Arena Wars Blu Ray Review (Gravitas Ventures)

Arena Wars is a 2024 independent horror film written and directed by Brandon Slagle (House of Manson, Dead Sea, Escape from Ensenada, The Flood, Breakout, and Vivid). It’s produced by Michael Mahal (Death Count, Bloodthirst, Bus Party to Hell, and Art of the Dead), Sonny Mahal (Camp Pleasant Lake, Bermuda Island, Attack of the Unknown, and Night of the Tommyknockers) and 172 others. In the year 2045, multiple convicted criminals which includes Luke Bender (played by: John Wells from Hatfields and McCoys: Bad Blood, The Lost Girls, Wolf Hound, and Star Wars: Hand of the Empire), Perez (played by: Robert LaSardo from Death Race, The Mule, Nip/Tuck, Strangeland, and Wishmaster 2), Khan (played by: Johnny Huang from Fear the Walking Dead), and many others are given the chance to compete on the most popular sporting event in television known as Arena Wars hosted by Samson (played by: Michael Madsen from Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Donnie Brasco, The Hateful Eight, The Doors, and The Getaway), Holly Daze (played by: Sheri Davis from The Amityville Moon, Olympus Has Fallen, and Meathook Massacre Part VI: Bloodline), and Moses (played by: Robert Donavan from Curse of the Puppet Master, Nightmare Man, and Dallas) during these blood thirsty games. The kill or be killed event Arena Wars is ran by desperate network CEO Belladonna (played by: Kevin Hager from Yellowstone, Death Count, Ray Donovan, and Jason Bourne). Admiral Jordan (played by: Eric Roberts from The Dark Knight, The Expendables, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Best of the Best franchise, The Specialist, Spun, and Runaway Train) tries his best to help former marine Luke during this nightmare. These criminals must survive 7 different rooms that feature 7 of the most brutal killers in the entire world which includes Cutie Pie (played by: Maria Bova from Mojave Diamonds), Calypso (played by: Allen Woodman from Sleepy Hollow), Nero (played by: Bron Theron from Amityville Karen), Counter-Strike (played by: Jason Marcos Velez from Mr-9: Do or Die), Meat Wagon (played by: Wesley Cannon from Death Count), Master Blaster (played by: Edward Stachyra from Halloween), and Mister Smiles (played by: Davi Cartaya from You Belong to Me). If they can somehow survive these vicious gladiators and win this dangerous competition, the remaining prisoners will be awarded their freedom after going through this living hell for everyone’s entertainment!!!! Arena Wars has a similar vibe to movies like The Running Man, The New Gladiators, and The Condemned. The classic Most Dangerous Game concept inspired all of those. It’s a lower budget version of that type of cinema but it’s still very entertaining and lots of fun. Director and writer Brandon Slagle puts together a mix of different genres which includes Horror, Thriller, Action, Drama, and some Dark Comedy. I’ve seen a few of his previous features and I think this is his best one so far. Lead John Wells as Luke Bender is much better than expected in this. He has the potential to be an action star similar to Van Damme, Adkins, Lundgren, Norris, and Seagal. Besides the fact that he can fight and handle action, Wells is actually a solid actor. He’s a former marine that’s innocent and he’s used to boost ratings for Arena Wars. He actually gets the criminals to work together as a team. Robert LaSardo as Perez is probably the best actual prisoner here. He was one of the better contestants from a previous show during the beginning. This is a perfect role for the character actor, he really stands out in Arena Wars. Michael Madsen as Samson gives one of his better performances in this independent film. He always keeps busy and he shows up in lots of smaller productions these days but he actually tries here as the host of this wild television series. Eric Roberts as Admiral Jordan gives some much needed motivation for the main character and he’s really good in his small cameo. All of the Arena Wars killers and Gladiators look awesome in this. They all their own unique appearance and weapons. The main villain is Kevin Hager as Belladonna, he’s willing to do whatever it takes to raise his ratings from his struggling television experiment. He makes the death squad damn near look like good guys when it comes to his cold blooded greed. The supporting cast includes Johnny Huang, Robert Donavan, Sheri Davis, Wesley Cannon, Maria Bova, Allen Woodman, Bron Theron, Jason Marcos Velez, Edward Stachyra, Davi Cartaya, BJ Mezek (Father’s Day), Mercedes Peterson (Rattlers 2), Michael Beran (Texas Chainsaw), Fighter Kylie Fulmer, Bill Victor Arucan (Terror Toons 4), Kasey Brown (Green Room), Scott Cassin (Chicago Fire), Niko El Santo Zavero (Halloween Kills), and James Dormuth (Jason Bourne). Arena doesn’t hold back with the gruesome special fx. There’s plenty of violence, kills, and gore to satisfy your thirst for blood. They used their limited locations wisely so I’m very impressed with the production design because it looked bigger than what it was. It has some stylish cinematography from DP Michael Su (Road to Hell, Pretty Boy, Art of the Dead, Triple Threat, The Weapon, and Bus Party to Hell). Everyone really stepped up for Arena Wars, it’s definitely better than it’s reputation. I really enjoyed it, it’s one of the better low budget films from this year. RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from Gravitas Ventures! This 1080p (2.35:1) unrated transfer looks great on blu ray. Arena Wars looks like it has a bigger budget with all it’s quality departments which includes cinematography, fx, costumes, and production design. It has an English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The audio is better than expected here. All of the dialogue is very crisp, the violence is elevated, and the music has a killer boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. There’s no special features on this disc. This is a professional BD-R home video release. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!