EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

thejellyshoesaga Tony Schiena is back! In one of the most adrenaline fueled films of 2010 (don't worry if you missed it first time, you can watch it now and it's still just as much of a white knuckle ride!) Coming from the same stable as 'Number one girl' you can already be assured of the immense quality that this film brings to television sets globally, straight to DVD!!Dolton (Scheina) is a retired cage fighter who has sworn never to fight again due to the crippling of his friend Wyatt/Dwyatt/Whydwat (Cain) during a sparring match that gets a little out of hand. In his absence from competing, he has been replaced by Colin 'The Brick' Wahle, an undefeated fighter who comes across as a bit of a c*nt. Dolton is soon dragged back to the cage to compete against Mr. Brick amidst threats of blackmail from the films super-bitch-nut-case; Victoria Rualan (Ling).Once again, we have a very generic attempt at a film that's desperately trying to ride in on the back of the mixed martial arts craze and unfortunately, does nothing but embarrass the sport. The athletes who took part in this film should be absolutely ashamed.Appalling story lines and terrible soundtracks aside, probably the most frustrating thing about this entire film is the continued employment of Tony Schiena, he's kind of like how Daniel Day Lewis or Heath Ledger would be if both were ugly c*nts and had no acting ability. The highlight of his performance would have to be the part when he injures his friend and someone in the background shouts "call an ambulance" and Scheina replies "An ambulance!" It's nothing short of hilarious.In summary, this film is most certainly not worth watching. Really, its best appreciated by a group of friends who want nothing more than to laugh at Tony Scheina doing his best impression of a plank of wood with Jimcarey like martial arts skills and the awkward soft porn which dominates throughout. Also, is this film is sponsored by Tapout? Really? I would never have guessed.

Rosser94 I was never expecting an epic movie prior to watching "Circle of Pain", just an average, simplistic yet entertaining action movie. However, this film does not prove solid enough to provide viewers with an entertaining movie experience.Firstly, the acting is never anything above average and the fight scenes are poorly constructed, therefore the action sequences are never more than mildly entertaining. Furthermore, all of the characters are very forgettable so, as a viewer, I never really cared about the outcome of the film (despite of the fact I expected and received little more than a collaboration of tedious clichés that dictated the direction of the mundane plot).In addition to this, the script is incredibly cheesy and destroys any kind of seriousness or tension within the movie; it is very difficult to take this movie seriously.Overall, if you are a HUGE fan of MMA movies and can tolerate a trashy script and substandard acting, this unoriginal, basic fight film will not be the worst piece of cinema you've spent your time to view. If you did not fit this category... Look elsewhere, perhaps at something like "Never Back Down".

lovecraft231 I'm not really much of a Mixed Martial Arts fan to tell the truth. I watch professional wrestling (a man deserves his guilty pleasures, okay?) and I had a passing interest in Mixed Martial Arts in my teen years, but that's it. So I'm not really aware of "Tapout" or whatever it is, other than the fact that 1.) I see guys wearing "Tapout"shirts in town (and I've seen them in Wal Mart) and 2.) That they've released several Straight to DVD movies via Lionsgate, those purveyors of bad exploitation trash on DVD. So It was only a matter of time until I watched one of these movies, and I decided to go with "Circle of Pain", which while better than other "Tapout Presents..." ventures, is still a terrible movie.Dalton Hunt (Tony Schiena) is a retired fighter whose been living a quiet life. Thing is, Colin "The Brick" Wahle (Heath Herring) is about to beat his record. So thanks to his pal Wyatt (Dean "I was Superman and now I can't get a role worth a damn" Cain) that he put in a wheelchair and the villainous director of a MMA company named Victoria Rualan (Bai Ling) telling him he has to, Dalton must come out of retirement to battle Wahle.One of the things that's really noteworthy about "Circle of Pain" (and other "Tapout Presents..." movies") is how cheap the whole thing looks. The production values aren't exactly shot on video bad, but they essentially resemble those of a soft core skin flick. Also notable is that like it's predecessors, the movie suddenly becomes something of a soft core flick, with sex scenes thrown in for no reason whatsoever other than to pad out time. Apart from that, little if anything stands out in this movie, which is amateurishly directed by Daniel Zirilli, features few if any invigorating fight or action scenes, and is guilty of false advertising (the movie advertises Kimbo Slice as the star, but he's only in the film for two scenes.) Also, the acting is (as expected) terrible. Look, people pay to watch these guys beat the tar out of each other, not for their acting skills (though Herring at least seems to be having fun.) Dean Cain (who must curse the name of Terri Hatcher every day of his life) in particular is bad, seeming to be bored and uninterested as if he's only doing this for the paycheck. Hell, the only reason this isn't getting a 0/10 is because of Bai Ling. An underrated actress (with credits including "The Crow", "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" and "The Beautiful Country"), she seems to know what kind of movie this is, and plays the villain to a hammy T, delivering the only fun performance in the movie.As a whole, there is not reason whatsoever to watch "Circle of Pain", which doesn't feel like something made for MMA fans as much as it feels like a cheap cash grab. I do wish that Tapout and Lionsgate would stop releasing these movies, but it's obviously not going to happen anytime soon.

hejsamester I was allowed to screen this, and I don't consider that a privilege.This movie is as bad as fighting movies comes; yes, even worse than Dead or Alive.Standard plot. A righteous hero with personal problems, who is forced to fight and must regain all his past skills by training and fighting scrubs before stepping into the ring against the evil guy at the end. Of course his trainers are his best friend and an old dude.Horrible acting. The actors and lines are better in most soaps. It's hard to say if it's the script or the actors, since both is really really bad. Horrible writing combined with terrible actors doesn't exactly create Oscar winning dialog.Towards the end, we get some soft-core pornography without any context at all. Normally a sex scene adds to the plot or story of the film or its characters. These just seem like they were forced in there because fans of action movies expect it or because the producers had to fill in some blank tape ("hey we got 10 minutes to fill, why don't you fool around a bit and we put it in somewhere?").The fighting? I didn't care much for it, but then again, I'm not a martial arts fan. With characters this badly written and actors not doing a great job, I lost most interest in whoever would win the various fights, and a small bit of me hoped that they would all loose. That would at least give the movie a moral of fighting being uncool.It gets two stars since I remember having seen a worse movie - I just can't remember which. As entertaining as getting drop kicked.