A great vehicle for the effervescent martial artist Amy Johnston, who makes the leap from stunt double to star with great confidence. Its just a shame the film struggles to ever fully ignite, and falls flat despite a promising premise. Amy plays a Los Angeles vet with a violent streak. She becomes a YouTube sensation when she takes out two dudes who break into her kennels. It turns out she’s actually a former underground fighting ace, known as ‘Bex the Beast’, who has turned her back on her shady past. But when her struggling and estranged sister asks for help in paying back some hoods, Becky decides to travel back to her hometown to face the music. She channels her inner Bruce Lee to train her sister and her multicultural friends for a series of highly lucrative, female-only MMA bouts. Dolph Lundgren appears in a couple of scenes as Becky’s prison-based father. He is afforded a good fight scene when he gets jumped by some prison punks, and he helps to inject a bit of star-power into the film. Johnston shows great promise as a leading lady – she has the moves, a decent acting range and a great look – but the film feels sluggish, and never quite delivers that knockout punch.

AKA: Female Fight Club; FFC; Fight Club Ladies.