The Circuit (2001) User Reviews

"Dirk Longstreet's in the house!"

[tarbosh22000 · 5/10 · 7 August 2015]

Dirk Longstreet (Gruner) truly has it all. A great job as a college track and field coach, a great first name, a great last name, and an overall vibe that tells the world, "I'm Dirk Longstreet". Trouble arises when his younger brother Jeremy Longstreet (Morelle) begins attending illegal underground Punchfighting matches known as "The Circuit". Deeply in debt to Circuit ringleader Vixton Hack (Genesse), who really gives Dirk Longstreet a run for his money in the awesome name sweepstakes, Hack tells Jeremy he can work off his debt by fighting in the ring. The problem is, Dirk was an undefeated champion of the Circuit in his past, but he walked away and started a new and better life for himself, and he wants to forget the old days. So even though he's in top physical shape, he begins training with Circuit boss Lenny (Drago) so he can defeat current reigning champs the Kwan twins (Simon Kim and James Kim). Meanwhile, a typical female reporter, Nicole (Harris) has been tracking the Circuit and even gets close to Dirk on false pretenses. Her editor, Editor Bill (Merhi) (That's how he's credited) wants to pull her off the story, but her connections with cop Det. Sykes (Avedon) have her closer than ever to exposing The Circuit to the public. What in the world is going to happen? So many shirtless men punching each other, so little time. Fascinatingly, the main thing about The Circuit that would seem to anger most people, was, to us, one of its greatest strengths. That being the dialogue, which is written insipidly, delivered stupidly, and recorded unintelligibly. Half the time you're yelling "WHAT?!" at the screen. When you get some dialogue spoken clearly, as ring announcer Bruce Buffer does (yes, Michael's brother - ring announcing must be in the Buffer family DNA) we get such gems as: "a warrior for many years, the Ninja Warrior." Hm. How inspiring. Another example is said by a random goon: "Dirk Longstreet's in the house!" Maybe when Dirk Longstreet starts his rap career as MC Dirk Longstreet, he can sample that and put it on his album. He can always team up with Chino XL, who appears in the Circuit 2 (2002).

Of course, there are the time-honored training sequences, shots of audiences screaming while clutching their cash, and the prerequisite barfight (s). But thanks to his past that he's trying to escape, Dirk suffers from "punchdreams", where he has nightmares of being punched. Truly that's the next frontier of Punchfighting movies. A cross between Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and Fist Fighter (1989). Producers out there, take notice. The Circuit doesn't go that direction, of course, but viewers may suffer from Restless Legs Syndrome. It doesn't help that the movie has these annoying, eye-singing flashes that unnecessarily appear between scenes. Unless Jalal Merhi has some sort of deal going with LensCrafters to surreptitiously drive business their way from eyeball-damaged Punchfighting fans, there's no need for this.

Speaking of Merhi, he has a sit-down role (as he does in The Circuit 2) as Editor Bill. Thankfully, when his parents named him, they knew he would be a newspaper editor. That was fortuitous. Kind of like how fish grow to fit the bowl, or subconsciously, people come to fit their name, like Jay Woelfel, the director of the horrendously awful Iron Thunder (1998), which is indeed woeful (as we pointed out in our review). Thankfully, Merhi doesn't do much (though even what he does do is unlikable), and neither does his buddy Loren Avedon. Apparently these two guys are so hard to work with, they can only work with each other. They've been exiled to the outer reaches of DTV slop, as has Bryan Genesse, who here resembles a card-carrying member of the Trenchcoat Mafia. A general rule of thumb is, if Genesse is involved, you've hit rock bottom. Fan favorite Billy Drago is...here...and Michael Blanks plays a guy named- wait for it - LL Cool J! Isn't that against copyright law? How are they able to get away with that? Regardless, his name in the movie is LL Cool J. Clearly the writers of this movie were doin' it, and doin' it, and doin' it, but not so well.

No one alive knows why, but there are THREE The Circuit movies. Now we just need to track down the hard-to-find third entry. For the sillier and less-substantial end of the Punchfighting genre, there's always The Circuit.

