5th September, 2008 Login • Register
Search This Site
The Challenge (2005) DVD Review
The Challenge (2005) DVD Credits:
The Challenge (2005) Directed by:
Johannes Jaeger
The Challenge (2005) Written by:
Not available at this time
The Challenge (2005) Cast:
Bela B. Felsenheimer, Mathis Landwehr, Wolfgang Stegemann, Volkram Zschieschie, Christian Monz
The Challenge (2005) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
The Challenge (2005) DVD Release Date:
23rd April 2007
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD
The Challenge (2005) Synopsis:

The Challenge (2005) DVD Review:

The Challenge takes place in the future where civilization has been destroyed by natural disasters and global economic collapse forcing human civilization to becomes survivors in the skeletons of once-great cities. The world is run by warlords, and there is nobody powerful enough to stand up to them, especially when one warlord, Bosco, destroys all martial arts after learning the secrets from the masters. Bosco searches for the secrets of an ancient martial arts dynasty in a book, which he is only partially able to understand. Only one man truly understands the book, Jonas, who was apprentice to the owner of the book.

Despite the complex futuristic storyline, twin brothers included, The Challenge is essentially just a retelling of Robin Hood, down to the very last fight scenes. It is nearly scene for scene identical with Robin Hood as far as plot is concerned, which ensures a certain level of entertainment considering the classic tale seems always fit for filming, especially with a bit of martial arts thrown in where a bow and arrow once were used. Jonas comes in to town and begins stealing from Bosco with a band of rebels he finds when escaping from Bosco’s men. Instead of Sherwood Forest, these survivors hide in the sewer system, and before Jonas can be one of them he is forced to fight their leader, who carries a staff. Jonas begins to teach them all how to fight and they begin to take from Bosco’s men, giving back to all of the poor citizens in the streets of the cities, eventually leading to an attack from Bosco.

Futuristic German Robin Hood may sound unbelievably bad, and it certainly has moments which feel slightly sub-par, but there is enough good action to ignore the silly club scenes which feature stylistic dancing footage that makes the film seem like a bad music video or B-film matrix rip-off. The fighting is far from futuristic, even if the film is borderline science-fiction. Instead society has reverted back to old fashioned weapons, even though this is never properly explained. There is one gun in the film and it is held by the character who replaces the witch’s role in the original Robin Hood. Instead of a witch she is somehow related to Bosco, making a creepy relationship the taboo instead of witchcraft and ugliness.

Our Rating: Extras Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD

The Challenge (2005) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

Content Management System provided by P J Thomson - Freelance Web Design - PHP/MySQL Development