ARENA (1989)

ARENA (1989)

Tagline: For a thousand years no human has been the champion. He wants to be the first.

(Action, Sci-Fi, Boxing with Aliens) [PG-13]

Note: This movie was completed in 1988, but did not get released in the United States until 1991. It was released theatrically in West Germany in 1989, so I am still considering this one an 80s movie. 

Oh, I could stay all night, folks, but I gotta go. A hand for the boys in the band, and remember, I hate your guts!

In this one, we are taken to the year 4038 where Steve Armstrong, a former fighter works as a short-order cook on a satellite in space, but wants to be back in the ring fighting in tournaments. The issue is that these tournaments are dominated by aliens and not many humans have even bothered to step into the ring. After seeing him in a scuffle with an alien, Quinn, a fight promoter and manager takes on Steve as a fighter to see if he can move up the ranks. Rogor, a rival fight promoter, and the sports organizer decides to try and get rid of Steve by having him assassinated. Will humans ever rule the ring again? 

First off, if you close your eyes and hear Steve (played by Paul Satterfield) talking in this movie, he sounds a heck of a lot like Keanu Reeves. Most of the performances in this thing are pretty stiff, but Paul does a decent job as does Claudia Christian who plays Quinn, and Hamilton Camp who plays Shorty. Shorty ends up being a huge support for Steve and comes across as a sort of Mickey character (from ROCKY). 

What works really well in this movie is the set designs and these crazy alien concepts. In fact, MEN IN BLACK might have been better off using one or more of these alien designs rather than using CGI at all. I will even go as far as to say, the alien designs in this movie make the original STAR WARS look like amateur hour. Having said that, clearly, STAR WARS is a better movie but I was pretty impressed with ARENA creatively. If some of the colors had been brighter, so of the scenes would have come across as almost FLASH GORDON-like. 

The story I am going to say is just okay. It feels pretty simplistic overall given the setting. While it doesn’t feel like it was going for universe-building, I would not have minded seeing a few “ARENA” sequels. Acting-wise, like I said this one is mostly stiff but Paul Satterfield (CREEPSHOW 2) actually does a pretty solid job. I also really liked Claudia Christian (MANIAC COP 2) in this as I mentioned earlier. These days she’s doing mostly voice work for animated TV series with some occasional live roles. We also get a fairly heavy dose of Shari Shattuck who plays Jade. She is fine in this one, but I could have done without both of her musical numbers which seemed to only be there to fill up a bit of run time. 

If I was going to change something about this movie, it would have just been the fight progression. The last alien Steve fights seems like the lamest, and the coolest aliens are the ones he takes on first. We also get some very bad late 80’s effects when it comes to the outer space shots. I mean, they are really terrible looking. You have had better luck just filming one kid holding a space poster and another kid walking toward the space poster with a toy spaceship. Having said that, overall this is a freakin blast of a sci-fi romp and there is just a ton of really cool stuff to look at if you can get past some of the mounds of cheese flying in your face for nearly 2 hours. 

I give this one a 5 out of 7. In spite of some flaws, the characters are a blast even with the acting issues at times and the visuals make this worth watching.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF EMPIRE PICTURES COMPANY AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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