Nassim Lyes Whoops That Ass

Not sure that I will have the time to write a full and proper review of Frontier(s) director Xavier Gens' new chaotic action flick Mayhem! (yes the title includes an exclamation point) starring former MMA fighter Nassim Lyes before it's out on Friday but anything involving Nassim demands at least some attention, for obvious reasons. And Mayhem! is pretty good to boot! Does it gain some of that "good" just due to the fact that Nassim is so easy on the eyes? 

You guess. But Gens is a solid filmmaker and the action scenes get crazier and crazier as the film rolls along until there's one in an elevator near the end that had me literally screaming from the over-the-top brutality of it. It's basically a warmed-up Jean-Claude Van Damme script from 1990 -- you could even kind of say it's the Van Damme version of You Were Never Really Here but that line doesn't fit right in my mouth; writing it makes me want to apologize to Lynne Ramsay.

But it's nice basic throwback kind of movie that doesn't ask anything from its audience except to watch people kick the shit out of one another for a couple of hours and as such it was exactly what I needed last night. Like I said up top it's hitting some theaters and VOD this Friday -- here's the trailer:

All that said if you've never seen our big Nassim Lyes
post, click here. I promise you won't be sorry.