The Tournament (2009)

Directed by
Good splattery fun
Reviewed by Simon on 2024-02-09

Every 7 years 30 of the world's top assassins gather in a randomly selected down and fight to the death whilst rich folk bet on the survivor.

I'd heard this assassin battle royale film was pretty gnarly, but I didn't realise it was set in Middlesborough... now that's grim. The script is trashy, but I don't think it was trying not to be, it's basically a modern day Running Man so it's all about the kills - and they are suitably nasty. J.J. Perry on action choreography duty, so you know it's tight.

MVP is a very impressive Sebastien Foucan, parkouring through the film making everybody else look like they're glued to the ground.

Robert Carlyle is extremely annoying and seems like he's in the wrong film, and the redemption arc adds little (whether you count it as his or Kelly Hu's), but overall the film is good splattery fun that doesn't drag anything out longer than it needs to.