| The Fighter (1994) Cast:Olivier Gruner, Ian Ziering, Ashley Laurence, Marc Singer,Donald Gibb,James Brolin Olivier Gruner stars as a kickboxer who comes to the aid of farmers who are being forced off their land by greedy developers looking to cash in on the new railroad in this laughably ridiculous actioner which makes one wonder, "what were they thinking?" Have you ever heard of a victorian era kickboxing actioner? You know Gone With The Wind meets Kickboxer, well am I the only who thinks this is the stupidest idea ever for a movie? The production values are indeed impressive but this frequently laughable kickemup's story is completely ridiculous. Perhaps had some effort been taken to make this a complete farce, perhaps this might've been bearable but it's so serious at times, that one seriously wonders who the hell wrote this, and if they meant it to be this ridiculous. All of this of course gives into some kickboxing battles but Gruner's actionscenes are so limp and unexciting that it just never adds up to anything remotely arresting. Sure some credit should be given for the producer's willingness to experiment, unfortunately a kickboxing western mixed with victorian drama is just impossible to spin into anything less than laughable. D. Issac Florentine *1/2 |