K.O. (2025)
From a movie that focuses on murder and takes well into the movie to get to a murder straight into a movie that starts with murder. Tonight Netflix throws a movie that sounds a lot like plenty of other action movies where we take a violent sport and one of it’s people and they get involved into stuff that isn’t that sport and possibly even more violent. It doesn’t take much to sound like a good time to me when it comes to action movies, which personally I feel is a superpower that lets me enjoy pretty near any action flick as long as it gives me some sort of action at some point or another - but if we put things like MMA in the description, well now I know we gonna get some punching and crunching. Subtitle if you want, dub it if you don’t - tonight we check out fitting but also super generically named K.O.
The movie starts with a big MMA match. The under dog is on the ropes, and really needs to get a knock out or submission to win the match - but despite a furious trade from both sides, a routine move you’ve seen plenty of times has an unexpected twists - when one man tries to break a hold from another by picking him up and slamming him down, and somehow accidentally kills the man. The dead guy’s wife and kid in the audience? Horrified. The guy who did it? In shock. The kid now super-hates the guy, the wife isn’t super friendly either, and despite the guy not having done it on purpose it shakes him up enough that he abandons MMA fighting - which has been his day and night for who knows how long. Years later, the kid gets into some trouble and the mom comes to get the MMA guy to go find him and get him out of it - because the guy “owes him” that much. He ends up crossing paths with a no-nonsense cop and a rather violent adventure begins.
I can’t speak to actual line deliveries in the actor performance - I watched the dubbed version. It’s not horrible, the dubs, but sometimes I notice that it just doesn’t have the same oomph I imagine coming out of the actors in the native run. That said - since I didn’t watch the original audio, I can’t really say that it’s any better than the dub. Everyone feels like they do a good job with body language though, be it menacing or worried or thirsting something ferocious. Like, that scene could have been silent and black and white and even an oblivious person would know that officer was chomping at the bit. Anyways, it comes out to be pretty middle grounds all in all - it’s enjoyable enough, some of the lines can be fun, and it doesn’t look phoned in, but at the same time the writing sort of helps keep it in a position of tropes and situations that feel pretty by the numbers. Good for a casual time investment, but perhaps not for the drama sleuths out there.
Characters are, as mentioned, where things start to get a little bland. It’s not that there is no growth or anything - there’s a nice heart to heart moment towards the end between the MMA guy and the kid, so the kid actually ends up feeling like he’s grown by the end of the movie. The interactions between the cop and the MMA guy are pretty enjoyable, and the bad guys are about all the level of scummy killer drug types that you would expect, including over-dramatic flair. All of it said - it works for an alright movie, but none of it is necessarily standing out above others of the genre in any dramatic ways - but the fact that none of the characters are actively annoying you outside of perhaps a moment or two of stupid to set up a final fight or the likes is still a welcome thing in an action flick.
Voted most menacing henchmen of his class.
Wardrobe is pretty everyday affair. Granted, our detective’s midrift exposing shirt isn’t exactly common attire for what I’m used to seeing in most detective or buddy cop kind of flicks, but I’ll chalk it up to France and the fact the last movie I watched with female detectives in the front was the kind of disappointing The Heat. This was much more enjoyable then that, but it’s also much more an action buddy flick then it is a comedy buddy cop flick, so maybe that’s cheating. I also enjoy that despite her being noticeably shorter than most the people she’s up against she’s still scrappier than heck and basically feels like Marvel’s the Wolverine, if he was a she and also a cop without powers. Our huge MMA guy (at least he feels it when he stands next to most people) gets do some fun physical stuff, but ladies would also be happy to know that we get plenty of his mid-section shown off too. Setting is about what you’d expect in a modern crime kind of flick as well - a club, a police station, some apartment buildings and industrial places. It very much fits with the rest of the film’s “nothing will blow you out of the water but you still won’t mind and have a good time” mantra.
Action scenes are pretty good, and surprisingly not violent. Most of it is fisticuffs with a few gun fights or the occasional stabbings - but nothing is overly graphic. The movie still knows how to make a hit look like it hurts when it comes to landing on or through things however, and it‘s shot well to emphasize the action. Probably the greatest example of this is when security footage shows a fight from another angle and the kicks look far more goofy and unimpressive then it did when the scene was happening itself. Expect a good few “oohs” and “oofs” with out having to worry about losing your lunch to the brutality or absurd cuts. Again, it might not be the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen, but I’m still pain-laughing about that guy that took a shotgun to the knee and flipped off the planet.
Audio is balance well. Again, I can’t speak for the native run of language, but I didn’t find myself being lost as to what was being said. It also lined up pretty well to what the subtitles stated was being said, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what was used to dub it. I will say that a time or two the dubbing really didn’t line up with the mouth movements of the actors, but it’s not a problem for me since I grew up on old atrociously done Godzilla movies. The movie ended with some John Carpenter - which we know I like but also means it’s cheating that I remember it after the movie is done. The soundtrack overall does it’s job with supporting the stuff on screen without being too overbearing. For the thinking types? Eh, family, forgiveness, dealing with trauma, vengeance, and maybe just don’t be a bad guy?
Cop and giant.
It was a good enough movie. I’d place it well into the middle grounds of decent enough to watch, especially if it was something you came up on through random play or a television. Although it’s not bad, I can’t particularly find anything that really stands out above other movies of it’s type to recommend it based on, but I guess if you want a big nice MMA dude with some trauma teaming up with a scrappy-as-heck lady officer who isn’t afraid to break a head or two, you could do well worse than this one. Not overly pretentious feeling, not overly complicated, but knows how to give us some decent action and shoot it well.