriously never seen a script that was as ridiculously mediocre, cliché driven, boring and retarded as the one that this movie was based on. The acting was very average and only added to the fact that you simply could not take this movie seriously. Every scene was shot like an amateur would shoot it. Everything that happened was not believable. I mean I didn't find one redeeming factor in this whole film.This is at the level of old b-grade action movies of the 80's and 90's, except that it was done in the 21st century. I mean usually even if there is a bad action movie now days, it simply does not reach the level of amateur camera work and retarded shots as this one. The script is usually the biggest flaw, maybe some retarded acting, but at least the directing is generally to at least some extent acceptable, but here. Oh man I don't understand how anybody could succeed in doing something so retarded.The behavior of the people in this script was taken straight from a soap opera, the emotions and expressions were not believable, rather made you laugh. It was all just so stupid that you ended up laughing the whole movie. I'm not gonna even bother going to the details. If you are going to watch this film, prepare to roll on the floor.

splinter_cell_lee The movie exceeded my expectations, the fighting was rather realistic for most of the first half of the movie, I cringed when they called an arm triangle/head and arm choke a "guillotine choke" in the last half of the movie but otherwise it was alright. I thought it was funny seeing the villain from Walking Tall in there and Rich Clementi as the secondary trainer made me crack a grin. All in all I give it a 7 out of 10, it's at least worth a one-time watch especially for MMA fans. Some interesting stuff I would suppose. I thought the acting of course could have been better and the budget was a bit bad (the gunshot wound), but the story was decent in my opinion. I would and probably will watch it again.

Tony Heck "I took these fights to pay off your debt, do you understand that? I fight one more time and that's where it ends." Dillon (Chatham) is among, if the the best NCAA wrestlers in the country. One night when him and his friends are at a convenience store something goes wrong and he ends up in jail. Ten years later he is finally out and ready to start his life again. After his friend is taken and beaten because he owes money Dillon agrees to do cage fights in order to pay back the debt. After he goes on a winning streak the wrong kind of people begin to find him. In the 80's it seemed like any type of fighting movie was based in the boxing world. Little by little that has changed and UFC-style is now the go to sport. After movies like "Warrior" more and more are being made about that life. To start with I will say that this is actually a very good movie with the most realistic fighting scenes I have seen in a movie in a long time. The acting is decent and passable for a movie like this, but most people don't watch this for the acting. Very entertaining and exciting but a little predictable. That doesn't really hurt the movie at all though. I recommend this. Overall, if you liked "Warrior" then you will really like this one too. I did. I give it a B+.