Fatal Move (2008)

Directed by
Clearly inspired by SPL
Reviewed by Simon on 2008-11-11

Clearly inspired by SPL, but helmed by a less talented director/crew. The plot is overly convoluted, and by the mid-point I wasn't really clear what was going on (to be fair, I had been nodding off a bit), but then the plot in the second half seemed to head off in a different direction anyway so it didn't really matter.

The action scenes are the most interesting part of the film, using a lot of CGI to create quite extreme levels of gore at times. Unfortunately, as with most CGI, it is so obviously fake that it loses most of the impact a less explicit approach would have had. Sometimes the imagination is the best special effect.

***** SPOILERS *****

Some reviewers seem to have missed the point of the final fight scene - the idea was that the two friends realised that they were inevitably going to die, and figured they might as well have a fight to the death to find out which of them was the better fighter. Yes it was gratuitous, but definitely the coolest part of the film.