It was a wonderful re-initiation, but hoping better sequels to follow and in a grand scale as well.
Especially it is for Boyka and 'Undisputed' series fans. Familiarity was the weakness of the film, even though enjoyable. Particularly for the sentimental reasons. This part kind of reminded me the 'Rocky'. Why he went and what had happened there, all are the other side of the tale with some good fights and emotions. Now, on the eve of the big event, he set to a quick trip to Russia. That mentally disturbed him, so he wanted to make a few things right. He won it by a knockout, though the opponent did not survive. Yuri Boyka was looking forward to take park in a big league, but his last fight did not go well. They a wanted platform, so to move to the better side in the future. Everything was predictable in the film, but that was not the point. Different means, they wanted the franchise back in action, so they have started with a simple storyline. I had no time to have a quick glance on those before trying this, but while watching this, all the memories came back. The last film in the series was seven years ago. But, and you will see this if you watch the series in order, Boyka THRIVES in prison! Is there a Boyka 5 coming? We can only hope.
For most characters that would be a negative. Also clever is the way the film ends with Boyka back in prison. There is a scene at the 40:00 minute mark where Boyka is training and another fighter tries to "claim" his punching bag. The narrative backbone of the story is a bit soppy - this one could have been subtitled "Boyka Gets Religion" - but thankfully it is used mainly as a plot device to keep the fight scenes coming. Director Todor Chapkanov is new to the franchise but acquits himself well as an action director. Interestingly (!) Davidson worked with Stallone on the Expendables franchise. David White, who penned the last two Boykas (also the sloppier SHADOW OF A TEAR) had help in developing the story from Boaz Davidson, a writer with a few dozen action hits under his belt. You have enough "producers" in the credits to start a football squad.
AND HE'S BACK! Boy, nobody does Boyka like Adkins! Plus someone actually opened their wallets and spent some cash bringing this one to the screen.
However, as the IMDb rating for that movie shows, it was still not in the class of UNDISPUTED. The closest thing to a good MMA movie that Adkins did recently was NINJA SHADOW OF A TEAR. During that time, Adkins handlers gave him a series of odd B-movie parts, some of which (heavy sigh) were purely dramatic and had no fight sequences at all.
For reasons that are not entirely clear to this reviewer, there was a long gap between the last instalment and this one. At that point, things get a little murky. A younger Scott Adkins found his ideal role in Yuri Boyka (much like Stallone found Rocky) and gave new life to UNDISPUTED in two back-to-back segments. Not uncommon for film franchises these days, later attempts to keep the franchise going involved smaller budgets and lesser-known stars. For newbies, the original "Undisputed" (which starred A-listers) took an unexpected turn. But if you have seen the others, this new instalment is surprisingly satisfying. If you arrived at this franchise late, you would be forgiven for feeling a little lost. The last 30 minutes is chock-full of top action and suspense, with newcomer Martyn Ford standing out as the big bad fighter and an amazing climax to top it off. Adkins shows off great range as the hard-man hero and his character arc is solid. It's very similar in tone to Van Damme's excellent A.W.O.L. I found this to be the best of the series thus far, purely because it has more heart to it and the presence of a woman in the cast (gasp!) turns out to be an asset rather than a detraction. Although Isaac Florentine wasn't able to come back and direct, the Russian guy they found does a top job and the action choreography is as good as ever. The story is set outside of a prison now so the plot is more gangster themed, but don't fear, there's still a sequence of splendid ring fights that don't disappoint. The plot is a little different this time around and much more character-focused as Boyka finds religion and attempts to make amends for a past transgression. BOYKA is the fourth of the UNDISPUTED franchise and once again sees Scott Adkins reprising his role as the unimitable Yuri Boyka, 'most complete fighter in the world'.