The Eliminator Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
The hunter becomes the hunted.
Former LAPD cop, Dakota Varley (played by UFC champion Bas Rutten), enters a power boat race seeking the prize of $250,000, but immediately discovers, first hand, that this race's risk matches the prize: one racer is killed, 3 others seriously injured in multiple action-packed crashes and explosions. Varley prevails. Varley tries to leave the lake and collect his prize money but is drugged and kidnapped by Dawson (portrayed by Michael Rooker) and thrown into a different world: a world where survivl means everything and no-one follows the rules. Varley awakens on an island, strapped to pole, like a pig being carried to a barbeque. Surrounded by heavily-armed men, he soon learns that he and six other victims have been assembled to be contestants in the ultimate survival game: they will be hunted nightly by hunters with rifles until there is one remaining survivor, who will win a $10,000,000 cash prize! As the story unfolds, we meet the other contestants Jesse is an undercover DEA agent in Venezuela, Santha is military instructor for a group of revolutionaries in Sierra Leone, and that Darius is a socio-pathic murderer, court-martialed and supposedly imprisoned by the U.S. Army for slaughtering 40 innocents in Kosovo. We also learn, in bits and pieces, that each contestant has been brought to the game by a "Player." Wealthy men and women who have each selected of one of the Contestants. Among these men are Carlos Alvarez, Venezuelan Drug Lord; U.S. Army General Ellison; and Ochiro Sumanni, a Japanese Gang Boss. All the while, we follow the Contestants as they struggle to survive the attacks not by of the hunters, but also each other. Enjoy the thrill ride as we follow Varley throught this intense action adventure: Varley's game. Are you ready to play?
| Michael Rooker | Miles Dawson |
| Bas Rutten | Dakota Varley |
| Dana Lee | Ochiro Sumanni |
| G. Anthony Joseph | Warden Sutherland |
| Wolf Muser | Deitrich Remmel |
| Marco Ruas | Salvador |
| Michael Gregory | General Ellison |
| Gareth Myles | Watson |
| Geoffrey Forward | Sir Crawley |
| Jamal Duff | Darius |
| Ivo Cutzarida | Alvarez |
| Danielle Burgio | Santha |
| Paul Logan | Jesse |
| Vickie Phillips | Tonya |
| Stephen Wozniak | Rocker |
| Ken Barbet |
3.60 out of 10 (159 votes)
Visitor Reviews
(2.5 STARS) Lower-Budget "Hard Target": Bas Rutten's Promising Debut But the Film Is a Letdown
posted on 31 Aug 2009Though `The Eliminator' (2004) can hardly be called an A-Class action flick, it is benefited by the presence of two actors - one is always underrated Michael Rooker ('The 6th Day'), and the other is Bas Rutten, Dutch fighter of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). At least Michael Rooker can act, and Rutten can fight like a real fighter, and his acting is not bad.
The plot is yet another retread of `The Most Dangerous Game.' (If you haven't seen this 1932 film, imagine a John Woo film `Hard Target.') It is about Rutten's character Dakota Varley, who is kidnapped and brought to the island to join a deadly game of cat and mouse. He and six other contestants are nightly hunted by men with rifle, and only the last man standing gets the reward of $10,000,000.
Michael Rooker plays (don't say again) rich and sadistic villain and organizer of the game. Though he is often typecast as baddie, he can show a much wider range of acting than is generally believed (see `The Replicant' or `Here on Earth'), but here he is strictly confined in a mold of a theatrical villain, without humor or anything special. The other actors are not particularly great though Paul Logan is slightly better than the rest of them, showing unexpectedly convincing portrait of rapport with Rutten's hero.
[ACTIONS ... NOT GREAT] But what we need is action, and action scenes of `The Eliminator' clearly need more money. From the opening lame, unexciting boat race, most of the actions fail to deliver the thrills and excitement, and though the fighting scenes of Bas Rutten are pretty good, they are buried among the weak script and inept direction that only gets worse as the film goes on. Apparently the island is much bigger than Manhattan, but the good guys can find a "secret passage" without even searching it.
