Knuckledust (2019)
Review by Andrew Staton
This brilliant British feature fight action/thriller, comes from the creative mind of James Kermack who not only wrote, but directed and acted in it too. His debut feature as writer/director was the mental health drama – Hi-Lo Joe (2017). As an actor he has appeared in Chernobyl (2019), Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016), Cucumber (2015) & Doctor Who (2015). This action film is full of surprises…just when you think you’ve worked it out, the script moves you into unforeseen territory.
The film centres around a special police task force who kick open the doors of an elite underground fight den – Club Knuckledust, they find seven levels of hell ( echoes of Bruce Lee’s Game Of Death), filled with the dead bodies of countless fighters, assassins and goons. Only one man, beaten to a pulp, and barely breathing, is still alive: Hard Eight. With a shady Government official en route to take him away, Chief Inspector Katherine Keaton and her team have ninety minutes to interrogate Hard Eight to find out if is the lone survivor or a multiple murderer. With lies flying from everyone’s mouths and corruption becoming apparent, Keaton starts to wonder, “Who is the real criminal?
The fight scenes feel very real and are brilliantly directed, thanks to the choreography of Peter Pedrero, who is known for his creative fight action on films like Final Score (2018), The Courier(2019) and Free Fire (2016).
Not only is the movie funny and thrilling, but the soundtrack is superb. This is no surprise as Walter Mair is an Ivor Novello-nominated and Telly Award-winning composer who delivers the music that totally captures the mood and compliments the action. He is well known for his captivating scores ranging from epic orchestrations recorded with 80-piece choirs to intimate, small ensemble and hybrid electronic pieces that have graced a diverse mix of feature films, documentaries, television dramas, narrative-driven interactive entertainment and video games.
This movie is fun, witty, slick, smart. A great combination of British fight film knowhow and main stream movie fun. The film features Sebastien Foucan, who created Free Running and is one of the founders of Parkour. Beyond this he is known for is incredible opening action sequence in Daniel Craig’s first outing as James Bond in Casino Royale (2006). He followed this with a great performance opposite martial arts action star Scott Adkins in the movie Tournament (2009) and then in The Establishment: Division 9. His performance in the move is interesting and creative.
With this said this a terrific, entertaining, atmospheric, fight action story and justly deserves the big release with Samuel Goldwyn Films.
Synopsis:
Police discover an elite fight club where they find seven underground levels, filled with the dead bodies of fighters from around the world. Only one man is found left alive. The task force has to work out if he’s a mass murderer or the lone survivor?
Both leads actors felt the script was for them immediately, with Moe Dunford (Vikings) describing the film as “completely bonkers and unlike anything I had ever read” whilst Kate Dickie (The Witch) felt it was “A headf**k in the best possible way”.
KNUCKLEDUST was written and directed by James Kermack. The film is a co-production between Julien Loeffler at Featuristic Films and Laurent Fumeron, Daniel Goroshko and Rodolphe Sanze at The Project; executive produced by Phil Hunt, Compton Ross, Nils Rebehn, James Barton-Steel, Reinhard Besser, Walter Mair, Prakash Gurbaxani, Rohan Gurbaxani, Matthew Bradley, Ron Bradley, and Sharunya Varriale.
The film is being made in association with Head Gear Films, OneWorld Entertainment, Trigger Films, Onsight and IIW Studio.
The deal was negotiated by Miles Fineburg on behalf of Samuel Goldwyn Films and Gregory Chambet of WTFilms on behalf of the filmmakers.
Thanks for reading & watching, we hope you enjoyed it, please LIKE, SHARE and don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to World of Martial Arts Television for more great videos!!