Forced to Fight (2011) Peter Weller, Gary Daniels, Arkie Reece, Alexandra Weaver Movie Review

Forced to Fight (2011)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Gary Daniels in Forced to Fight (2011)

Forced Cliches

Shane Slavin (Gary Daniels) was once the king of the underground fight scene run by the ruthless Danny G (Peter Weller) but he managed to walk away and make a fresh start with his wife Connie (Alexandra Weaver) and their young son. Unfortunately for Shane his younger brother Scotty (Arkie Reece) followed him into the illegal fight scene but when he tried to leave it he ended up hospitalized having stolen thousands from Danny who now holds Shane responsible for his debts. Forced back in to a fight scene which has changed in style since he last competed Shane faces a series or win or die fights to save his family but will he have a family left as being back and keeping the truth from his wife makes him short tempered with her and their son.

To put it simply "Forced to Fight" does not have enough originality and what it rehashes from other movies is only ever weak in comparison. Basically if you choose to watch "Forced to Fight" you will sit there thinking about the other movies it easily reminds you of whilst also thinking about how manufactured all the fighting is whilst at the same time how unnatural the acting is.

Peter Weller in Forced to Fight (2011)

So what do I mean? Well first things first and the former fighter coming out of retirement to deal with his younger brother's debts, well that is out of the Nic Cage playbook and a play on "Gone in 60 Seconds" except there isn't much depth to this with Peter Weller playing a nasty piece of work who threatens Shane with the old we will hurt your family line. This then evolves into a touch of "Never Back Down" as we have Shane having to learn to fight a new way as the underground fight scene has changed to a more UFC style than the old stand up fight style he knows. But all this builds up to is a series of fights where the risks are higher each time for Shane to overcome.

In fairness the lack of originality wouldn't be so bad if everything about it didn't feel so manufactured. Every fight scene has that posed quality of an overly choreographed scene done so that the director can use slow motion to capture the supposedly impressive moves. But it doesn't come across exciting enough and at times laughable where one second a kick to the head will see blood spray out from an opponent only for the opponent to have no sign of injury straight after. And as for the whole subplot of Shane becoming short fused with his wife, well that just highlights the acting problems in the movie.

The knock on effect of this is that "Forced to Fight" starts to feel more like a vanity project made for 90's action star Gary Daniels to show that he has still got it as an action star. And in fairness Daniels is still in great shape but between the over choreographed, over edited fight scenes and Daniels' own delivery of the lines it is not a great movie to highlight his talents beyond his physique. And as for Peter Weller, well he makes for a surprisingly good action movie bad guy as in the fact he is entertaining in being almost pantomime like in his nastiness.

What this all boils down to is that "Forced to Fight" is nothing new and does nothing better with what it has than any other movie. I suppose if you are a fan of Gary Daniels it may appeal but beyond that it has very limited appeal.


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