User reviews

I wasn't going to see this but after a friend told me it was decent I watched it. For a director debut, it's good. I might watch it again. It did deal with a few topics that were hit or miss but overall, it was worth watching ince.

The real fight is among the pros. The Hollywood pros. While indies come and go, Oscar-Winner and A-Lister Berry made the unforgivable error of not only directing, but also casting herself, and even choosing a non-traditional topic. For a woman, that is. Which is why most of the trade reviews talk more about her choices than the film itself. Which is a shame because the film is competent, professional, holds the attention, and has first-rate acting. Last time I looked, that is what films were supposed to be about? ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

I've always liked Halle Barry and Damn, Girl still looks GREAT, she's Not all Botoxed to death and Duck Lipped like most female stars in her age range.

This wasn't as good as Million Dollar Baby, by Eastwood. But for her 1st time, (both acting in and directing) And considering the overwhelming physical subject of MMA Fighting for a woman over 50, I think She is VERY BRAVE!! And that little boy was Amazing just using his emotions to convey SO MUCH! And how Heartbreaking was that song? Just the 2 of US????

Sheila Atim is amazing, I swear, I could feel the ZEN vibes in her chanting. :D I hope Halle sticks to it, as women directors still have a hard road, even in 2021. I think she's like a fine wine, she keeps getting better with age. And hopefully we will see future directorial works from her that will do the same. ;D.

Halle berry deserves credit for the emotional and physical input towards the film. She did a great job.

I went into this film not expecting much but it turned out to be better then expected.

That's all folks!..

Halle delivers with her directorial debut! She put a lot of hard work in this film, and it's worth a watch. "We" have to go high when "they" go low! It's as if the haters can't wait to post their negative comments! This movie is certainly not a 1/10, but they never get tired of themselves.

Halle Berry's directorial debut. The actress and director are the best part of the whole movie. Because the problem is not the director, but rather the script. Many ambiguities, numerous clichés of the lower class and many scenes are simply a copy of numerous martial arts films. The film is too predictable due to its clichés and therefore not a good debut. A shining Halle Berry but a tired film.

It took a massive fighting spirit to survive this movie. Berry puts every single cliche sports movie troupe imaginable into one uninspiring fighting story. Would be so much better had there been more fighting. Instead it's filled with cliche and boring subplots that is void of any emotional challenge leaving the audience nothing to connect with.

Do I love Halle Berry? I think I would be lying if I said I didn't. Not sure if that makes me biased ... ok it does. Still I don't think anyone can knock her performance in this movie. And the amount of training and effort she put into this. To say that is amazing would be an understatement. And with every great character in a story we know that she is seriously flawed. From her abusive relationships, to her own self worth awareness, to her way of living and self destroying tendencies.

We may know where the movie leads us or will lead us. But that does not mean that the movie is less intriguing or interesting. There are many facets and many things we can see and maybe even learn from this. Keep on the good fight, don't change who you are ... try not to be bitter. And get help - mental health is an important thing. As is keeping the body healthy, same goes for the mind. And keep people around you that are not putting you down! Sometimes easier said than done ... but when a movie is there to show you things like that, maybe it helps along ...

Overall I enjoyed this movie. The sex scenes were unnecessary and at some points it was pretty slow. I can see Halle berry trained a lot for this and she has my respect. Also getting Valentina schevchenko was cool.

Ignore the bad reviews. This is an engaging movie that's more about resilience and compassion than fighting. Halle Berry was believable as a fighter both in and out of the cage. Watch it and make up your own mind, ignore the critics. It's an engaging and brave movie.

It's not exactly Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby {2004}. The story wasn't great but Halle Berry performance was good as usual. I am impressed with her athleticism at 55. I hope she keeps up her impressive action roles. She was great but the story wasn't.

Halle Berry taking 2nd billing has nothing to do with the color of her skin or white women getting top billing. It has to do with financing. No matter what the race or gender of a movie star is, some will take 2nd billing to reduce the budget of a movie so the movie can get made for less money so it makes a profit. Sometimes a movie star will take no salary to get financing secured for a movie so it gets made. 🙂

Halle Berry is great in this and her and the kid are the stars of the film.as a pure drama its half decent.

