Undisputed III: Redemption
(aka Undisputed 3)
2010; directed by Isaac Florentine

We make another trip to the straight-to-DVD bin with Undisputed III: Redemption, the latest in the cult favorite series that focuses on brawny men beating the crap out of each other in prison-based tournaments. The third entry, not suprisingly, sticks to the tried-and-true formula, and that ends up not being a bad thing.

Director Isaac Florentine and star Scott Adkins recently also teamed up in another video release, Ninja. While Undisputed III shares most of the same faults -- namely, next to no budget, a flimsy story, a cliched script, and somewhat wooden acting -- the results here are much more successful. At first blush, it's hard to put your finger on exactly why Undisputed III swims while Ninja bobbed about in the cinematic sea, but in the end this film manages to transcend the production's low-budget roots and provides just as much excitement as many films with ten times its' budget.

Upon further reflection, though, a lot of the credit for Undisputed III's success has to go towards Scott Adkins, who played the main villain Boyka in the last film, but is turned into the hero (at least of sorts) for this release. Though he wasn't given much to work with in the character and story department, and has to deliver clunkers like "I am the most complete fighter in the world" through a cheesy Russian accent, Adkins still manages to create and develop a compelling take that makes you actually care what happens to Boyka.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said of many of Undisputed III's other participants, namely Mykel Shannon Jenkins, who plays Boyka's rival, Turbo. Yeah, that's right, he's named Turbo. Ugh. And it doesn't get any better the longer the movie goes. To his credit, Jenkins looks decent in the fight scenes, but any time he's asked to act, it's like pulling teeth with a pair of rusty pliers.

Thankfully, though, most of the criticisms that one could level against the exposition scenes can be forgiven once the brawling starts. Besides some poorly chosen generic rap and metal music, there's a lot to like here, especially if you tilt towards the hard-hitting "realistic" MMA-inspired fighting style favored by a number of newer action films. Showcasing various martial arts styles and loads of wonderful gratuitous violence, the fight scenes in Undisputed III are well worth the price of admission.

RATING: 7

As of September 2010, "Undisputed III: Redemption" is available for viewing on Instant Netflix. The DVD and Blu-Ray can be purchased from Amazon.