one of my absolute favorites!

just watch it!

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

When Michael Shaw (Hackman) was 12 years old, some carjackers shot and killed his parents. During the incident, the boy took note of a tattoo on the neck of one of the baddies. Now in high school, he's understandably moody and acts out by partying and neglecting his schoolwork. Caught by the cops for excessive "party rocking", Michael is on his last chance. Thanks to Principal Vanhorne (Kove), Michael gets a chance to do his community service hours at his old dojo. When he was a kid, he was a Karate champ, but after the murder he let it all slide. When Reggie (Biehn), the dojo master, first gets a hold of him, he has him do janitorial work. But Michael starts to see the value of training in Karate again. When taken by Reggie's niece Jen (Brown) to an illegal, underground MMA fight, Michael recognizes the tattoo he saw so long ago - it just so happens to belong to the reigning champ, a gigantic, unbeatable meathead named Dominic Gray (Soszynski). So, despite their vast weight differences, Michael goes into extreme training mode so he can beat Gray in the ring to avenge his parents' murder. But will it be Gray or Michael who will be...TAPPED OUT? Tapped Out is essentially No Retreat No Surrender (1986) for the Facebook generation. Elsewhere online it has been described as Batman (1989) meets The Karate Kid (1984), and it has a plot action fans have seen countless times before. Should we be applauding the fact that they're still making movies like this? We're truly not sure. We guess that's pretty cool. The movie has almost as many training sequences as Green Street 3 (2013), and because Michael has to work his way up the ranks of all the "boxcar" underground fighters, and squeeze in some plot and dialogue, the whole thing is a bit longer than it needs to be.  This Cody Hackman kid is likable enough, and it also stars fan favorites Martin Kove and Michael Biehn, so the DTV lineage is there, at least. Interestingly, in the movie it says that the murder of the parents occurred when Michael was 12 years old. Then someone later says "that was seven years ago." If our math is correct, that means Michael is a 19 or 20 year old high school student. Maybe things are different in Canada, but this struck us as odd. Maybe he stayed back a few times.The whole outing is shot and edited well, and has a very professional look to it. It's clear the filmmakers, despite the derivative grounding of it all, tried to put in some emotion and quality to the overall proceedings, which we appreciated. It doesn't look or feel like crud, as so many of its MMA-based competitors do. The fact that "Karate Boy", as our hero is called, tries to take on these MMA guys in the ring may feel incorrect, but it's kind of a throwback to the underground Punchfighting movies of the 80's and the first part of the 90's. The ring announcer bellows "Let's go to waaaaaaaarrrrr!", which, it has to be said, won't be sending Michael Buffer into his panic room anytime soon.For a decent and watchable - but nothing more - example of a modern-day DTV UFC/Underground Fighting movie, Tapped Out should fit the bill. But it seems the days of Karl Brezdin are long over, even if that spirit, in some new form, lives on.

Some things are never explained and not every character motivation has to be explained I reckon (whether it's a villain or our main hero doing stuff). The "story" itself is pretty straightforward though and it doesn't take a lot of guessing to know where this is heading and what will happen in the course of it.Michael Biehn somehow got involved in it and he does a decent job being guardian. Even when he doesn't seem consistent in what he's saying and what he's doing, he still pulls it off. But more important for anyone watching is, if the action is good. I would say it's OK/decent enough. It's not over the top or anything great, but it serves its purpose and will entertain enough if you're willing to oversee the flaws ...

