Arena: if you liked Rocky, you’ll love Rocky with monsters
There are two questions you need to ask before deciding to watch the 1989 sci-fi action film Arena,One: did you enjoy Rocky? And two: what if Rocky fought a giant space armadillo? Because Arena is for those of us who saw Sylvester Stallone’s tale of a pugilist underdog and liked it well enough – but felt it needed more monsters,Two people who definitely thought this were the director, Peter Manoogian, and the B-movie impresario Charles Band, whose Empire International Pictures made a raft of other terrific horror and sci-fi throughout the 80s including Re-Animator, From Beyond and the underrated Trancers,Like all good sports movies, Arena’s story is one of a protagonist up against the odds,In this case: Steve Armstrong (Paul Satterfield), a diner chef aboard an intergalactic space station with a knack for fisticuffs and strong sense of social justice.
Steve steps in to defend his boss, Shorty (Hamilton Camp), from an aggressive, extraterrestrial fish-man, starts a brawl and promptly gets fired.Feeling guilty, Shorty takes the guileless Steve under his wing, aiming to raise funds to help him get back to Earth.But before they know it, the pair have racked up a gambling debt to shady underworld boss Rogor (Mark Alaimo) and in order to get square, Steve must enter the Arena under the guidance of famed fight trainer Quinn (Claudia Christian).Arena fighting is a mixture of boxing, mixed martial arts and sumo where a fighter’s objective is to force their opponent out of bounds.In order to level the playing field among the diverse range of contenders, a handicapping system is employed, enabling weaker species to compete against physically superior adversaries.
Ultimately, Arena’s story is a modest one; you could imagine it as a side quest in a video game, or reading about it in a comic book spin-off from a larger franchise.Let’s be honest: we kinda know how Steve’s story will play out.But what we’re really here for is to see Steve beat the hell out of some gloopy, slime-slathered aliens and robot hybrids.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morningSteve’s first opponent in the Arena is Sloth, a hulking, prune-skinned, colossus of alien flab and mantis legs, dripping with goo and menace.Designed by Japanese practical effects legend Screaming Mad George and aided by a special effects team featuring the renowned John Carl Buechler and Steve Wang, the Sloth fight is a ludicrous yet original piece of fight cinema.
Sign up to Saved for LaterCatch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tipsafter newsletter promotionThe space station and its fight card is populated with a wild assortment of alien beasts that rival Star Wars’ Mos Eisley cantina for weirdness and imagination.Steve goes on to battle his way up the Arena rankings, including sparring with a giant armadillo named Stitches and a title shot against the fearsome Arena champion, Horn, a grisly meld of organic tissue and robotic steel.Arena has another ace up its sleeve with a bingo card of excellent 90s sci-fi actors.Mark Alaimo, Armin Shimerman and Claudia Christian would all find future employment on other space stations, trading Arena’s interstellar brawling for geopolitical intrigue aboard the likes of Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5.The sci-fi sports movie is an underappreciated genre.
If you’re going to tell a story of overcoming sporting injustice, training hard or triumphant victory, then why not make it a wacky sport? Or set it in a dystopian hellscape? Or throw in a glut of weird monsters to enhance the experience? Perhaps Rocky walked so Arena could fly.Arena is streaming on Amazon Prime in Australia, the UK and the US.For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
Ollie Pope smashes 169 off Zimbabwe to show England selectors his class
There were shades of The Thick of It after Ben Stokes gave his press conference a day out from this one-off Test against Zimbabwe. When the minister – or in this instance the England captain – said Jacob Bethell would be straight back in for the series against India, this apparently referred to the squad and not necessarily the XI.That Stokes sought to make this clarification through the back channels perhaps said more about the task at hand than England’s true thoughts on the subject. No captain would ever wish to send a player out believing whatever they achieved would be irrelevant, especially not a vice-captain and selfless cricketer such as Ollie Pope.Either way, Pope was scarcely destabilised by the prospect of Bethell returning from the Indian Premier League and reclaiming the No 3 berth
England end day one on 498-3 against Zimbabwe: men’s cricket Test – as it happened
That’s it from us. Thanks for your company, correspondence and jokes about Blessing and Pope. The OBO will be back in the morning, and so will Ollie Pope – as long as Ben Stokes doesn’t declare overnight.Zak Crawley is giving an interview. In England’s practice kit, black shorts and a purple sweatshirt, he looks more laid-back than ever
Lewis Hamilton ‘to make three new films’ but Verstappen snubs F1 screening
Lewis Hamilton has revealed his film production company is working with screenwriters to produce three films in the future. The seven-time world champion was speaking after a private screening of the forthcoming film F1: The Movie, held on Wednesday night in Monte Carlo, on which he was a producer and an adviser.“At the beginning you see all the different logos for the different production houses and my one comes out, which I worked on for so long, which is Dawn Apollo and it was just amazing to see that,” he said. “This has gone in very high. Couldn’t go any higher for my first movie but we will be producing more movies in the coming years
Scientists warn Enhanced Games athletes of heart attack risks and having libidos ‘killed off’
Enhanced Games competitors run the risk of their libido being “killed off” as well as a greater chance of heart attacks and psychiatric issues by taking performance enhanced drugs, leading experts have warned.Prof Ian Broadley, whose research has been supported by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and his colleague Martin Chandler, a research fellow who specialises in PEDs, also told the Guardian that organisers’ claims that banned drugs can be made safer if taken under medical supervision are “incorrect and misleading”.Organisers of the Enhanced Games revealed on Wednesday that they will stage a four-day event in Las Vegas next year, but confirmed that they had already given the Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev $1m for dipping under the 50 metre freestyle world record time by using banned drugs.Meanwhile the Australian former Olympic swimmer, James Magnussen, has said that he “feels like 18 again” after taking testosterone, peptides and banned drugs, including BPC-157, CJC-1295 and the growth hormone ipamorelin to prepare for the event.However, Boardley and Chandler have warned that Magnussen and other Enhanced Games competitors are underestimating the risks and dangers from taking steroids and other experimental drugs
AFL urged to go beyond mental health round with player voices to tackle stigma
From sharing more first-person stories to using destigmatising language in community football, the AFL can do more to improve mental health outcomes according to experts, whether or not the league pursues a themed round explicitly dedicated to the cause.The footy community has been beset by grief this week following the death of West Coast premiership player Adam Selwood at age 41, three months after his twin brother Troy – a former Brisbane player – died by suicide.Former Kangaroos and Swans player Wayne Schwass, Cats great Jimmy Bartel and Swans’ premiership-winning coach Paul Roos have been leading voices in the call for the establishment of a mental health round, but others including former Hawthorn president and Beyond Blue founder Jeff Kennett are opposed to the idea.As many as 43% of people aged 16–85 experience a mental disorder at some time in their life according to the ABS, and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found suicide is the leading cause of death for people aged 15-44.The AFL developed its first mental health strategy in 2020 and updated it last year, outlining a vision that employees of the AFL and its clubs are “supported to thrive in football, work and life”
All aboard for glory? Bath hope their trophy buses are finally on schedule
Trophies. They are like bloody buses. Or at least that is what Bath fans must be hoping. They wait 17 years for one, and along come …We are about to find out how many. One has just been
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