As for the actions, `The Eliminator' deserves two stars or less, but I find Bas Rutten is good if not as good as The Rock and other action stars. He has made a promising debut, but the film itself is a letdown.
Bas Rutten rulez!
posted on 31 Aug 2009If you love action, this movie is for you. The movie stars Bas Rutten of Pride Fighting Championship fame. Nuff said.
Btw, Mr Snub. The Mexican that you refer to is the legendary Marco Ruas. The trainer of UFC fighter, Pedro "The Rock" Rizzo. And he's Brazilian. Lol!
RUTTEN RULES
posted on 31 Aug 2009Filled with kinetic Matrix-like camera shots and tons of time lapse sky photography, THE ELIMINATOR is another one of those fight to the death movies we've been besieged with over the years. In this one, for some reason, bad guy Michael Rooker (in a delightfully fiendish performance) recruits big bad Bas Rutten to participate in a fight to the death survival game on a remote island. Other rich people have assembled their own warriors to escape execution from the guards on the island. There aren't many surprises in the film, but Rutten is such an amiable giant that one can't help but root for him. Paul Logan (Ultimate Fight) is along as a warrior who forms an alliance with Rutten to get off the island. There's also a couple of inanely enjoyable shots of a bullet slicing through the air that is campy enough to be artistic. Nothing new or exciting, but THE ELIMINATOR is passable entertainment.
Down and dirty
posted on 31 Aug 2009Former UFC Champion Bas Rutten has his years of expertise in Tae Kwon Do, Kyushkin Karate, Muy Thai, and submission techniques on full display in THE ELIMINATOR (originally called VARLEY'S GAME.)
Rutten and six other martial arts experts are kidnapped and brought to a remote island, where they are told that they will be hunted everyday from sundown til sunrise until only one is left alive. The fighters start to turn on each other, killing each other to improve their odds, but Varley (Bas Rutten) forms an alliance with Jesse (Paul Logan) to escape the island.
The picture quality is so-so. MTI has made a slight improvement on the BLACK NINJA cinematography wise, but it still could be better.
The fights are well choreographed, but occassional have too much speed-ups and other flashy camera-moves that comprimes a few scenes (It totaly ruins the final fight sequence) but, it's great to see that mostly, this does not show, and two great fights appear prominently, the first, between Varley and a Mexican fighter, and another wet-and-wild duel between Varley and a face-d painted serial killer.
All of this ELIMINATEs the ELIMINATOR's ocassinal bad camera work and made it worth viewing for action fans.
Sloppy cross between "Hard Target" and "Battle Royale"
posted on 30 Aug 2009"The Eliminator" is a slightly more professional effort than Bas Rutten's following movie, "The Vault", but that isn't saying much: it's still not very good. The fights (the No. 1 reason for anyone watching this) are few (maybe 4 in total), brief, blurry, and gimmicked-up (slow motion, fast motion, etc.). The script is not only blatantly derivative (of the films I mentioned above, and many others), but sloppy as well, especially in the last 20 minutes (one character practically disappears without a trace). There is surprisingly little action overall, and too much wandering around the island. I liked the professional stuntwoman Danielle Burgio - although she is not conventionally beautiful, I found her gorgeous in her own way - but she is largely wasted in this role. (*1/2)
poop from the beginning to the end
posted on 30 Aug 2009I can't say is the worst movie I've ever seen, is the second one in the series. Maybe Bas Ruten is a good fighter and maybe someday he will become an actor, who knows? But why I am talking about Bas Ruten? First of all I must talk about director, writing, plot or is better to never talk about these stuff, because are inexistent. I've seen many movies in my life and in the last years 90% of all American movies are just garbage. Is not a surprise if you discover that a movie so called great is so great just because it was seen by a stupid people. Hey, you won't wake never? The advertise and mass media, just had you all? You have no brain still? How could you make all the movie the same f.....g way? They are fighting so many times without a single scratch, they are leaving the guns beside, they always find a way to reach the bad guys, you still believe in fairy tooth? Or red hoodwinked? Even Van Damme is better than this one. Maybe you should start to see movies from Europe and to not believe everything is told to you by your beloved compatriots, the Americans. A movie like this is enough to f.ck all the week-end and the next month too. Is a perfect punish for your enemy.