Tapped Out is just another case of a no budget B movie receiving early positive press from friends of the cast and crew. The film is worse than the trailers, which have already received a ton of heat, and contains some of the most cringe-worthy moments and performances I've ever seen. This isn't even a B movie, it's a D movie.Let's look first to Hackman, the "star" who just happened to produce and write the film. Not only is his talent non-existent, but his portrayal of the character is entirely unbelievable. His writing gives us nothing more than a derivative story that you've seen many times before, except this time it looks like it was made for about 20 grand.Appearances by "stars" Biehn and MMA fighters give us a glimpse of what this might have been with a real budget and if the content was in the hands of better filmmakers. Biehn was a disaster, plain and simple, but he's been that since the 90's so no surprise there. On the other hand, the MMA guys step in and do a fairly decent job in their limited time on screen. Unfortunately, the filmmakers are about two years too late as MMA is on the decline and the fighters won't offer enough of a draw to attract substantial audiences.If you're looking for absolute garbage, this is the film to see... if not, don't waste your time. A film like SHARKNADO works because it's intentionally terrible. What makes TAPPED OUT so bad is that it takes itself seriously and fails horribly in its efforts. Unfortunately, it appears that the same team is back at their B movie ways with a new Biehn picture and one starring Cuba Gooding Jr... so their trend of hiring washed up 80's/90's talent continues, but at least this film offers us reason to never check out further work by this incompetent group.0/10

Review: Story-wise 'Tapped Out' is 'The Karate Kid' meets 'Rocky'; our protagonist Michael Shaw (Cody Hackman) witnesses the murder of his parents as a young boy and becomes (unsurprisingly) a troubled youth. Unlike the Never Back Down films though, Michael is a likable character and although he is angry at the world, it's entirely understandable as he is well fleshed out.He starts off the movie hanging around with a bad crowd at school and having crazy parties, but then becomes the underdog and rather than being someone you don't care about, he is at heart a man of honour.One of the little things I noticed was him bowing before a fight and someone says "young people don't want to see karate anymore, they want to see this" *pointing to the cage fighting*.Cody comes from a martial arts background so when we see him fight, it doesn't look overly-choreographed but believable.One thing to be prepared for is that it's not constant action, with the first half of the movie focusing on character development, drama and story. The second half of the movie is tournament time and that's when the action really kicks in.Michael Biehn plays Reggie, the Mr. Miyagi-type mentor of the tale who has his own back-story which I won't go into here. Biehn is always phenomenal on screen and never seems like he's acting; he just has a truth to every character and when watching this, you're not watching an actor, you're watching Reggie.Martin Kove plays against type as the inspirational Principal Vanhorne who wants to straighten out Michael and send him to Reggie; he doesn't have a very big role but it's great to see him in this type of movie as a good guy.UFC Fighter Krzysztof Soszynski is the villain of the movie Dominic and he REALLY looks the part; when he's on screen he's pretty damn scary looking and is threatening as Hell. He brings real authenticity to the role and his fight scenes are vicious… and usually short. He's a very memorable villain and may end up being seen as a classic bad guy.Speaking of the fight scenes, I'm pleased to say that they are shaky cam free with fluid camera work but also not afraid to get up close to the action. We get to see every punch and kick and it isn't watered down; when we see Dominic fighting, he pounds his opponent's faces in and usually leaves them out cold.There is one reference to 'The Karate Kid' in the movie but nothing cheesy and that's one of the main things I enjoyed about 'Tapped Out'. It manages to be an inspirational tale without being cheesy or having any clunky dialogue. The characters are believable and although the story isn't anything all that new, I found myself enjoying every moment.There is plenty of humour too in the form of Lou (Daniel Faraldo) who arranges the fights and has some choice lines; when he sees what Michael can do in the ring he turns from cynical to a fan very quickly.We also get a few awesome training montages which are essential for films like this but in this movie we get to see UFC legend Anderson Silva teach Michael how to properly cage fight and mix up his fighting style. He's only in a few scenes but he has a great career ahead of him as an action star as he has a very likable face and plenty of fighting skills… obviously.'Tapped Out' is director Allan Ungar's feature début and from this evidence it looks like he is going to have a great career. With a new action movie called 'Gridlocked' on the way, I'm looking forward to seeing what he does next.Overall, 'Tapped Out' is 'The Karate Kid' for a new generation with a great cast, nicely choreographed fights and an inspirational and entertaining story.