Circle of Pain Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Circle of Pain Blu-ray Movie Review

“If I could walk for one day, I’d never stop running!”

Reviewed by Dustin Somner June 22, 2010

If you follow mixed martial arts (MMA) or the UFC, you’ll likely notice something a bit peculiar about the cover of the latest Tapout/Grindstone production. Featured prominently among three other MMA fighters, we have Kimbo Slice, the former YouTube “king of streetfighting”, who attempted an endearing run at legitimacy in the sport of MMA. Given his growing popularity among the fight community (thanks in part to shows such as “The Ultimate Fighter”), it’s not difficult to grasp the reasoning behind planting his face on the marketing materials for a film in which he appears for a grand total of 3 minutes. After all, we’ve seen this move time and time again with other low-budget action productions, as producers attempt to cash in on name recognition alone. However, what becomes hilarious about this entire endeavor is the fact that Kimbo Slice was recently booted from the UFC for poor fight performance, and though he’s shown tremendous heart in his brief MMA career, I doubt we’ll see him reemerge on any format other than YouTube. As you can imagine, this poses a problem for the folks over at Tapout (who’ve produced a number of these films starring UFC fighters), since they run the risk of promoting fighters who fall from grace prior to the film’s eventual release. Had Kimbo Slice been shown in the background (instead of Frank Mir), this scenario wouldn’t have been a concern, but I’m guessing it was too late to reprint cover art when the burly fighter was released from further activity in the UFC.

"I'd like a clean fight... No groin kicks, eye gouging, or mohawk strikes."

With his MMA record of 21 wins and zero losses, champion Dalton Hunt (Tony Schiena) achieved what most people in the sport only dream about. However, his meteoric rise to the top quickly took a turn for the worst following a tragic sparring accident with his training partner (Dean Cain), leading to his immediate withdrawal from the sport. In the years to come, he separated from his lovely wife and daughter, took a dead-end construction job that barely pays the bills, and devoted his life to caring for partner he left crippled. Content with this sad existence, Dalton rejects any invitations back to the sport he once loved, until one day when his family is forced from their measly home by the ruthless new manager (Ling Bai) of the organization he use to fight under. Knowing the massive appeal she could generate from a fight between her new champion of the ring, Colin “The Brick” Wahle (Heath Herring) and Dalton, she coerces the aging fighter into a single match to crown the greatest fighter of all time. This naturally doesn’t sit well with Dalton, but he reluctantly agrees to one last fight in the interest of protecting his family.

Calling Circle of Pain a bad film is like calling rat poison unhealthy. After all, it’s not like any of us ever thought this was going to be something other than fodder for late-night cable television. The acting is bad, the storyline is stale, and the fight sequences are downright lame. There’s still plenty of nudity thrown in for good measure (indicating those responsible at least recognize the desires of the target market), but simply flashing some skin won’t ever come close to rectifying the problems with this film. It would be difficult to touch on all of the downfalls in the matter of only a few paragraphs, so I’ll simply stick with the glaring flaws.

First up, we have the storyline and overall pacing of the film. As you can tell from the synopsis, calling this a recycled screenplay might qualify as the understatement of the month, so don’t expect much more than your typical aging fighter/underdog storyline. This may seem like a disappointment, but I actually don’t find fault in “borrowing” elements from superior films if handled well. In the case of Circle of Pain, the idea is there, but the pacing is downright awful. Everything leading up to Dalton’s acceptance of the fight is handled within the first 20 minutes or so, leaving the entire rest of the film to follow his emotional journey up to the fight. By the time he whines about training and takes a beating for the 15th time, you’ll begin to wonder why you’re still rooting for the guy. I felt like shouting “I get it, you don’t want to fight!” at the screen on numerous occasions, but assumed my wife may worry about my sanity.

