11 Blocks (2015)

11 Blocks: Directed by Matthew Bennett, Sasha Moric. With Craig Henry, Bo Martynowska, Nick Smyth, Bart Badzioch. John ‘Concrete’ Hong has one night to fight his way across a violent city and rescue the one he loves. After eviction from their apartment, John and Bethany Hong are forced to live on the streets of Union, a violent city where street gangs control the lower blocks. When John journeys to the bottom of the city to find work, the WCC gang corners him. After fighting his way out, he becomes the target of the corrupt Police Chief and his hired assassin, Finger.

“The plot: To rescue his sister, a tough guy has to fight his way through 11 blocks of a gang-controlled, dystopian city.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn a film like this, I have two major concerns: fight choreography and stunts. Sure, if the direction or acting is crap, it can be distracting, but for a no-budget action film, my standards are pretty low. This film has some pretty good action scenes. The biggest problem that the choreographers never really solved the problem of how to show one man fight against an entire gang. In most of the scenes, he fights them one-by-one, and the other people pretty much just stand around and wait for their turn to get their asses kicked. I generally prefer when the hero uses an ingenious strategy to even the odds, but this is more like side-scrolling arcade game. Itu0026#39;s a failed opportunity to show us action fans something we havenu0026#39;t seen before.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe editing is probably going to bother many people. This isnu0026#39;t the kind of film where you really have much of a plot, so when you need to pad the runtime, itu0026#39;s either flashbacks or extended sex scenes. Thereu0026#39;s one scene at a strip club, but this film generally goes with flashbacks. Lots of flashbacks. In fact, several of them are repeated two or three times. However, after you get past the first 20 or 30 minutes, they become less common. Many of the flashbacks are from our protagonistu0026#39;s earlier life, when he was trained by his brutal father. Whenever he failed to perfectly execute a move, his father would beat him. While these scenes can be fun to watch for those who enjoy martial arts demonstrations, others will probably tire of them quickly.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf youu0026#39;re forgiving of low budget action films, then it canu0026#39;t hurt to give it a try. Maybe itu0026#39;s sign of how many bad action films Iu0026#39;ve seen over the years, but Iu0026#39;ve seen much worse.”