Rich Wright Well, it was better than I thought it was going to be...A seedy promoter tries to profiteer off a female boxer. This is a bit like the reverse Million Dollar Baby... Instead of Hilary Swank being encouraged by Clint Eastwood to be the best she could be and win the World Title, here we see Rebecca Neuenswander (I ain't typing THAT again) and Chad Ortis are only in it for the money, by participating in illegal fights. MDB was also realistic in that it only pitted Swank against female opponents she had a chance of beating. Here, the female pugilist regularly downs men that must be three times her size without that much effort. True, she does receive a few bumps and bruises, but check out how quickly they heal. Talk about scrubbing up well.And of course, there are corrupt managers who would try anything to make more dough, including bribery, threats and physical violence. You also don't need a crystal ball to anticipate what'll happen to our two leads and that their initial plans near the end are all just one big red herring. In fact, the entire story could be taught in Screen writing Classes 101 about how to put together a serviceable plot with no surprises or twists, lest unimaginative members of the audience have a heart attack. Does this make it a bad film? No... it passes the time, and Rebecca N can genuinely be described as a 'discovery'. Just don't expect anything more than 'mediocre'. 5/10

zardoz-13 Sophomore helmer Jonathan Dillion and scenarist Ian Shorr have made an above-average underground fight epic that suffers only from its scrape the bottom-of-the-barrel-budget and its thoroughly predictable plot. You will have a pretty fair idea what is going to happen throughout the 100 or so minutes. Twenty-eight year old Michael Dublin (Chad Ortis of "The Hollywood Informant") is a small potatoes hustler who makes his living off illegal bare-knuckles boxing matches and street racing. Dillion gives us a thumbnail sketch of this down-and-out soul who has his good days and his bad days. Michael is experiencing a really bad day when Katherine Parker (first-time actress Rebecca Neuenswander) intervenes to keep a big tough, muscle-bound bruiser from pummeling our poor hero into pulp. She drops the incredulous big guy with a couple of blows,and Dublin is suitably impressed, enough so to recruit her for his pugilistic talent. They travel the seedy circuit of underground prize-fighting arenas and encounter the usual corrupt types.Inevitably, the time comes when Dublin wants Katherine to throw a fight and she is oppposed to the idea. Name virtually any boxing movie and you will find the dive proposition scene. "Fight Night" is neither as good as either "Million Dollar Baby" or the Channing Tatum fisticuffs movie "Fighting," because there are no surprises in the Shorr screenplay. Quite frankly, things seem far-fetched when this slightly built babe can deck guys three times were size. Shorr must have been channeling the David and Goliath story from the Bible when he penned this screenplay. The chief villain, Clark Richter (Kurt Hanover of "The Fluff"), makes things tough for our hero and heroine. The final fight is pretty good. Neuenswander has the looks and all the right moves, but her dialogue delivery is at times leaden. Meanwhile, Ortis resembles a young Tom Cruise. Dublin and Katherine tear into each other throughout the action in what eventually boils down to an opposite-only attraction romance. Yes, "Fight Night" concludes with a straight-sexually oriented happy ending.

frogsupmyarse When you sit down to watch this movie you know your taking a risk, your gut tells you there's so much that could go wrong with this film even before you start watching.The plot is essentially the traditional boxing story with a twist, the underdog in this case Katherine Parker who is played by first time actor Rebecca Neuenswander whom similar to her on screen persona has the odds stacked against her here as she attempts to convince us that the good looking girl can punch above her weight. The film starts out on shaky ground you feel it just wants to get its prize fighter on screen as soon as possible but this is justified as Neuenswander puts in a performance that defies her c.v. and shows flash's in her work that with the right direction could see her going on to bigger projects. Guiding Katherine Parker through the seedy underworld of illegal boxing is her fast talking manager Michael Dublin played by Chad Ortis, Dublin as he is commonly referred to is portrayed in a convincing performance as desperate and morally bankrupt individual with underlying currents of self loathing about the man he is and fear about the man he might become. The action scenes come thick and fast as Parkers rise to notoriety gathers momentum. It is in these scenes the obvious physical limitations of Neuenswander's character facing her sizable opponents might raise the first doubt you have about her ability to beat her burley opposition but upon reflection i guess thats what an underdog does, he or she defies the odds to succeed and is a good metaphor for what this film is, it defies the odds and surprises you, it makes you think not to be a movie snob and avoid something just because you don't know the actors because sometimes taking a risk pays off.

ghostlander The story line of this film is about underground boxing. Rebecca Neuenswander acts as a Katherine Parker, a young but promising fighter. Another key character is Michael Dublin (Chad Ortis), a young but experienced promoter. Not a hard guess that this couple has to get through this film in some interesting way.All right, let me tell you what you won't see in this low budget project. There are no outstanding special effects, no expensive decorations, no catching breath stunts. At the same time, keep in mind that this film isn't just about fights for money, though Rebecca has done an excellent action job while standing against and knocking out numerous tough guys (a matter of taste and fighting experience whether you buy this or not, but I wouldn't say it's impossible totally). First of all, this film is about real life, real relationships and that bitter feeling when you've got nothing to lose, really nothing...