Movie Review: Bruised

Last week Netflix released Halle Berry’s directorial debut, “Bruised.” Berry, who also starred in the film, took on the hard task of bringing the world of MMA to the streaming world, and she didn’t disappoint. She took a story about cage fighting and brought it to the world that might not be receptive to it. Don’t forget many politicians tried to ban our sport, so the more mainstream MMA can get, the better. 

In the film Berry played Jackie Justice, an aging former MMA fighter who stepped away from the fight game and the UFC to pursue other things after running out of the cage. Justice who now has reunited with her son that she gave up custody of at birth sees fighting as her only option to provide for her son. So Justice decides to take up fighting again, first in unsanctioned street fights, but then in Invicta the real life all female promotion.

In the film Berry stars alongside real life UFC Champion, Valentina Schevchenko who plays fellow MMA fighter, Lady Killer. It should be known that this was Schevchenko’s acting debut. Berry said this  of co-staring with Schevchenko in an interview with Jimmy Fallon “In this movie, I was fighting the real UFC flyweight champion, Valentina Shevchenko. And you know what? She had to throw some real kicks, and I had to really take them, and that really broke some bones.” Schevchenko did a great job in their fight scene.

Berry did a good job of going into the world of MMA from training boxing, to practicing grappling. Berry also did a great job covering the hard parts of fighting like the weight cutting. Berry really did a great job of this. Overall I give this film 4 out of 5 stars. It wasn’t an amazing film like a movie directed by Martin Scorsese, but it did a good job taking a dive into the MMA world.