Bullet Points: Notorious Nick
Mixed Martial Arts has had a pretty good run over the last 25-30 years. As a sport, they started out as something that hardly anyone wanted to touch. States didn’t want them, venues cringed at the thought, and most legitimate martial artists turned their noses up at them. Now, they are hottest ticket in sports. Boxing has taken quite the dive since its heyday and now some of the biggest draws in the sport are guys who record themselves on YouTube (btw, subscribe to us on YouTube!) Fast forward a couple of decades and those touchy-feely sports movies that used to be about baseball or football are now about MMA.
“Based on a true story” are some of my least favorite words to see on a poster. It usually leads to me doing a little research on the real people after watching the film and rarely does it lead me to enjoying the movie more than before. Let’s hope that this time is different.
- A proper ass whoopin: The film starts with a forward look at Nick getting his face punched in. It’s not what I would call a realistic looking fight and especially not a realistic MMA fight. I can say this as an avid fan of 80’s and early 90’s fight movies and they aren’t anywhere in the realm of “realistic fighting”. The difference being that this is meant to be based on an actual fight and one that you can watch on YouTube right now.
- Growing up: Kids can be mean as hell and we see that Nick has kids picking on him because he is missing part of his left arm. His dad leaves them when he’s born and his mom works her butt off just to put food on the table. To say that Nick has a tough go of it would be an understatement. All of those struggles, though, breed a toughness in him and a desire to succeed no matter what is in front of him. It also helps that he meet his buddy Abi and they become the closest of friends.
- Training or just hanging out: Learning how to fight doesn’t only include smashing beers at the bar but there is no reason why you can’t train like a freak and then smash some beers at the bar. Am I right? Nick gets involved in wrestling and later MMA because of his friend Abi (Cameron James Matthews) but he begins to love it just as much and you can’t deny the kid’s work ethic. Abi suffers and unfortunate accident and Nick is left to question everything about his life. He certainly didn’t have an easy
- Learning the ropes: Nick throws himself into training to be a better fighter. The film would have us believe that he isn’t very good when he makes his debut and if you only saw this film you might actually believe that. The way that Cody Christian portrays Nick throughout the film is very good but the fight scenes are definitely my least favorite parts of the flick. Watching real footage of some of the fights online afterwards gave me a much greater appreciation of the real Nick Newell’s skills in the cage. Still, it’s hard to complain when a movie gives us multiple training montages and I never get tired of watching them.
- Taking it on the chin: Nick storms through his first several fights by knocking dudes out and choking others out with his stump. The federation he fights for are accused of giving him chumps to fight to sell more pay per views and it isn’t long before Nick earns a title shot in which the champ refuses to commit to. Like all of the other setbacks in his life, he refuses to accept a loss and finds a way to make it happen.
- The moment of (truth): I put that word in parentheses because watching this fight scene compared to the actual fight was a real head scratcher. The film version of Nick gets his ass handed to him for most of the fight before sneaking a choke on for the win. The real fight saw Nick kick the ever-loving shit out of the guy before choking him out in just over a minute. Nick wins in both of the fights but the real contest is one of those no-doubters where Newell was far more talented than his opponent. I get that the theme of this movie was him never giving up and always finding a way to triumph against the odds but dammit, I just want to see an accurate fight scene!
The Verdict: Another fight film that is heavy on the drama instead of inspiring us with the impressive nature of what the man Nick Newell has gone through. Notorious Nick could be a hit for fans of MMA or those who watch movies to be inspired by someone overcoming the odds. Nick isn’t Rudy… he’d kick Rudy’s ass! The problem I have with the film is that it shoves his condition in our face at almost every turn instead of just showing us what a boss he was to overcome all those odds. I’m certain that Nick Newell didn’t think of himself as disabled, especially when he was beating the shit out of the competition. It’s a decent flick but the poor fight scenes really left a sour taste for me. An incredible story of human triumph made into a below average Hallmark movie.