Oh... My...God!
posted on 30 Aug 2009this film fails in every way! a very thin and worn out plot/storyline, discarded guns thrown away and randomly appearing again, dead people moving around the set. And the CG is all bad, static fog, birds with cardboard wings, a wall that would make an Australian TV-show producer laugh his head off... when all this is said, i wish i could give the movie only half a star, but the fights, and the hysterical laugh-outs gives it just "the right stuff" for another half a star! All in all... this movie sucks... i know this is the lowest form of critique, but there isn't really much good to say about it!THX for viewing!
Bad movie, not worth it.
posted on 30 Aug 2009This was such an awful movie. The only reason I didn't change the rating to a 1 was because of Bass Rutten, while he cant act, i just like him. Thats the reason i saw this movie, because he was in it. But this seriously isn't worth seeing. Not a single person in the whole movie can act, the actors killed this movie. This is seriously a bad movie, don't netflix it, don't rent it, don't watch it when your flipping channels. Bass Rutten may be a skilled fighter, but that doesn't mean he can act. A lot of these famous people, singers, celebrities, etc, think they can act because they can fight, or sing, or dance. No, just no. Its extremely evident here, and its just a crappy, low quality low grade movie. don't see it.
Bas Rutten + Jungle = Total and Complete Non-Stop Awesome Sauce
posted on 30 Aug 2009All I can say about this movie is: "GIVE ME SOME MORE!!! I WANT SOME MORE!!!" This movie is the perfect, and I mean PERFECT, blend of Mixed Martial Arts, Bas Rutten (Dakota Varley), Marco Ruas (Salvador), marbles, Voltaire (played by Tony Boldi), android prisoners, and jungles. The thought of using the jungle as a battleground was very inspirational, so all I can say is that this movie gave me "jungle fever". I strongly think that this is Bas Rutten's true calling. He really made me believe that he was stuck on an island and fighting for survival. Some fight for freedom. What does he fight for? He made it quite clear in the movie that he fights for survival. While watching this movie, I really believed that he wanted some more. But Bas Rutten was not the only reason that this movie was as great as it was. Paul Logan (Jesse) is a very wonderful actor whose credentials speak for themselves. Check out his IMDb profile for the various cinematic tour de forces that he has been in. Another reason that this movie, or rather, this work of art, was as great as it was was the wonderful performance by Michael Rooker (Miles Dawson). His spectacular, wonderful, scrumtrilescent speech about marbles made me realize that he is a true villain. All in all, I believe that this movie is the cinematic pinnacle from which all movies hereafter should strive for. Thank you Bas. Thank you Paul. Thank you Michael. Thank you Marco. Thank you android prisoner. Thank you for everything.
Such A Letdown...
posted on 30 Aug 2009Okay, so we have in this film, MMA fighter Bas Rutten- great look for the movie industry,great personality, and the casting decision that made me so curious to check out The Eliminator. Then aside from that,you've got Michael Rooker, an incredibly talented and underrated actor in the industry. Put them together in an action film for me and i'd expect to see something awesome...but...I just...didn't get that with this.See the 2 people I mentioned? Bas Rutten & Michael Rooker? They are the ONLY things in this film worthwhile,but even they can't save this. Everybody else did a very poor job at what they did, the action scenes even with MMA fighter(s) were so terrible looking,and so was the look of this film in general. Rooker even managed to sadden me by putting on an under average performance, and I say that because usually his average is well enough.Bas Rutten is good, and has much potential to throw into the action genre, but this certainly was the wrong way to start off...I would've started by doing small roles in bigger or better quality films, then eventually leap into a lead role to breakout with...and the only thing they broke in this was the barrel of waste that spilled all over this film itself....sorry Bas, I wanted to love this so badly and I was looking forward to it so damn much, but you and everything in this just disappointed me...heres hoping you can pick/get better roles in the future.3/10
Nothing You Haven't Seen Before... Except With Mixed Martial Arts Action!