For an mma focused film with someone who was meant to have fought for a ufc title she can't throw a kick and has the takedowns of someone who's never had a fight.

Valentina looks great fighting but it's a poorly choreographerd fight.

Halle Berry continues to evolve and demonstrate she is a movie franchise all on her own. Her acting in this is as good as ever. She now establishes herself as a serious Director of a complex film to curt her teeth on. While the UFC is the darling of the MMA fight world there are few who ever make it to the top and even fewer that ever stay there. This is, essentially, a Rocky story for the 21st Century. It is dark, in many ways-both in its story and in its look, but it is good. I did not love this one because it was a little long and very painful to watch on many levels. It has a lot of humanity and a lot of heart. The supporting cast, particularly Danny Boyd and Sheila Atim are outstanding. As a martial artist for more than 35 years it is hard to watch some fight films where the acting is good but the fighting is not realistic. Berry started on a path to real training with 87Eleven for the John Wick franchise and it obvious that she has a passion for the arts and a high skill level. What makes someone a martial artist? 3+ years of training, even for a film, qualifies in my opinion.

Halle Berry brought heart and soul into her character of Jackie Justice, i really enjoyed the storyline of "Bruised" i thought there were many good points in it which made it a really good first attempt for directing by Halle Berry.

I thought this was going to be her fighting her way back to the top not just one fight. A 2 hour film for one fight just isn't worth it in my opinion. If I knew that before watching it I definitely wouldn't have watched it. I also don't understand how she can just walk into a title fight like that but it is what it is. I feel like if you watched this and you don't watch MMA you'd actually enjoy it. Was just way too average to be anything big. If they had her fighting her way through the ranks before the main fight it would've been a lot better. It's a film about MMA yet we actually so no fighting. I understand she was fighting outside the cage but she literally only had one fight in entire 2 hour MMA film.

Pretty solid entry for a Netflix Movie. Not too many cliches and the characters are interesting.

Fight scenes are also very good.

The film could have probably been slightly shorter though.

Just finished watching this.

If you follow MMA you spot a few familiar faces in this.

The only reason I watched it is because Valentina Shevchenko is in it... I mean literally the only reason!

She is a legend of MMA and if you are not familiar with her, go check her out.

One of my issues is that there are some terrible actors in it. I mean for eg if you are an MMA fan like me, when you listen to the man and woman commentating the final fight.. it's horrendous to endure. They sound like radio personalities reading from a script.. just so unrealistic.

But even if you are not familiar with MMA the acting is still very 'hokey' along with other side characters/actors.

Without spoilers there are some odd parts to the story that don't really get explained. Things are kind of hinted at, eg someone she meets in the movie.. at a key point just ups and leaves and reappears at the end... it just seems very very sloppy how it was handled.

The movie has it's moments but nothing I feel that warrants it getting a higher rating than a 5 max.

Maybe others will enjoy it but for me it was generally underwhelming.

Thought it was a pretty good movie. The negative reviews are way off base. Struggles were mostly outside the ring . Definitely worth a watch. Director debut by Halle was a total success . Strong women ! Open your heart and watch this movie.

This is a good movie very well acted. It can feel slow at time but it's meant to be. The biggest fights are never in the ring but what happens outside of the ring. As a former fighter I can't tell you the mental struggle is real this movie shows that. Could of done without the woke lesbian part but other then that a good movie.

As a big MMA fan i was quite looking forward to seeing this as the coverage the movie was getting across UFC platforms and Netflix was rather large but the movie misses the mark. The fight at the end of the movie was rather bland with a result you can see coming a mile away. Valentina Shevchenko can do more in real life fighting wise than she was asked to do in the film which is rather odd. Outside of that, it's all family drama and stuff you've seen thousands of times, down on her luck fighter with a last chance to help her out career and private life wise. Halle Berry gives a perfectly fine performance, however her facials during the end fight scenes nearly had me scrambling for the remote. Truly awful, nearly as bad as the infamous X-Men line "You know what happens to a toad when it gets struck by lightning"