Review This movie doesn’t save even the crazy Nicolas Cage – Jiu Jitsu is unparalleled bad science fiction

Directed by Dimitri Logothetis and marketed under the name of Nicolas Cage, Jiu Jitsu is an unimaginable science fiction film about the alien race that threatens the world every six years and the jiu jitsu masters who fight it.

Published on VOD Services: January 2021
Original name: Jiu Jitsu
Directed by: Dimitri Logothetis
Screenplay: Dimitri Logothetis, James McGrath
Starring: Alain Moussi, Nicolas Cage, Frank Grillo, Tony Jaa, JuJu Chan
Length: 102 minutes
Age limit: K16

The world is threatened by aliens and jiu jitsu masters who protect it, as well as a crazy gloss in their eyes. Nicolas cage – sounds like just the right crazy combination for an entertaining brain clapper movie. But Dimitri Logothetisin guided Jiu Jitsu wastes its cult turkey potential quite completely and the end result is an unseen sight mess.

Logothetis is known, among other things Kickboxeras a director of new versions of movies. They starred as a martial arts expert and known as a stunt actor Alain Moussi, which is also seen in the central role of Jiu Jitsu. Moussi’s problem, however, is that his charisma isn’t quite enough to support the lead yet. He is adept at action scenes, but as the deepener of his quiet character, this stone face looks like a wooden beech in the wrong place.

Jiu Jitsu’s theme sounds unbridledly entertaining about a friend of brainless (even) action movies. Once every six years, a comet approaches the Earth, through which a deadly alien, Brax (Ryan Tarran). Brax is scheduled to fight against the best jiu jitsu master on Earth and if the champion loses, the destruction of the entire earth is known.

The film begins with a silly-looking scene where (later revealed by Mouss as Jake) a man runs away in the middle of the jungle with ninja stars screaming from right and left. The run ends on a cliff, from where he has to jump down into the water where he hits his head.

The man, who has lost his memory, ends up at a U.S. military base where he later fights a bit, after which the man is revealed to be a key member of a mysterious jiu jitsu group that protects the world from killer aliens to take on the alien duel challenge.

The Jaken jiu jitsu group consists of, among other things Frank Grillon Harrigan, Tony jaan from Kueng and JuJu Chanin Carmenista. In the background also plays the side role of Wylie, a swordsman Wylie, played by Nicolas Cage, who lives in a cave and makes paper hats.

Marketing the film under the name of Cage is understandable, as he is the only actor who gets any life into the Logothetis mess. Wylie, dressed in sunglasses and a red scarf, doesn’t get the crazy gloss in her eyes in the pattern, however, until the middle of the film, and her role isn’t big.

Jiu Jitsu looks a lot like an action film from the 1980s that ruthlessly exploits the first Predatorthe idea and playful iconics of the film (1987). In addition to this, Logothetis also throws his own camera jips into the group, in which, in one battle scene, the angle of view sometimes changes playfully to the character’s own perspective. This seems to remain the only highlight of the film, as all the special effects typical of science fiction, for example, are creepily bad.

Logothesis would have had the opportunity to make the perfect tongue-in-cheek depiction of science fiction, but instead there is a confusingly rhythmic, story-telling, really laid-back and simply boring action set in every aspect of the film, with nothing to say.

When the film’s name is Jiu Jitsu, the viewer expects to see (even) a skillful struggle and great fighting choreographies. Although skilled martial arts masters have been selected for the roles, despite the spectacular rounds, there is only a violent and, in some places, rough-skinned moths promised, to which rhythmic slowdowns have been put to the rhythm. In addition, the action stops and leaves the characters caching in place when they should act.

Manuscript, Jiu Jitsu is as far from Eastern self-defense philosophy as one can be. The story logic is also lost, as the film tells the story of the aliens who once brought jiu jitsu to Earth and that the Brax aliens expect an honest duel from their opponent and no armed army. However, Brax himself does not fight according to his own philosophy, but makes use of his advanced technology in the struggle.

The film’s story takes place in Myanmar, but viewers are baffled by its surroundings, which look right from Southern Europe. This is no wonder, as the film was shot in Cyprus.

JIU JITSU

“Marketed under the name of Nicolas Cage, Jiu Jitsu, which mixes oriental martial arts and sci-fi, is a classlessly bad pancake.”