Chokehold

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I didn’t know that Chokehold was a movie that existed until I randomly found it online. It follows a woman named Zoey (played by MMA fighter Melissa Croden) who seeks revenge on the Russian Mob following the death of her father (played by Casper Van Dien). I don’t think it’s much of a surprise that this a bad movie. On the other hand, I can’t say it was unwatchable. There are things the filmmakers show some semblance of understanding towards (if very few). I actually don’t mind the action scenes. They aren’t anything groundbreaking, but I don’t think they are all that bad. As forced as it came off as, I am glad they established that the movie’s villain had some martial arts skill. Otherwise, there would have been no stakes whatsoever when the final fight happened. I’ll give some credit that the climax didn’t go exactly as I expected it to. I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t find it a little bit underwhelming. I didn’t really hate Croden’s performance, but that didn’t make any less obvious that this was the woman’s first acting job. All I really needed from her was to see her punch people in the face, and that’s what I got. In many ways, she reminded me of people like Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme. It feels fitting for me to mention Van-Damme, as he was one of the biggest guys known for the type of movie that Chokehold is, a tournament movie. You know the type. The hero fights and claws their way to the top in order to fight the antagonist one-on-one. They weren’t really known for being good actors, but their movies were some fun guilty pleasures. That is what I got out of this film, a guilty pleasure movie headed by an MMA fighter with no previous acting experience. The music often comes off as emotionally manipulative, almost as though they are ploying for emotional responses. The characters are paper thin. The development of the characters is surface-level. Overall, this is a movie that worked for me more than I ever expected it to. I saw a random movie and just decided to watch, expecting it to be atrocious. While I didn’t a good movie, I got some dumb, cheap fun. 

5 / 10