posted on 30 Aug 2009"Original" is a word that doesn't get used enough when reviewing movies, and I'm definitely not going to use it here.This movie has way too many similarities to Ice-T's and Rutger Hauer's "Surviving The Game" and Jean-Claude Van Damme's "Hard Target". The other reviewer says it resembles Japan's "Battle Royale" as well, but I have yet to see that one. One of the better things about this movie is seeing real Pancrase, UFC and other MMA fighters in this type of action movie. I liked seeing the armbars and other submissions thrown into the fight scenes, as they did in this movie. There was also a nice fight scene between Bas Rutten and Marco Ruas. I also liked how they kept the women, even the stronger ones, weaker than the men in most cases. This is how it would be in real life, and that's what I liked seeing in the movie (Nothing against women in general, but let's face it, with this group, there's not many women that could keep up with these characters).The plot of this movie has far too many similarities to the movies mentioned above. I'll keep the review spoiler free, but just a quick plot run through. There are 7 captured "contestants" who are hunted at night, with the last man alive winning a cool $10,000,000. I don't have to say anything else, as I'm sure most of you can take it from here.One thing I felt the movie could improve upon was with the villain. Movies nowadays don't have strong or mean enough villains. You should be walking out of a movie thinking, "What a bastard that guy was! I'm glad he got what was coming to him." Not just this movie, but most movies these days are like that. Watch "Stone Cold" main bad guy and you'll see what I mean. Enough on that rant.Anyhow, I'd like to see Bas Rutten do more action movies, but I feel he'd be a better villain than hero. He did do much better here than I thought he would. I think this movie is worth a rental if you get the chance. I give it a 6.5 out of 10.
Move on, nothing to see here...
posted on 30 Aug 2009The storyline involves 7 strangers of differing backgrounds being transfered (unwillingly) to an island by an equal number of rich people which bet 25 million $ on their contestant. The island is the gameground on which guards are sent in groups to eliminate the contestants. The last survivor is the victor the "deathmatch".I found quite a few similarities to Battle Royale. Of course don't imagine this movie to be nearly as entertaining as Battle royale. This was a clearly low budget effort, the cinematography was below average, the fighting scenes were bad and even the acting was horrible.I don't recommend this movie. 4/10
"The Eliminator" - only for Bas fans
posted on 31 Aug 2009This is the kind of movie that you can not take seriously and that is a good thing. I am a huge Bas Rutten fan and bought it for the sole purpose of seeing him in action. The movie has its share of good moments, bad moments and "Why Bas why?" moments.
First, the good. Bas Rutten is perfect in this movie. The plot is not terrible, very straight forward but has its twists along the way. Is it predictable? Yes but you have to take this movie as what it is, not a Steven Speilberg epic but an action movie made to push Bas' career and it does that well. The action sequences are good too, made better by Bas using MMA (armbars, chokes and my favorite, a spinning kneebar from guard!) which were my favorite moments in the movie.
The bad. The rest of the acting is not so great. Very one dimensional characters, but that is the nature of this kind of movie. The actors did their best with what they were given.
The ugly. First, this DVD is not widescreen format. However, the film was shot widescreen and not reformatted to fit normal screens. So in the process alot of parts get cut off by the screen. It makes this movies production vales seem worse than they are. And they are bad to begin with, constant re use of footage of soldiers, skies and landscapes.
If you buy this movie, get it to have fun and enjoy Bas. His fighting is great and he has an awesome love scene with one of the actresses (Bas takes what he wants!). It is the kind of movie to watch with friends and have fun.