his is what happens when Scott Adkins tries to bolt a tournament fighter onto a World War II POW movie: half The Great Escape, half Bloodsport, with a little Hogan’s Heroes energy if everyone had been punched in the face first. The setup is honestly pretty fun, with prisoners scheming to escape while Adkins gets dragged into brutal death matches for the entertainment of his captors. But the movie keeps tripping over its own boots. The acting is rough, the Japanese dialogue often sounds off, the CGI and green-screen work look bargain-bin cheap, and the direction/editing feel weirdly rushed, like nobody had time for one more pass. Adkins still looks great and does what he always does, which is play the nearly indestructible badass with total conviction, but outside the fights the whole thing is pretty straightforward and predictable. I stayed engaged because I wanted to see how the parallel stories would end, not because the movie was especially good. In the end, it is a watchable low-budget war-action mashup with some decent hooks, but also a lot of visual sloppiness and just enough bad acting to make you wish the prison camp had better casting standards.

I'm not generally a martial arts film guy, nor seen any of Scott's films before. However the trailer pulled me in, (like they do), but I have to say this was quite good. Yes it was a tad long, and the end escape is a bit bollocks, as it wouldn't work. However I've seen far worse this year, and the acting is quite good too for this type of low budget film.

I have to admit I have never been the world's #1 Scott Adkins fan. Not sure why but I've always had problems distinguishing him from the roles he plays, and normally I don't have that problem. In some (seems like most?) of his earlier roles, my biggest issue with Scott Adkins was his seeming arrogance and cockiness, as if his character was invincible and unbeatable in the movie, so Adkins somehow thought HE was himself. I know....I know.... and again, I rarely have a problem separating actors from their characters so I'm not sure why I've had such a problem with Scott Adkins. (Although I've never met him in real life; maybe he really _is_ like that! LOL) In any event, this was definitely one of the better Scott Adkins movies I've watched, and I've never had a problem with his martial arts skill; he's one of the best in American cinema. I was expecting this to be a really weak copy of Donnie Yen's _Ip Man_ (based on the life story of Bruce Lee's famous instructor in Wing Chun) but this was its own story, and a pretty good one, at that. There were parts of it, of course, that were exaggerated, and parts of it that slogged like a snail through a mud pit, but overall it was a decent martial-arts movie. I was a bit surprised and disappointed by parts of it (watch it and you'll probably understand) but it was still worth a watch. Admittedly, it's a bit long at almost 2 hours; I think there were numerous parts that could have been edited out, or at least shortened, but I would still recommend it for fans of martial arts or action flicks. It's not a copy or clone of anything; I think it stands on its own as a solid martial arts movie but admittedly, your mileage may vary.

Interesting take on a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Adkins makes great action movie and this is worth a watch for the cat and mouse deadly games between their captors and the prisoners of. A little drawn out. Brain in neutral sit back relax and enjoy the ride. 👍

Even though it's a low-budget movie, it's still a good one with an interesting story. The setting is different from what we usually see in Scott Adkins movies. And even though the fights look very choreographed, they are choreographed really well, and it's fun to watch them. Scott is in great shape and he's 49 years old!