DVD Pick of the Week: The Tournament

Welcome back! Well, to some of you, anyway. To the rest of you, glad you decided to stop by and I hope this humble column helps you navigate the stacks of new releases each week. My goal is to point you toward titles of interest and warn you away from those films that seek to do nothing but leech away your time and give you nothing in return.

Full disclosure: I have not seen many of these titles, and what follows are not necessarily reviews, but opinions based upon what I know of the titles I pluck from the new release lists I peruse. The opinions I give based on the new releases are my own, and my recommendations are based on my personal interest. In any case, I hope you enjoy and perhaps find something you like or a title to point me towards.

The Tournament. This week's top pick is a movie I had never heard of before a day ago. I saw a couple of clips and quickly moved it up the food chain. No, I do not expect it to be a great, game-changing sort of movie, but it looks like a wild action film. The movie is the story of a tournament that is held every seven years that pits 30 top assassins against each other in a battle to the death. The clips promise a boatload of action involving both bullets and fists. The cast includes the likes of Robert Carlysle, Kelly Hu, and Ving Rhames. It looks like it may be good enough to have deserved a theatrical run.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (also Blu-ray). This is a movie with some fantastic effects and action work, but other than that it is devoid of any characters, much less character development. Then there is the fact the story makes little to no sense. Still, I found myself enjoying it on some dumb level, but aside from its technical achievements, this is not a good film at all. I would rather be watching the GI Joe movie.

Waterworld (Blu-ray). Kevin Costner's Road Warrior on water arrives in the high definition format. I remember how maligned this film was when it was released with its high budget and reports of Costner's out of control ego. In retrospect, the movie is not all that bad, although I am not sure I really need to buy it on Blu-ray.

Article Author: Chris Beaumont

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about music and movies when he isn't indulging in them. He is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Follow: Twitter and Tumblr. Visit: Critical Outcast. …

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