User Reviews

Tubi is the mom and pop video store of streaming - even if it's owned by Fox, a fact I don't like to dwell on all that much - and the movies that it promotes as its originals really prove that. A starring vehicle for former WWE Diva Natalie Eva Marie Nelson - she was already in the movies Inconceivable, Action #1 and Hard Kill, as well as appearing on Celebrity Big Brother - this is the kind of action vehicle that often was created for star athletes in the 80s and 90s like Brian Bosworth (Stone Cold), Howie Long (Firestorm) and, yes, Hulk Hogan (Suburban Commando, No Holds Barred).

Nelson plays Fiona "Phoenix" Grant, an army hand-to-hand combat instructor who leaves the military behind after the death of her mercenary father, Everett (Randy Couture, the former U. S. Army sergeant who became a six-time UFC Champion and the first to hold titles in two different weight divisions). The cops say that he killed himself, but thanks to intel from her former commanding officer General Shackleton (Neal McDonough), she learns that his suicide was set up by a Russian crime family led by Maxim Vasiliiv (Oleg Prudius, who would be better known to WWE fans as Vladimir Kozlov). Maxim and Everett had been battling for years and their final face-off was to be hand-to-hand until a henchman shot the hero in the back of the head.

Now, Phoenix is working her way through the Vasiliiv's family's goons, one-by-one. She even goes to lunch with Maxim in a restaurant surrounded by his thugs. There's also a flashback to when Phoenix lost her mother due to the lifestyle her father lived and a shopping trip with her Aunt Grace (Jessie Camacho, a former police officer and Survivor contestant who played Chupi Chupi on Reno 911!).

Phoenix is packed with tough guys, including Joseph Aviel (who once was Arnold Schwarzenegger's stunt double), Jonathan Camp, Arnold Chon (a stuntman and MMA fighter), Frank Mir (former two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion, he also has the record for the most finishes and submission victories in UFC Heavyweight history), Rashad Evans (heavyweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter 2, former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and a 2019 inductee of the UFC Hall of Fame), Phillip Tan (stuntman and trainer for stars like Christopher Lambert) and former Scores bouncer and former New York Hell's Angels president Chuck Zito, who was also a bodyguard for Lorna Luft, Liza Minelli, Muhammad Ali, Charles Bronson, Michael Jackson, Sean Penn, Chita Rivera, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Charlie Sheen, Sylvester Stallone and Elizabeth Taylor. He also famously knocked out Jean-Claude Van Damme, standing over him and yelling, "This ain't the movies! This is the street, and I own the street!" He's been acting since the 80s, showing up all the way back in 1990: The Bronx Warriors as one of the real bikers that Enzo G. Castellari hired for his post-apocalyptic masterwork.

And hey - Bai Ling is in this as a character named Scavenger, complete with neon makeup that makes her lips look enormous. Man, I love Bai Ling. Keep being in weird parts and showing up unexpectantly!

Director and writer Daniel Zirilli is best known for his action films like Renegades and Invincible, as well as directing videos for Montell Jordan and Scarface, as well as the clip for the song "Short Dick Man" by 20 Fingers featuring Gillette.

Eva Marie has some weird line deliveries in this, but I assume that a lot of the takes were one and done. In truth, this movie isn't about her talking - or screaming in a shrill blast of a voice as she decimates a room in anger - as it is about her kicking ass. I can report that she does absolutely fine with that.

Fiona Grant (Natalie Eva Marie) got the nickname "Phoenix" because she dyed her hair hideous red as a child. She is in the army and training troops in hand to hand combat in the waning days of Afghanistan. Her father (Randy Couture) worked for a private security organization going up against the bad guys in their home of Miami. When he is killed by them, she becomes a vigilante. Maxim Vasiliiv (Oleg Prudius) is the head of the syndicate. He is attempting to kill her too as her dad took seven million dollars from him. He calls on a "Smokin" Aces" (minus the clowns) group of assassins to go after her.

The film was tough to watch. The script, acting, directing, and editing were abysmal. The sun goes down faster in Miami than it did in "Plan 9..." I was hoping this one would be good as I am running out of Tubi films to watch. Soundtrack was okay.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

This film was a train wreck in every possible manner. Let's start off with the first blaring issue:

1. Emotionless Dialogue As soon as the film even begins, there are emotional scenes like phoenix's father passing away unexpectedly. The dialogue in that scene felt AI generated, there was but one tear shed and the tone of voice felt like it was being read off of a script entirely, showing absolutely no emotion when this devastating development occurs. This is just one instance that i have listed, there are many more in the film.

