THE PLOT THUS FAR
A disgruntled teenager, sent to do community service at a rundown Karate school, enters an MMA tournament to face the man who killed his parents.
WHAT WE THOUGHT
“Tapped Out” isn’t a great movie. But, it’s symbolic of something that we lost when we moved out of the 1980s. Athletic exploitation flicks are staples of junk cinema that many of us grew up watching. Whether it’s “American Anthem” or “Best of the Best”, these are the kinds of movies that showed what it took to be a top notch athlete and what it meant to compete. Sure, you didn’t have scenes of JCVD breaking it down for the camera, but you had guys pushing their bodies to the limits. While I’m not a UFC fan, there’s something to be admired about a film like this that can still find room for Martin Kove.
Anderson Silva brings the pain and I’ve got to give him credits since he’s in the Brotherhood of the A. We were formerly known as the Broken Glass Kids, but that doesn’t convey the power of being an Anderson. Oh well, what can you do? I wish that we’ve got this bad boy in HD. A clean uncompressed DTS-HD 5.1 master audio track could’ve made those bone rattling hits come to life. Unfortunately, we get a rather murky looking film where a lot of dialogue gets dropped. These guys aren’t classically trained actors, so a dirty aesthetic onscreen doesn’t help an audience understand them.
The DVD comes with interviews as the special features. The A/V Quality is pretty strong. The transfer is clean, but the Dolby track doesn’t get a ton of back channel support. Ultimately, it’s a pretty standard UFC movie sent to DVD. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to the curious.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!