Scorpion

Scorpion is your standard B-movie kickboxing bloodbath, but it’s French, and with that comes rich cinematography, assured acting and a surprising level of sophistication not found on most ass-kicking genre titles. Perhaps the creative, cleverly lit set-ups and the propulsive techno score help push things from one brutal bout to the next. Whatever it is, Scorpion makes for a boxing-comeback movie that’s far more interesting than usual as it details the story of a down-and-out ex-con, Thai boxer Angelo (Clovis Cornillac), who is drawn into an underground mixed martial arts street-fighting scheme. Eventually, he works his way up to the big paying bout with a monster named Elias (Jerome Le Banner). Director Julien Seri reaches his limitations by trying to resolve the film’s handful of stories, but genre fans will enjoy the believable fights.

Shelf Talk: The cast will be lost on American audiences, but Le Banner’s profile should increase thanks to his turn in Vin Diesel’s big-budgeted Babylon A.D. Lightning Media is striking at mixed martial arts Web sites (www.ultimate-fighter.ca) and action sites (www.loudside.com) as well as YouTube and MySpace to get the word out to the natural fan base.