2. Random Establishing Shots So once you get past the fact the characters are aliens who don't feel emotion, you try to immerse yourself into the film. However you soon come to realize you literally can't, as there are random interrupting establishing shots of the city, which are completely irrelevant to the next scene. These shots interrupt any kind of scene and show up randomly within the film, acting like loading screens, and even last over 30 seconds at times.

3. Disgraceful Sound Design I'm not even going to go very deep into this, there are parts of the film that are completely silent.

4. Abhorrent Visual Effects The visual effects in this film are comical, They turn this film into a comedy special. All types of fire and explosions are laughable, there was actually no moment where the entire theater wasn't laughing during these sequences, especially during that one scene where the dude throws a paper ball out of a plane and ends up blowing up an entire hangar of people. Additionally, in this realm, all guns have no sort of recoil, leading to funny sequences of awkward muzzle flash effects on top of a gun that isn't even firing.

5. Hilarious Antagonist Paired with the humorous VFX, you have the main antagonist, the leader of the syndicate. He delivers amusing lines that leave you with no choice but to burst out into tears, paired with his intimidating accent.

Tldr; if you're in for a thrilling action film, you're getting a hilarious comedy.

Fiona Grant (Marie) is a very tough army Sergeant, teaching hand-to-hand combat in Afghanistan. When General Shackleton (McDonough) informs her that her father Everett (Couture) was found dead, he all but forces her to take a leave of absence, such is her dedication to the military. So Fiona, who is nicknamed "Phoenix" for reasons that become apparent later, returns to her hometown of Miami and begins her quest for justice and answers.

After her first order of business, dyeing her hair her trademark pink, she is then ready to take on the gang of Russian mobster Maxim Vasiliiv (Prudius), which includes Scavenger (Ling), among others. This syndicate of baddies is creatively named The Syndicate. Shackleton offers to help Fiona even though he's still back in Afghanistan. But Phoenix has local help: family friend Bullet (Zito) joins the fray, and her father's former bodyguard Artemis (Camp) is there too. Obviously it all comes down to the final fight between Fiona and Maxim...will this PHOENIX rise again?

Here's a pro tip before starting to watch Phoenix: just glue your face to your palm, because if you don't, that action will be repeated so often, you may injure your elbow. Or your face. And here's a warning as well: if you're going to watch Phoenix, you HAVE to like stupidity. You really have to enjoy watching stupid things, or you will not get the full benefit of what this film has to offer. Thankfully, we do, and the fun, humor, and charm of Phoenix quickly becomes apparent.

The opening shipping yard fight with Couture (there are a lot of establishing shots of shipping yards, as if that would somehow wow the viewers: "Cool! Look at all those shipping containers! Radical!") is highly ridiculous and has that "dumb" factor that makes the viewer say, "Uhhhh...." That sort of vibe does not let up from there on out, thankfully.

Another wise choice by the filmmakers was having Natalie Eva Marie be the main star and have her carry the film. Her flat affect is so flat, we've seen the EKG's of dead people that were less flat. However, it's important to understand that this is not an insult. We loved her performance and the movie as a whole is highly entertaining, mainly because of her. We hope to see more Marie in the future and we hope she doesn't ever change. You put her together with other master thespians like Bai Ling, Chuck Zito, and Randy Couture, plus English-as-a-second-language co-stars like Prudius, and it's all a 4th of July fireworks show of "bad" acting, non-acting, incomprehensible acting, amateur acting, flat acting, and the like. And we wouldn't want it any other way.

Presumably, director Zirilli was there while all of this was going on. So we as viewers can assume that all of this was what he wanted (?) He's been directing DTV action films for a while now so presumably that's the situation. In any case, it does appear that some time was spent on the fight and action scenes, which is what fans really are there for, which is what Zirilli must have thought. Of course, the hand-to-hand combat scenes are much better executed than the gun-shooting and blow-ups, which feature muzzle flashes, bullet hits, and fire gags that are home-computer level. But, at this point, let's just chuck all that into the mix and have a great time.

It's all wrapped up in a scant 82 minutes, which feels shorter because it's all so entertaining. Then the viewer is treated to the world's slowest end-credits crawl. You really have to see how slow this is to believe it. There's no shame whatsoever in having an 82 minute film. To us, that's a good thing and more movies should be that length. But it does appear the filmmakers were embarrassed by that for some reason. Either that or Tubi forced them to do it.

Joyous stupidity reigns supreme with Phoenix. We say watch it and have a great time.