THE LIBERATOR is an indie action flick shot in Essex. The film's tireless protagonist hunts for a stolen antique and finds himself up against a series of powerful villains hell bent on stopping him from retrieving the priceless artifact. It's a cheap-looking film for sure, with routine plotting and acting, but it does have some martial arts action going for it. Most of the fights are saved for the climax. The action suffers from lacklustre choreography but you can still see that the performers are fairly skilled at pulling off the kicks and sparring.
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Leofwine_draca10 February 2018
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jossseph23 September 2022Reviewing fight scenes involving the Liberator only. I should note that our hero The Liberator (Ben Lettieri) not only beats up people but he also takes several beatings as well. I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. He never dominates any of the fights from start to finish, and he never really kicks ass in a traditional way. He's not tormented by dark secrets, and he certainly is not the underdog type (he is actually taller than most of the cast) and he sometime needs help to make it through a fight. Which I thought was very odd for a main character. Lettieri is probably one of the most average and flawed action heroes to hit the screen.
Fight #1 - The Liberator vs. Baldy
Drawn out club interrogation. Not really a fight even though Baldy takes a fighting stance, the Liberator back-fist punches and later k.o.-slaps the guy. Obviously made for comedic reasons.
Fight #2 - The Liberator vs. Tight Shirt
The only opponent that matches the Liberator physically and in skillz. One of the better fights that sees the Liberator taking several hits and even landing on the floor. Tight Shirt is finished off with a series of elbow blows. Very unusual technique to knock somebody out but hey, whatever works. Detaching half point for not showing the final k.o. Blows.
Great Opponent Casting: 4/5 - Very Good Fight: 3.5/5
Fight #3 - The Liberator vs. Big Muscles (The Liberator gets his ass kicked Part 1)
Your classic novelity fight done strictly by cliche textbook rules. Big Muscles seems unbeatable, immune to every punch. He manhandles the Liberator, and the Liberator is all wide-eyed and says "oooof" and "whoa" because, you know, Big Muscles is so strong. After BM had his fun it is the Liberator's turn to dish out and wouldn't you know it, Big Muscles is actually easy to defeat. All it took was a few kicks and a punch to the crotch to get him dazed. In the movies most idiotic moment Big Muscles pulls out a pair of nunchucks from his sweat pants. Of course he is disarmed in a fraction of a second and the Liberator gets to show off his nunchuck skillz. After his demo he finishes BM with the weapon, leaving him in a pool of blood. In the movie's second most idiotic moment the Liberator coughs up and spits out a gallon of blood. They didn't want to end the scene with BM in a pool of blood. It would have made the Liberator look like a cold blooded killer. So he all of sudden coughs up blood only to show that "hey, he made me bleed, too!", justifying the bloody violence. It's stupid stuff like that adding to the many flaws of the movie.
Robster Le Monster (Big Muscles) is a bodybuilder turned wrestler and he is the only person in the film with a memorable onscreen presence. Too bad he was wasted in a bad cliche fight.
Perfect Opponent Casting: 5/5 - Very Bad Cliche Fight: 0.5/5.
Fight #4 - Friendly but rough sparring with a much smaller friend. (The Liberator gets his ass kicked Part 2)
Some sort of friendly kickbox sparring with a friend. The purpose of this scene was to give the small guy a chance to show off his skillz. He gets to roughen up the Liberator a bit (no real hits or punches), and the Liberator then acrually taps out of the fight because the small guy is so good.
Fight #5: The Liberator knocks out random hoodie dude.
Fight #6: The Liberator vs. Blondie (1) (The Liberator gets his ass kicked Part 3)
Blondie (a.k.a. "Skinny Arms") dazing the Liberator with a couple of punches and then defeating him with a bpdy slam. Just a warm up for the big showdown and to show that the Liberator not only bleeds, but can be easily defeated as well.
Fair Opponent Casting: 2/5 - Fair Fight: 2/5.
Fight #7: The Liberator vs. Fatty (The Liberator gets his ass kicked Part 4)
Probably the most pointless fight. I didn't like this one because the opponent was the worst opponent in the entire movie. Couldn't they do better? Casting? Hello? They made Fatty look like a dangerous fighting machine with mad weapon skillz. He gets to act like Mike Tyson and beats up and drops the Liberator with a series of punches. This scene made me laugh. Fatty is knocked out with an elbow blow to the top of his head.
