Pushed to the Limit

Mimi Lesseos plays a wrestler (now that's an acting stretch!) who enters an illegal kickboxing tournament to get revenge on the man who organizes it - the man who is also responsible for the killing of her brother and the wounding of her boyfriend. Conceived perhaps as a female version of Van Damme's "Kickboxer", "Pushed to the Limit" fails to deliver. The dramatic parts are insufferably slow and stilted, and although Mimi is a talented fighter, particularly when she applies wrestling / grappling moves, her talents are often obscured by the editing or by the simple fact that the camera focuses on other things instead of the fighting. For a movie centered around a fighting tournament, there is a surprising lack of long, continuous fight scenes here. If you feel like you need to see every Mimi Lesseos film then go ahead, but if you just want to see one, try "Beyond Fear" instead. (*1/2)