The next major problem worth touching on is the acting. For anyone with prior experience watching UFC fighters in acting roles, you can expect more of the same on this release. Heath Herring is given the most screen-time out of the four fighters featured in the film (Frank Mir, Kimbo Slice, and Roger Huerta are limited to just one or two scenes), but he’s barely able to generate more than one facial expression throughout the duration. When it comes to the actual delivery of dialog, these guys sound about as convincing as a WWE fighter giving a pre-match assessment of the beat-down his opponent has coming. Part of the blame should be placed on the awful screenplay, and the odd placement of the UFC fighters within the story (Frank Mir randomly shows up in a parking lot to challenge Heath Herring), but there’s no question these guys could use some acting lessons in the future.

Circle of Pain Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in 1080p utilizing the AVC codec (at an average bitrate of 17Mbps), Circle of Pain offers a decent visual presentation despite a lack of polish in the cinematography, delivering subtle gains in the upgrade to high definition. Fine object detail is average at best, with accurate facial texturing, adequate image depth, and a consistent level of clarity. There are still some shots that appear less precise in comparison to the scenes that surround them, but those occasional drops in clarity aren't significant enough to drastically impact the overall experience. From a color standpoint, the film incorporates a degree of color filtering to generate a drab spectrum, throwing various hues into disarray from time to time. This shift is most apparent during indoor and nighttime sequences, though there's also a touch of richness lost in sunny outdoor segments. Fortunately, the color weakness is offset somewhat by impressive black level depth and accurate contrast differentiation.

In the end, this won't rank among the better transfers available on Blu-ray, but given the limitations in the brief shooting schedule and low-budget nature of the production, it's better than I expected.

Circle of Pain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Similar to the visual experience, the lossless DTS track is best described as uninspired. For an action film of this sort there's a surprising lack of surround sound incorporation, leaving most elements centered on the front channels. Surprisingly, even the rock heavy soundtrack rarely hits the rear surround field, leaving us begging for a heightened sense of immersion. As a result, we're left with a dialog-heavy experience that's rather tame by action standards, but still manages to produce excellent clarity throughout the duration of the feature.

Digging into the soundtrack a bit further, I thoroughly enjoyed the musical selections used in the film (I'm a longtime fan of hard rock), but found their placement a bit jarring at times. There's virtually zero transition into the musical segments, which simply appear out of nowhere. This gets back to the nature of the low-budget sound design (unrelated to the actual mixing of the Blu-ray audio track), but I still found it a bothersome element worth pointing out.

Circle of Pain Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Behind the Scenes with Interviews of the Cast and Crew of Circle of Pain (720p, Linear PCM 2.0, 7:30 min): Designed as a marketing tool, this supplement intercuts footage from the film with backstage shots of the crew working on various scenes. The majority of the interview segments are dedicated to Tony Schiena, who comments on working with the rest of the cast and provides viewers with background on the story.

Interviews with MMA Fighters (720p, Linear PCM 2.0, 6:58 min): Broken down into two separate segments, this supplement features Frank Mir, Heath Herring, and Roger Huerta as they chat about the acting experience, and how it relates to MMA.

Fight Choreography on the set of Circle of Pain (720p, Linear PCM 2.0, 2:18 min): Stunt Coordinator Arnold Chon provides a preview of the fight choreography in the film, and the sense of realism he tried to maintain.

Rounding out the extras, we have a standard definition trailer for Circle of Pain, a series of promo trailers for Tapout Clothing (480p), and a feature length audio commentary with Director Daniel Zirilli, Actor Tony Schiena and Stunt Coordinator Arnold Chon. The commentary is dominated by Zirilli, who touches on many of the themes he was going for in the film and reminisces about the difficulties often found in a low-budget action production. More than anything, I can appreciate critical nature of Zirilli when discussing the weaker moments in the film, since his honesty explains the realities of what you face with a 12-day shooting schedule.

Circle of Pain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

No matter how anyone attempts to spin it, Circle of Pain is a difficult film to watch. I'm well aware these low-budget Tapout/Grindstone productions are meant for the same audience that watch UFC, but speaking as an MMA fan there's simply not much entertainment to be gleaned here. My recommendation is you stick with a rental, and avoid a purchase at all costs.