"I leave The Circuit, I leave life"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 5/10 · 1 October 2020]

The trouble with martial artists who appear in films is that mostly they are poor actors, so they may do their slick moves but can't convey emotion of any depth in their character but I suppose in a film that is basically about illegal fighting action supersedes drama. It's a routine film with no surprises and producer/director/actor Jalal Merhi doesn't excite in any department. But it does have Billy Drago as Lenny who is the best thing in it and gives a rare sympathetic performance. Still scary of course but likeable too. Mr Drago has enhanced many a bland low budget movie. Also quite liked the music score by the singular Varouje.

There are two sequels to this film and now a 2020 television series with Olivier Gruner reprising his role as Dirk Longstreet with the slogan 'The Fugitive Meets Kung Fu!' Does that mean Dirk is David Janssen and David Carradine combined? Awesome.

It's not all that bad.

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 20 July 2013]

It's just a rather routine formula B action flick; passably engrossing if admittedly not the kind of thing you'd watch more than once. The filmmaking isn't that terrible, and at least some of the acting is basically competent. It just all reeks of familiarity. Die hard action junkies certainly have seen this plot rehashed numerous times before. None of the fights are what one could consider spectacular, and unfortunately even the big finish fails to really deliver on a visceral level.

The "Circuit" of the title is an underground fight club with no rules, and Dirk Longstreet (ever likable Olivier Gruner) is the only man who was ever able to walk away in one piece. Now the scum promoting the Circuit, particularly Vixton Hack (Bryan Genesse), want Dirk back, and bait him by allowing his younger brother Jeremy (Ilya Melnikoff) to get in over his head while betting on the fights. Dirk eventually agrees to return, vowing to the bad guys that he will take down the Circuit for good.

You get pretty much what you expect with this movie. It's mostly predictable, uninspired stuff, only really recommendable to people who just can't get enough of this sort of thing. Producer / director Jalal Merhi, who's also been a star in such movies, doesn't bring any style or wit to the proceedings. Some of the performers do whatever they can: Gail Harris as snoopy reporter Nicole, Loren Avedon as federal agent Sykes, real life twins Simon and James Kim as the villainous Kwans, and especially Billy Drago, who actually has a more sympathetic role than usual. Merhi has a small role as Nicoles' hard-driving editor.

All in all, this low budget effort may not be that hot but it proved to be watchable enough for this viewer.

Five out of 10.

Disgusting

[frankwhat · 1/10 · 12 October 2004]

This was one of the most absurd ideas for a movie I've ever had the displeasure of coming across! I know it is what it is; but the acting was probably the worst I've seen up to now. These people just couldn't spit out their lines and when they did it was hard to understand them because of all their indecipherable accents. I went in with low expectations and yet I was still disappointed because it doesn't even classify as typical mindless action-type fun such as "Bloodsport" and the like. And don't get me started on the raw cheesiness of the props such as those stupid tiki torches lighting up every part of the building/arena/outside that the bad guy owns, or the main character driving a construction machine to the fight because the car door is locked, or why the bad Asian dude does a Michael Jackson dance after he wins a fight (which I'm sorry for, but it definitely detracts from one's alleged toughness). That list is just the tip of the iceberg as well, there were seriously so many plot holes and the like that I'd go crazy if I thought about them any harder. Funding should not be handed out for fecal matter such as this.

Final Summation:

Movies: Awww, hellz no!

DVD Purchase: Wouldn't collect it if you paid me.

Rental: Not worth it in any aspect whatsoever!

I remember this movie...

[Miss_MiChiMi · 2/10 · 20 April 2005]

And I am now suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. This movie was horrible. It was boring, unrealistic, and the acting was dreadful. The best part of the movie was the end credits because that signaled the end of my torture.

Watching Gruner play the nice guy with moves of death and a heart of gold is wearing out its welcome. If I hear him say," I don't want to fight" one more time I will scream in frustration. He has potential, but he is picking the wrong scripts.

