ART OF SUBMISSION is a dull drama detailing mixed martial arts fighting in an urban setting. The main character is played by Ernie Reyes Jr. as a tough fighter desperate to make a name for himself but who finds his life spiralling out of control after making some difficult choices. Finding himself in prison, he befriends the warden who has him released so that he can take part in some televised fighting contests.

There's little more plot to it than that, and indeed the narrative exists merely to feature a string of fighting scenes. An early multi-participant brawl in a garage is the highlight here, although there's a whole bunch of MMA fights at the climax. Unfortunately, the fights are very poorly filmed in an ugly style, all quick editing and cross cutting, so that it's very difficult to tell whether any of the participants are truly skilled or not.

This film wants to be NEVER BACK DOWN but doesn't come close. A bunch of seasoned performers make appearances, including a typically weary Ving Rhames who seems to appear in any old thing. '90s B-movie favourite Matthias Hues appears in support but doesn't really get to do much while George Takei makes no impact as the clichéd master villain. Maria Conchita Alonso, of THE RUNNING MAN fame, plays the hero's mother.

The fight scenes are great, well choerographed and exciting.

Howeva the rest of the movie is the typical bad-boy from the streets gives up everything for fighting takes the wrong path disappoints his family. And now the only way to get back everyhting he lost from fighting is to get back in the ring for a big final fight. of course we have the training montage and the kindly old trainer task master imparts the wisdom of life. The opening scene that explains the RED CANVAS was a white canvas where Viet-Nam POW were forced to fight to the death. it was stained red from the blood. A story about EPW's fighting to death would've been more interesting than this one. Hell another story about prisoners fighting to death (has been to death) would have been more interesting than this. If you like fight movies skip this one, or fast forward thru the drama.

I am rarely tempted to review a movie, but in this case I am willing to stick my neck out.

Although this movie had me watching until the end, it was with a good deal of frustration. I am a one-time martial artist and a keen fight spectator, and in my opinion, the fight scenes in this movie were not (for the most part) up to snuff. I'm not saying that the fighters were amateurs, it was the choreography that annoyed me. Many of the moves and techniques seemed to be used simply for the looks, and not for authenticity. Without going into specifics (I don't want to give away spoilers) the were a lot of very poor choices of hold/grapple/blow that you simply would not see in real competition. The very experienced Ernie Reyes Sr. dropped the ball on this one.

Another bug-bear was the music being that it was way too loud in some places, actually drowning out the dialogue, and inappropriate in other places.

Having said all that, I thought the acting was good for the most part, and in particular one scene featuring John Savage and Ki Reyes (Oscar), which had my partner tearing up.

In summary, I would not recommend this for anyone who just wants to see an MMA movie, and also not for the hard of hearing:) I'd rather rent 'Redbelt' or 'Never back down'.