Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

A different way of telling a story

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

An intergalactic fighting competition between champions of various worlds has traditionally been won by a species much larger and stronger than humans. Entering the contest, a human finds he has to battle against not just his opponents and his self-doubts, but the corrupt system.....If you've seen this movie before, you'll already know how bonkers stupid the whole thing is. This is one of those films that I saw trailered on many a straight to video action movie 25-26 years ago, but then when it left the video shelf, it vanished without a trace, and to my knowledge, it's never been on TV or had a DVD release.So thank heavens for NetFlix, as I have now seen one of my legendary lost films that I thought had vanished forever.And it's just how I thought it would be,man absolute cheese fest featuring a non-existent lead who makes Van Damme and Lundgren seem like Olivier.To describe the film is a very heady thing to do. Take The Running Man, Tron, Bloodsport, Barbarella, with the budget of a Troma film, and your almost there.We basically have a guy who can become the next world champion of the titular sport, but I order to do so, he has to fight lots of people in suits, claymation, and puppets. That's the premise of the film.And there's a subplot involving a man with silver paint on his face risking losing everything if our hero wins.As you can imagine, the fights are non existent, so the majority of the time we see our hero from his adversaries perspective, and someone behind the camera hitting him with rubber hands, and it's as fun as it sounds.The effects are dazzlingly awful, but the puppetry is actually rather good for such a low budget film.It's a shame that this wasn't more widely recognised, because this could have been a wondrous TV series.A must for all bad movie fans everywhere.

Remember when the future was going to look exactly like the 1980s? The makers of Arena did--which is probably not terribly shocking, considering the film was made in 1989. In fact, you might say that Empire Pictures was already on the cutting edge of retro-'80s chic: Arena completely fails to acknowledge the coming of a new decade and wallows in big poofy hair, big poofy shoulder pads, and big poofy monster make up. It's terrible, of course, but enjoyable nonetheless, especially if you pay close attention and pick up on the various movie references laced throughout the script. Besides ripping off Star Wars endlessly, Arena also works in a reference to This Island Earth (the interocitor seems to have survived the crash landing of Exeter's spaceship), and the Marx Brothers' secret Horse Feathers password, 'swordfish', is here, too. In short, it's a kitsch delight for those who enjoy extraterrestrial camp.

They just don't make them like this anymore. Yeah, it's a total schlock fest... But what an idea. Some dude has to fight it out in the intergalactic ring against all sorts of aliens ( AKA dudes in rubber costumes ), in classic cheesy 80's direct to video sci fi fashion. We're simply not blessed with such cornball films that are this fun anymore.There's not really much in the way of story. We get some blondie no name actor playing Steve Armstrong, giving those super tough guys in rubber suits a really hard time in the intergalactic fighting ring. Will the golden boy make it out alive in the ring, fighting against the behinds the scenes corruption and overcome his underdog status to become champion? You'll just have to waste some time and find out. Yeah, everything about it technically is fairly awful, but it's a fun film. Highly recommend if you spot it on cable and you enjoy cheese-fest flicks. There's some slow moments and awful dialog throughout, but the fights are all entertaining in a goofy way, just as most of the film is. It's B grade schlock, don't go into this film expecting something amazing and you'll have a fun time. Someone should take notice from the good ol' days of VHS and get the direct to DVD market going with fresh ideas like this, and actually have them be semi-competent productions like this film.

Held in a space station is an intergalactic fighting competition that pits all kind of species in the arena of endurance, ability and strength. There hasn't been a human victor in over 50 years and Steve Armstrong decides to take up the challenge, after his friend finds himself in trouble. However to take that crown of champion he must defeat the hideously cocky Horn and overcome attempts by a devious promoter Rogor. Who's trying to stop Steve's advancement through the competition. I really wanted to relish in "Arena", because for an extremely low budget production (it simply tells), it illustrated a colourful universe and a magnificent range of distinguishable species (think of Star Wars). Sure it doesn't have state of the art visuals, but those limitations didn't worry it and the overall junky and tackiness of it play into its own hands. Who produced this low-end Sci-fi romp? Well, no other than full moon's Charles Brand. So the campy richness and b-grade fixtures were assured from the get-go. Though, I guess I better get to the point to why I found it to be lacking poise. From very beginning we know how the standard storyline will play out. An underdog theme trumps in as we watch our protagonist start small with obstacles standing in his way and then eventually end a big high note. This predictable pattern is made more foreseeable with the good guys vs. bad guys context. It's pretty old-hat stuff, but one gets used to after a while even if there's a change of scenery to the mix. But this was lesser of its worries. Its main showpiece was the arena and fighting competition itself. Too bad the fight scenes were too few and goofily staged. I was disappointed on this aspect. They lacked any real sort of adrenaline, force and at times completely drag with the same repetitive activity. The only real fight that stood out for me took place outside the arena, when Steve shows us what his made of. I wouldn't blame someone who thinks this is more so a costume show, as Steve is in one fancy looking nappy outfit.Peter Manoogian's direction is workably sub-par, but lacks flair in his vision. The photography is quite stuffy and trumping in is Richard Brand's cornball music score. Those filming techniques might not blow you away, but they are acceptably achieved. John Carl Buechler's make-up is detailed (though not always perfect) and adds the to the film's spirit. The cold script is flooded with ineptness, but thankfully it's laced with agreeably witty banter. The performances aren't anything special, but solid enough. Paul Strathfield makes a likable working class heroine, if not much else. There's the familiar face of the succulent and biting Claudia Christian. Eye candy is in the shape of Shari Shattuck. Marco Alaimo goes out of his way to look and act real sinister as Rogor. Hamilton Camp and Armin Shimerman play the supporting roles in mostly a comical tone. Dreams can come true, but that wasn't entirely the case here. Rather than be exciting, it's diverting at best.