There were so many things in this movie I could nitpick, I would be typing for days. The worst would be Gruner blatantly plugging his own line of athletic gear. Then there is the gratuitous nudity, the requisite nosy reporter, and the bad guy wearing black. Skip this or suffer like I did.

Worse Than a Roundhouse Kick To The Face

[cstratto · 1/10 · 8 April 2006]

A shoddily directed and poorly written knockoff of pretty much every other fighting tournament movie-- except, as bad as other movies of this genre are, at least they pull off the formula. The training sequence, a staple of the "fighting tournament" B-movie, is a perfect microcosm of how the movie is as a whole; shabby, questionable in logic and technique, sparse in action and intelligence, heavy on clichés, and despite the possible enjoyment one could get from how bad it is, simply uninteresting. Many unnecessary scenes, absolutely terrible dialogue, and wafer-thin characters played by uninterested actors who stumble through half-improvised dialogue make this "movie" a complete waste of time.

Bad Fight Scenes Mar Olivier Gruner Action Movie

[CitizenCaine · 2/10 · 8 May 2004]

The Circuit is another low budget action movie about another one of those underground fighting circuits. Olivier Gruner stars as Dirk Longstreet, an ex-circuit champ who is now a college professor. He finds he has to return to the circuit to search for his brother, who has fallen prey to the gambling clutches of the circuit leaders. Meanwhile, a young female reporter tries to get the scoop on Dirk's past. A promising beginning to a tired formula quickly deteriorates midway through the movie. Almost every secondary storyline is poorly developed and ultimately unneeded. Gruner is a great fighter with quiet charisma, and he possesses better acting ability than most lead actors of this genre. He has a couple of good fight scenes early on in the movie in a bar and especially in the park scene. However, the training sequences with Billy Drago offer little of anything new, and Drago himself is wasted in an untraditional good guy role. The real culprits in the movie are the slow pacing, especially the middle third, and the terrible fight scenes in the "circuit." Jalal Merhi, the director, is an actual fighter himself, so we expect better fight sequences from him. Despite some good flying kicks from some fighters, most of the fight effects turn out to be disproportionately mismatched sound edits. Several of Gruner's martial arts moves are really just common wrestling holds. Gruner seems to fall prey to the Van Damme syndrome of getting beaten to a pulp before rising to the occasion with brief flurries of energy. I've never been a big fan of this style of filming climactic fights. The climactic fight is really disappointing and unsatisfying too; we are left with an unfinished fight right when we expect a punishing finish. This is a fatal flaw by director Merhi. Give us what we want in a fight picture! There is a sequel: The Circuit 2. 1/2 star of 4.

I didn't fall asleep, so that's something

[woodcellar2003 · 10/10 · 19 June 2003]

Poor sound quality really had me pulling my hair out, and the accents of the actors was trying my nerves, but I didn't turn it off. I cared about what happened to Derek Longstreet and I watched until the end.

I hope they fix all the technical problems for the obvious sequel and get some well spoken actors next time. The strong point of this film was the fights, nothing fancy, but good energy.

If you're an MMA fan then it's OK for a one time viewing.

[smokecombs · 6/10 · 13 August 2009]

This movie is in no way a memorable masterpiece such as Gladiator, or even as good as one of Van Damme's later movies such as "The Quest". However if you are bored and you have Showtime and happen to catch this on the Action channel then it's not that terrible a movie. If you have ever trained in boxing or MMA, or been around it then some of the very few scenes of the training will drive you nuts. The fighting is sort of a blend of realistic MMA, with some unnecessary over the top Hollywood junk. The athleticism of the fights isn't that over the top, sometimes fairly clumsy looking but at least not so stylized to look superhuman like old JCVD spin kicks. As for the action rating I'm gonna rate this as a true MMA fan and martial arts movie fanatic. It gets some credit for it's training scenes. I like a movie that does the classic Van Damme "Kickboxer" type of training, or even "The Karate Kid". I think that "Kickboxer" gets some of the highest marks for the training scenes so I'm gonna rate that movie at a 9. This movie, for the training scenes I'd give it maybe a 6 due to mainly some inconsistencies. Mainly it's the fact that the main hero is supposed to already be this billy bad ass fighter, yet then the guy that talks so highly about him acts like the guy has no clue when he trains him, it didn't make sense. The actual combat is only mediocre. The lighting is terrible in the pit they fight in and the action is usually panned out too far. I'd only give it a 6 of 10 in overall fighting scenes, mainly ranking over a 5 simply because it's fairly realistic combat. There is a few different styles of martial arts represented, although not enough emphasis on that.

