Vale Todo: Anything Goes (2010)

Vale Todo: Anything Goes (2010)
Aka: One More Round; Fighter; Vale Tudo

 

Starring: Carlos Valencia, Uriel Arce, Christopher Andrews, Lisa Mayo, Royce Gracie, Veronica Suarez
Director: Roberto Estrella
Action Director: n/a

 

Vicente Fernandez (Ecuadorian actor Carlos Valencia) is not having a good day. He is at work on a construction site when he finds out that his (abusive) father has been killed in a car accident. Before he can process what was happening, he arrives at his simple home in the slums of Guayaquil, Ecuador to catch his girlfriend (Veronica Suarez) getting plowed by another man. And she doesn’t even feign remorse, she insults the guy on her way out. And she steals Vicente’s savings, too. He does what most men would probably do: scrounge up what money he has left and buy alcohol.

Life hasn’t been just for Andres “Andy” Bello (Uriel Arce), either. A successful sports agent in the States, Andy is back in Ecuador to recover from a beak-up with his girlfriend. He meets up with his doctor friend and heads to the club with a bunch of pretty girls to drink away his sorrows. He drunkenly escapes the noise for a few moments to buy himself a hot dog from a vendor, only to get jumped by a bunch of muggers. Thankfully for him, Vicente is drinking away his sorrows several feet away. Vicente beats the hell out of the muggers, much to Andy’s surprise.

Andy is more than happy to buy his savior a drink. At the end of the night, Andy takes Vicente to his hotel and shows him a bunch of videos of UFC, which impresses Vicente. Vicente has never trained in any martial arts, but learned how to street fight in order to survive the slums where he grew up. His late father also “encouraged” him to learn to defend himself, usually by paying the neighborhood kids to attack him and then berating him if he didn’t do well. Anyway, Vicente is confident that his own experience with life-and-death fighting will help him where mere training would not and agrees to a proposal by Andy to become a fighter.

Andy takes Vicente to a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school run by Fernando Soluço (a real-life fighter whose name was Fernando di Piero). Andy gives Fernando three months to train Vicente while Andy organizes the guy’s travel papers and what not. Vicente is a quick learner and by the end of the three months, is ready to take on a fighter. Vicente starts off with some underground fights, after which he heads to the states for something more professional…

Vale Todo touts the participation of the legendary Royce Gracie in the film, although he only shows up in a glorified cameo as himself. When Vicente arrives in Southern California, he goes to Gracie’s studio to continue his training while Andy organizes his first fight. But Gracie doesn’t fight in this; he we see him showing Vicente a few moves. So, don’t get your Gracie hopes up.

I would say that the big problem with Vale Todo as a piece of entertainment is that Vicente’s journey never seems to be all that fraught with hardship and unexpected obstacles. His quest to become a fighter feels very bunch a linear A to B to C, with nothing that really generates suspense. No surprise betrayals by his agent. No unexpected attempt to prevent him from getting a passport. No bureaucracy that might stop him from getting into a professional fight. No sudden request for him to throw the fight to appease shady betters. He simply moves from Step 1 to Step 2 and by the end, has become a professional fighter. All of life’s disappointments pile in the first couple of scenes, and then rest is “all gravy.” Also, the scene where Vicente and Andy spend New Year’s Eve at the beach drags on too much.

People who train in mixed martial arts might enjoy some of the training sequences and identify with those scenes. There are two sets of fights. In the first, Vicente participates in a series of underground fights against a random brawler, a Capoeira expert and then a soldier (whom he defeats with a simple choke hold). Then there is the final showdown with an American Muay Thai stylist inside the Octagon. That fight is ruined by too much shaky cam and quick cuts. If you want semi-realistic MMA in a film, watch Redbelt. If you want entertaining and exhilarating MMA film, watch a modern Donnie Yen movie.

As a 90-minute commercial for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Vale Todo might be okay. As an actual film, it’s mediocre at best.