The Tournament is just about as awesome as action movies can get, and just about as bloody too. I love films involving assassins, contests, games, violence and such. The Running Man was clearly a huge influence on this one, right down to the inclusion of a larger than life game show host, here played by Liam Cunningham. Liam plays a shadowy nut job named Powers, and every four years he arranges an elaborate and incredibly destructive Olympic games for contract killers and psychos alike. Every time he hosts it in a new city, using hidden cameras and explaining away the damage with disasters and attacks. If this sounds so very 80's, it is. We're in throwback city here, with a touch of modern tone not unlike Joe Carnahan's Smokin Aces. The reigning champion is Joshua Harlow (Ving Rhames), a brutal warrior who has been coaxed back into the game with revenge on his mind. Each assassin is fitted with a tracking device so they can track each other, an idea which goes haywire when a civilian accidentally gets stuck with one and ends up in the cross hairs. The civilian in question is a drunken priest (lol) played by Robert Carlyle, who has no idea what's going on and suddenly has a dwindling life expectancy. He catches a break when a lethal but sympathetic female competitor (beauty queen Kelly Hu is an angel of physicality) takes pity and decides to help him out. They've got quite an armada to cut through though, including a rowdy cockney whacko (Craig Conway) a parkour master (Sebastian Foucan), an ex Spetsnaz freak (Scott Adkins) with a habit of blowing stuff up left right and center, and lastly a Texan pretty boy lunatic played cheerfully by Ian Somerhalder. He's so evil they just had to include a bit where he shoots a stray dog in the face without batting a perfect eyelash (animal lovers, you've been forewarned). All this mayhem is taken in by Powers and his sickening audience of wealthy kingpins, who sit in a great big boardroom and bet on the outcome of the carnage. Cunningham is a blast of devilish charm as Powers, an amoral villain of dark showmanship and sociopathic class. Between exploding heads, grenades ripping through the streets of London, frenetic hand to hand combat, colorful personalities, over the top depictions of bad human behavior and a general sense of hedonistic, slash and burn glee, this is one for the books.

Powers (Cunningham) is the mastermind behind THE TOURNAMENT - an event where the best assassins in the world vie to kill each other to become the number one killer - and rake in a ten million dollar prize. Unsuspecting priest Father MacAvoy (Carlyle) becomes embroiled in all the craziness when he accidentally swallows a tracking device meant for the competitors (and will explode after 24 hours). Lai Lai Zhen (Hu) takes him under her wing in order to protect him, which will be necessary with psychos like Miles Slade (Somerhalder) on their tail. Of course, last year's winner, Joshua Harlow (Rhames) returns - but what are his true motives? Who will be victorious in THE TOURNAMENT? The Tournament is a lot of fun and never anything less than totally entertaining. It's professionally and competently made, which gives the action, fun, and thrills a solidity that captivates the audience. While there is a satisfying amount of very cool, comic-book violence, there's also a nice upbeat feel and some humorous dialogue. Like The Raid (2011), it's essentially one feature-length action scene, interspersed with short interstitial bits of exposition that move the plot along before propelling into the next action setpiece. It's all very winning and audience pleasing. Add to that a great pace and plenty of surprises, and you can't lose.The premise - a bunch of assassins vying to kill each other, with a likable innocent caught in the middle of it all - is a can't-lose proposition for the audience and, thankfully - and unusually - it actually lives up to its potential. The killer plot idea is wonderfully brought to life by a colorful cast of characters and fan favorites. Robert Carlyle is endearing as MacAvoy, and we get to see "action Ving Rhames", mixing it up with the best of them, which we loved seeing. We also loved that fan favorite Scott Adkins was involved, though, like a lot of others in the tournament, his time is necessarily limited. We understand. Kelly Hu made a top-notch "good assassin", a perfect mirror image to Somerhalder's "boo-hiss" evil assassin. Capping it all off is the charisma of Liam Cunningham as Powers, putting a focus to all the chaotic goings-on.Sure, we've seen similar plots before - even David Heavener fell victim to the "shady underground putting up cash and watching participants kill each other" situation, as has Robert Z'Dar and Jeff Wincott - in Fugitive X (1996), Dragonfight (1990), and Fatal Combat (1995), respectively - but The Tournament has so much verve it makes it all seem fresh. The individuals in the tournament each have clearly defined identities, as action movies used to have (i.e. Shootfighter, etc.) so it never becomes amorphous and hard to follow. Commendably, CGI seems to be kept to a minimum as well, reinforcing the old-school feel.All the elements come together nicely, from the action scenes, fights, blow-ups, slo-mo moments (we'd say "slo-moments", but we don't want anyone to think there are any slow moments), and it's all pretty over the top and somewhat cartoonish, in a good way. For example, we learned if you want to get a grenade away from you, you can just shoot it with a handgun. The image of shooting a grenade with a gun pretty much sums up The Tournament - modern-day meta-violence, and slightly ridiculous - but it's all for the fans and you gotta love it.

I hadn't heard too much about this film but after reading the synopsis I thought it sounded interesting enough. A deadly game called the tournament is held where 30 of the world's top assassins meet in a certain location (The Uk) in this instance and battle to the death until one is left and crowned the ultimate assassin. I automatically thought this film took ideas from the classic Battle Royale and it also reminded me a little of Smokin Aces but unfortunately it failed to fully deliver on the potential it had. That's not to say it's a terrible film because it has some good moments, some of the action set pieces are well done with the motorway scene a good stand out. The film is also laced with some tongue in cheek comedy moments and there are some pretty gory scenes involving exploding body parts and the like. But there are some problems with the film too. For me the standard of acting overall wasn't great my main gripe was with Liam Cunningham (Powers) his performance was too OTT it was just plain terrible every time he spoke. Ving Rhames (Joshu Harlow) was also poor and very wooden when ever he was on screen. I thought the two main characters Robert Carlyle (Father MaCovoy) and Kelly Hu (Lai Lai Zhen) were pretty good as was Ian Somerhalder (Miles Slade) as the crazy American kid. Throw in some very corny lines throughout the films running time and it came across more then once as a bit cringe worthy. The film also sets up with 30 assassins but in reality it focuses on only five competitors in any real detail I don't know why they didn't just say there were say 10 assassins as we really see nothing of the 25 or so other competitors throughout the movie. The action scenes are fairly good if not amazing, there is a sense or dark humour throughout and that's where the films at it's best, when it walks into trying any serious story telling it comes across as far too cliché and hard to believe. 5/10

30 Players in a match to the death... What more do you want to hear?Some wonderful acting in what is essentially a film geared up on violence. And it does make the film so much more enjoyable believe it or not.OK! There is not the time to get to know all 31 Players - You will see in the synopsis that Robert Carlyle plays a Priest who gets caught up in the game... - But that does not matter.You will quickly come to love the three main protagonists - Kelly Wu and Carlyle act their socks off.And yes, it is a predictable ending but none the less enjoyable. A film that is worth a second watch.