The acting isn't nearly the worst I've ever seen as some have said. If you want to see the worst acting ever then watch the MMA movie, "Never Surrender", which features George St. Pierre, B.J. Penn, Anderson Silva, Heath Herring, and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. It has maybe 3 of the top 10 pound for pound real life MMA fighters, yet the star is some dude that kicks everyone's butt with ease. I guess he's the star because he's the "actor", and I use quotes because he's the worst actor I've ever seen. So if I were to rate the acting parts of this movie, as compared to it's peers (other martial arts B movies), then I'd rate this one at least a 7 of 10. In terms of just acting overall versus any movie, it'd maybe get a 3.

Overall I'm rating this movie a 6 of 10. My rating is based on the genre of movie it represents. It's not a high budget movie such as "Kickboxer" or "Lionheart" nor is it a low budget gym like "Bloodsport" or "The Last Dragon", however it is entertaining in spots and no worse than most other in this genre. It's not a chick flick, and that's enough for me when I've got a rare moment to sit and watch one of my favorite types of movies. Only watch if you are a die-hard martial arts movie fan and don't expect anything groundbreaking and do expect some cheesiness.

You'll need a translator, but the fights are great

[cydonian_warrior · 10/10 · 24 March 2003]

Bryan Genesse and Billy Drago are the best things about this movie, and I like the fights. Olivier Gruner was the weak link in the film, terrible actor and terrible action star, but his supporting cast makes up for his lack of talent. If you like fighting and those bizarre Hong Kong kung fu movie training sequences, The Circuit delivers!

Decent movie

[DavidCrow · 25 April 2002]

Not what I expected from a karate-type movie. Parts of the movie were slow and seemingly irrelevant. I would have expected more fight scenes to show that Longstreet was indeed "the man." A few scuffles did not make him stand out, especially being the former "circuit" champ.

'The only way to escape 'The Circuit' is to smash it!'

[Weirdling_Wolf · 8/10 · 4 March 2021]

Any gritty, martial arts extravaganza produced by the competent action filmmaker, Jalal Merhi, starring handsome, no less credible martial artist Olivier 'Nemesis' Gruner would strongly suggest the viability of 'The Circuit' (2002) being a slam bang fight flick of some note, factor in the reptilian presence of master B-Movie bad guy, Billy Drago and it would appear to be a sure thing, and it is, kinda', if one generously overlooks the somewhat formulaic premise.

Powerhouse puncher, Olivier Gruner is the bizarrely named, Dirk Longstreet, a retired, undefeated ex-Circuit champion who has moved on from the seedy world of underground, no holds barred combat to a loftier position of respected Athletics coach, until a pretty righteous, high kicking bar fight dramatically displays Longstreet's far from rusty form, this lapse in judgment not only exposes Gruner's beast mode, his pugilistic prowess inadvertently draws the mercenary attentions of those cold hearted manipulators that would attempt to draw him back into The Circuit by methods nefarious.

Thankfully, the uninspired narrative doesn't linger too long on the rather tired shenanigans of duping Olivier's brother into fighting, solely as a lure for Longstreet's reluctant return to the Circuit, focusing on Merhi's talent for staging exhilarating scenes of martial art combat. The Circuit's adrenalized heart is the enigmatic, Olivier Gruner whose charisma lends additional lustre to what might have been yet another contrived, anonymous-looking 'Bloodsport'/ 'AWOL' DTV clone, which, frankly, it is. No undiscovered action classic by any stretch of the imagination but Gruner is tremendously watchable, his plentiful fight scenes are exemplary with a tough-edged training montage, which remains one of the more rewarding inducements to watching these lunk-headed action movies in the first place!

