Boyka: Undisputed IV

Purely male entertainment. Cinema, a cigar, a drink, relax. The story couldn't be more simple and banal, because it would look strange to have just a few fights in the arena, interspersed with training sequences where Scott Adkins shows off his musculature. I'm willing to see it as an homage to the 80s, with a choreography of zeroes. And that’s alright. (02.08.2017)

What am I supposed to tell you? I actually don’t remember what the previous parts were about and what Boyka had to go through in Russia at all. All I know is that things didn’t come easy for him and that he had to literally fight through a whole number of hard times, which he did and it all ended well. That’s also why the authors got to make a fourth part. And the plot? To me it seems OK. It’s nothing complicated, but I didn’t expect complicated when I saw the Nu Image production company logo at the beginning. Quite the opposite, I was looking forward to having a relaxing time and the action scenes really helped me achieve that. You don’t see action scenes this well made very often. It’s all about fights and those fights are flawless. Scott Adkins is the man and you can see that he put a lot of work into his character. At the beginning I thought he was simply a killing machine, but after a while I found out he had feelings too. And he shared those feelings with us. Who does that in a B-list action movie these days? Add those good action scenes and you get a solid acton flick – not too many of these are made every year. (10.05.2017)

Hmm so the new Boyka didn't stand up too well with me. Apparently I'm getting tired of arena movies and I'm more into John Wick style action movies. Scott Adkins has a nice swagger, but every fight felt like a carbon copy, like the choreographer came up with one choreography and it was used for the whole movie. It’s the same punches, kicks and turns all the time, and you don’t even look forward to the finale because you know it will look similar to the fight before. The cinematography is clear and the slight level of brutality is welcome, but it was very cold and artificial, so much so that I didn't even scream and I don't plan to see any of the fights again. 60% (10.04.2017)

Here, it's mainly about how fast Scott Adkins is driving, and he's obviously in top gear. What he's showcasing in the arena is absolutely incredible, and even though the story itself is very clichéd, his action-packed acrobatic performances simply prove what a master he is and how much he deserves space in front of the camera. (20.04.2017)

The king returns, but it’s a bit less spectacular than one would have hoped, given how high the preceding two instalments of the series set the bar. Unfortunately, it is obvious that Isaac Florentine no longer occupies the director’s chair, even though the production made a decent effort to replace him. The Bulgarian journeyman Todor Chapkanov undoubtedly directed only the dialogue scenes, whereas the action scenes were shot by choreographer Tim Man together with cinematographer Ivan Vatsov, who as the camera operator observed the shooting of the previous movie under the wing of someone more experienced. Despite efforts to copy the crane approaches and the dynamic camerawork of the third Undisputed, this time the camerawork is not refined enough to capture the fight scenes as effectively as possible in individual long shots; in other words, this time the movie cannot benefit from such flawless interplay of direction, camerawork and choreography. In this respect, the third film in the series remains the undisputed champion and also outshines part IV with its wonderfully straightforward screenplay. The effort to come to terms with the fact that Boyka is not behind bars results in testosterone-fuelled asceticism and messianism, the relaying of which in the screenplay draws attention and space away from the fight scenes. Thanks to Adkins' dedication to his craft and to the audience, the fight scenes fortunately still elicit the desired astonishment at the athletic skill of everyone involved, which has been the main advantage of the series since the second part and can overshadow any shortcomings. (23.11.2020)