Awful Opponent Casting: 0/5 - Awful (Pointless) Fight: 0/5.
Fight #8: The Liberator vs. Masked Men (The Liberator gets his ass kicked Part 5)
Three masked men destroy the Liberator in a staircase fight. The Liberator's little sparring friend comes to the rescue. Not really a fight, rather a quick beatdown with the masked men kicking and stomping on the Liberator laying on the ground. The little friend than has to hold and carry the Liberator because the Liberator is still reeling from the beatdown.
Fight #9: The Liberator vs. A bunch of baddies
The Liberator and his small friend beat up a few bad guys. Nothing special, nothing stood out. The little friend helps out the Liberator struggling with an opponent. At this point I was thinking why didn't they just cast the little guy as the Liberator? He is obviously the better fighter.
Fight #10: The Liberator vs. Blondie (2)
No shirtless fighting, and no weird techniques and silly weapons in the final fight. Whatever was lacking in previous fights they packed it all in the final battle. Any movie that shows slow-mo punches to the jaw gets a thumbs up from me. Sadly the end fight is interrupted by two lame side fights, cutting back and forth. Very distracting, very annoying. Imagine The Way of The Dragon, Bruce vs. Chuck, and they interrupt the fight with another silly fight. Ugh. Anyway, the final fight would have been perfect but I had two issues. Mainly, the finisher: kicks followed by an chest kick. I don't mind kicks when done right. Technically, they were fine but van Damme vs. Bolo set the standard but I guess they didn't get the memo. The lack of detail (close up) during the kicks was disappointing. The way it was shot looked more like your average stuntmen demonstrating kicks. I was simply not feeling it. The biggest issue was the final chest kick. Who ends a fight with a chest kick? Blondie wasn't even knocked out, so he could hear whatever the Liberator had to say to him. Yawn. Very frustrating fight ending to say the least. As Idris Elba once said: "The most satisfying feeling you'll ever get is to knock out your opponent"
Excellent Fight: 4.5/5
and as Scott Adkins once said about these kind of fight finishers:
"He went out like a biatch"
with that said, The Liberator is a good bad movie. I really hope Ben Lettieri will do more. -
leem-saintfield2 October 2020Leave this well alone. The acting in a child's Christmas play would be better than this.
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ajninabor10 June 2017What can I say. I have to admit I loved this film! The Liberator is a total 'badass' character. He's reminiscent of traditional actors from previous generations, reminds of a cross between Sean Connery and Roger Moore. And I like his fighting style, kind of a raw emotion and determination behind him that we used to see from the likes of Van Damme as opposed to the more robotic matrix type of fighting in most films these days. The other martial arts guys are really good and have the same feel to them. Keung is amazing! I also appreciate more than the director knows the fact that they have added such classic old school comedy to it as well. Especially good is the main villain, Miller and I was also fond of Detective Stevens. If you like your leading ladies to be elegant, sexy and Bond-esque then you're in for a real treat! After watching something else totally diabolical right after this, I can honestly say that watching this movie made Saturday night.
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hcole-0734010 June 2017Fun action film with an all round good cast. Running time flies by thanks to good fight scenes and funny moments. The end fights really stand out. Love the character Miller he is especially amusing. I also love the scene in the pub. Music really adds to the film as well. Really good little indie film that doesn't take itself too seriously and is very enjoyable.
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smoothimagesltd10 June 2017A thoroughly enjoyable, stress free watch! The chemistry between all the actors is spot on and the interaction between the leading man and the supporting cast is well balanced and at times highly amusing. In fact Ben Lettieri has a laid back charm that is welcomed and very refreshing if you're tired of your heroes always trying to act tough and give it the big 'I am'. I bet he has a lot of 'haters' out there. The martial arts, although not of Bruce Lee caliber, is fantastic! The filmmakers understand how to alter the techniques for film in order to be more aesthetically pleasing and we get a real mix of players and styles, kung fu, kickboxing, karate, wrestling, jiu-jitsu and more probably. I also enjoyed the fact that the fights weren't too overdone for a martial arts flick. Again the filmmakers did an excellent job of finding, in my opinion, the perfect balance of stylized and realistic choreography. It does all have a kind of guilty pleasure vibe to it but it absolutely works and you can take that naughty comment as a complement.