Brendon Jones
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Ginger
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Rexanne
It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny
Comeuppance Reviews
When Michael Shaw (Hackman) was 12 years old, some carjackers shot and killed his parents. During the incident, the boy took note of a tattoo on the neck of one of the baddies. Now in high school, he's understandably moody and acts out by partying and neglecting his schoolwork. Caught by the cops for excessive "party rocking", Michael is on his last chance. Thanks to Principal Vanhorne (Kove), Michael gets a chance to do his community service hours at his old dojo. When he was a kid, he was a Karate champ, but after the murder he let it all slide. When Reggie (Biehn), the dojo master, first gets a hold of him, he has him do janitorial work. But Michael starts to see the value of training in Karate again. When taken by Reggie's niece Jen (Brown) to an illegal, underground MMA fight, Michael recognizes the tattoo he saw so long ago - it just so happens to belong to the reigning champ, a gigantic, unbeatable meathead named Dominic Gray (Soszynski). So, despite their vast weight differences, Michael goes into extreme training mode so he can beat Gray in the ring to avenge his parents' murder. But will it be Gray or Michael who will be...TAPPED OUT? Tapped Out is essentially No Retreat No Surrender (1986) for the Facebook generation. Elsewhere online it has been described as Batman (1989) meets The Karate Kid (1984), and it has a plot action fans have seen countless times before. Should we be applauding the fact that they're still making movies like this? We're truly not sure. We guess that's pretty cool. The movie has almost as many training sequences as Green Street 3 (2013), and because Michael has to work his way up the ranks of all the "boxcar" underground fighters, and squeeze in some plot and dialogue, the whole thing is a bit longer than it needs to be. This Cody Hackman kid is likable enough, and it also stars fan favorites Martin Kove and Michael Biehn, so the DTV lineage is there, at least. Interestingly, in the movie it says that the murder of the parents occurred when Michael was 12 years old. Then someone later says "that was seven years ago." If our math is correct, that means Michael is a 19 or 20 year old high school student. Maybe things are different in Canada, but this struck us as odd. Maybe he stayed back a few times.The whole outing is shot and edited well, and has a very professional look to it. It's clear the filmmakers, despite the derivative grounding of it all, tried to put in some emotion and quality to the overall proceedings, which we appreciated. It doesn't look or feel like crud, as so many of its MMA-based competitors do. The fact that "Karate Boy", as our hero is called, tries to take on these MMA guys in the ring may feel incorrect, but it's kind of a throwback to the underground Punchfighting movies of the 80's and the first part of the 90's. The ring announcer bellows "Let's go to waaaaaaaarrrrr!", which, it has to be said, won't be sending Michael Buffer into his panic room anytime soon.For a decent and watchable - but nothing more - example of a modern-day DTV UFC/Underground Fighting movie, Tapped Out should fit the bill. But it seems the days of Karl Brezdin are long over, even if that spirit, in some new form, lives on.
danielwriter37
The movie all and all is what is to be expected. It's the typical David (good guy) Goliath (bad guy)story that many fight movies seem to emulate. There is two HUGE things in my opinion that prevented me from given this at least a 7. 1. The antagonist is HUGE compared to the main character. I guess it is plausible after all the training the guy a third of his size could win but not in dragged out fight. Not in a million years. It honestly looked like a typical high school student versus a WWE wrestler. They could of had the same affect and made it more realistic by not having the size difference as drastic. It just seems to obvious to me (David versus Goliath on crack). I would of had the antagonist his size or maybe a few weight classes higher than him. A guy doesn't have to look like a WWE wrestler to be intimidating. My second major critique is the fact that he's bound and determined to beat up the guy who killed his parents. He barely even attempts to contact the police and in the end its all good because he won the fight yet the bad guys not in jail. Not that the antagonist knows that the protagonist knows he killed his parents wouldn't he later go after the main character. The plot was basically someone kills my parents when I'm 12 and seven years later I win the fight and all is forgiven. The acting wasn't too bad and some of the screen writing was a little dry. Overall it was decent but those two facts I pointed out really destroyed this movie for me.
Destroyer Wod
I was also expecting a movie like those Hector Echavarria MMA movies from a couple years back. They where OK, but had predictable stories, decent fighting yet nothing especially crazy, they also had a bunch of MMA fighters doing cameo to market the project like this one.But the comparing stop there. The story in this one is really well written and i could really feel for the hero trough the movie. Some people mention there is not much action til later in the movie, i didn't even really notice it, the story really kept me on the edge and i loved how the hero trained. Although it does take some references from a couple known movies(like Karate Kid) i really like how it mix so well a good old Karate setting that remind older movies with todays MMA.The villain really play his part well, he is truly believable. He does have very little lines but he did a pretty good job when he had ones. The fighting also has an authentic feel to it and the fight choreographers really mixed well a more realistic set-up with some "movie moves".Of course if you expect Anderson Silva or Lytto Machida to have big roles in this, don't. They seem like the lead on the covers but they have very little screen time, more like an extended cameo, but again what you expected really? They can't really act, there just there to promote the movie.Really Tapped Out is really one of 2014 best surprise for me. I wasn't expecting much yet i got a strong martial art movie that i enjoy from beginning to end. The hero, the love interest, the villain, the sensei/trainer, they where all memorable characters that i felt for.Give this a chance you won't regret it.
danjameswilson
Bad to OK, but could have been good... there's hope for the plot.Too many places in the film where you think, NOOO, stop being daft, develop a decent background and continue.Example, skinny kid with little training is going to ever beat an established MMA fighter (this side of a barrel) nope, but serious HEAD damage to both, YES! The kid has SERIOUS anger against this guy, so he would be willing to break his body to win... so let's see it, full on impact, evasive action, ALL head shots (where there is F' all muscle development),.. but to overpower this guy, NO!! it would NEVER happen.Would have been good, if the development of a VERY small chance of winning would have been explored fully. Othererwise, looks daft.
