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| DVD Review: 12 |
James Denton |
Why Bloodsport mixed with Street Fighter is a British winner
Home-grown British action flicks often have a tough time distinguishing themselves from their bigger-budgeted American and Asian counterparts, but 12 is Blighty’s best brawler by far. After all, how can you go wrong with a flick that a) was choreographed by Leonardo from the first Ninja Turtles film, b) boasts characters straight out of a videogame, such as Father Savage THE FIGHTING PRIEST, and c) stars The Cat from Red Dwarf?
The premise here is a lot more unique than it first appears. The titular 12 are a motley crew that have joined an underground fighting tournament (sponsored by a superfluous syndicate of wealthy gamblers) to win £500k. The first twist is that they all live and train together in the same facility, exactly like The Ultimate Fighter. The second twist is that, far from simply being “master of X art drawn by the challenge of combat”, each fighter is a actually comic book caricature based on a neat gimmick. So you have a homeless man, a convict, a policeman, a model, a soldier, a chav, a Triad, a kid, a Tae Kwon Do instructor, a Chinese guy, a teacher (who’s also a woman) and, as noted, a priest. Best of all, characters even have their own themed ‘stages’ – The Priest fights in a church, The Soldier at an army barracks and so on.
To further underscore the videogame-ness of it all, there’s minimal piddling about between each fight. This film isn’t here to provide long, drawn-out dialogue or deep, meaningful narrative; it’s basically a fight, then the gamblers choose their characters, then there’s a fight card (such as, literally, ‘The Homeless vs The Soldier’), then the process repeats. No needless set-up and bare minimum exposition – just 12 fighters beating the bejesus out of each other until somebody wins the tournament. Finally, someone has twigged that nobody watches chop-sockey flicks for the plot!
The fights themselves are far more hit than miss too. The cast is comprised of a mix of film fighters and stuntmen (including a couple of hands from Batman Begins, as well as veterans of The Bourne Ultimatum, The Last Samurai, The Twins Effect and The Medallion), though there are also a couple of legit martial artists and tournament fighters who aren’t quite as skilled. Still, the most talented actors show their skills in largely well executed set-pieces and while a couple of the best guys get eliminated a little early, each ‘round’ features at least a couple of great encounters.
Far from another soulless MMAsploitation effort (though the last battle does take place in a Cage Warriors arena), this is a unique action flick with bags of character and some sweet choreography.
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