Big Match

This entertaining Korean action B-movie in the style of Crank and early movies from WWE Films captivates with its imaginative action sequences combining contact choreography and post-production CGI. The story of an MMA champion who unwillingly becomes a pawn in a game of bored millionaires is told with healthy exaggeration spiked with humour while offering a wild adrenaline-fuelled spectacle. (04/13/2015)

Big Match was supposed to be my dark horse this year, because nothing of substance is supposed to come out of Korea this year, but unfortunately I can't avoid disappointment. While it's true that the protagonist is likable and once he's involved in the millionaire game, the film has a decent pace until the end, but the all-around comedy element spoils the impression. The movie is not at all hard, gritty, gory, it's a kind of fun foolishness where I'm not even too happy with the action scenes. There's only one proper fight and that's only at the end, otherwise it's basically just running away all the time, zigzagging even with the help of acrobatics, but this doesn't really grab me. For me, the potential of both the main character is completely unused (an MMA world champion and he doesn't get a chance to show off properly? Really?!) and the challenges seemed rather uninteresting and underutilized. A great pity. 60%. (05/21/2015)