Some of the 'acting' performances are rudimentary and the irksome, almost ironical misfire is the notable absence of a truly malevolent, 'boo-hiss' Tong Po-style nemesis, as the anodyne, ceaselessly preening 'Tiger Twins', for all their braggadocio demonstratively lack bite, and the less said about, Gail Harris's failed daytime soap mugging the better! One of the more pleasant surprises was seeing ubiquitous reigning VHS-era villain, Billy Drago cast against type as a far more sympathetic character and the pounding, ersatz Prodigy score by composer, Varouje is quite the techno-flavoured banger!

Jeremy Steals the Show

[rockoforza · 3 April 2014]

In 2002 the first "Circuit" movie began a series featuring martial artist Olivier Gruner about secret fights to the death where the crowd bets on the outcome. As is often the case, the original movie is the best and it is no different here.

Olivier Gruner plays Dirk, a martial arts badass that was the only fighter to quit the "Circuit" and live to tell about it. Now a college coach, he is preparing his younger brother Jeremy, played by Ilya Melnikoff, for a professional sports career. Unfortunately, Jeremy is a headstrong young stud who likes to spend his off-hours at the underground gladiator matches run by Vixton (Bryan Genesee) and featuring a nightly card of snuff matches ruled by the champion Kwan (played by the bodybuilding Kim twins.) Jeremy not only gets off on the brutal slayings, but likes to bet on them as well. In a homoerotic subplot, Vixton notices Jeremy and his athletic physique and, when Jeremy can't pay his gambling debts, offers to train him as a fighter to pay off his debt.

Though Gruner is the star, Jeremy steals the movie with his transformation from innocent college jock to a trained killer in the ring. We see Vixton slowly seducing the young fighter with encouragement and praise. Jeremy, who has a sculpted body, is often shirtless or just in tight trunks, sparring or lifting weights, and Vixton is right there massaging his shoulders, squeezing his arms, telling him how he's got to be ready to take out his opponent.

Dirk searches for his missing brother and he's aided by a reporter (Gail Kent) who is investigating the underground fight scene. It's only a matter of time before Dirk beds her, but not before they share a steamy shower scene. At the same time, Kwan -- who has a tricky way of tagging out to his twin brother to stay fresh in every fight -- has vowed to take on Dirk and kill him to cement his own legacy as King of the Circuit.

Of course, the best part of these types of movies are the fights themselves. Gruner takes care of business in a few street and bar fights during the search for his brother, but the real action is in the ring and once again, the spotlight is on young Jeremy who's being billed as "The College Boy." Along with other matches that feature military studs in fatigues, black thugs and even two homeless street guys that fight to the death for the crowd's entertainment, Jeremy's first match is against a burly older muscleman and, with vicious kicks and punches, he succeeds in taking his life. Flushed with victory the barechested "College Boy" struts around the ring while the crowd yells its approval. Not to be outdone, moments later we see Kwan snap the neck of a shirtless Thai fighter.

Though Vixton continues to toy with Jeremy, his real intentions become clear: Match up Dirk and Kwan for a big money championship fight. Finally, Dirk locates the Circuit and, after dispatching a dozen guards barehanded, enters the ring to face a series of Vixton's finest fighters. One by one Dirk takes them out until he finally faces Kwan and his twin brother. After watching young Jeremy in action, Gruner's battle is somewhat of a letdown. With the Kwans defeated and the police arriving to arrest Vixton, the movies ends. Clearly, the producers knew they had a good thing going because Vixton's last words to Dirk is a promise to start a new Circuit in prison and, sure enough "Circuit 2" is set in a prison where the cons are forced into death matches. A third Circuit movie, subtitled "The Final Fight" followed it. Though Gruner is in all three, they suffer by the absence of the real star of the first one --- "College Boy" Jeremy and his fighting skills.