From the first impression, this looks like Over the Top and Glow were tossed in a blender to see what might come out, and somehow it held together long enough to make a movie. That’s not why we’ll be thinking about seeing this, since the same kind of reason applies to Golden Arm as applied to Over the Top so many years ago; it just looks like it might be slightly interesting enough to watch it once and then say “Okay, I’m good”. That’s kind of how it feels even if the story is different since Melanie, who starts out as a baker in the movie, is roped into competing in an arm-wrestling championship by her friend Danny, who just suffered an epic loss that appears to make her question her own place in the arm-wrestling world. For anyone that’s ever arm-wrestled, it’s not a complicated matter, but it’s tougher than it looks since a person doesn’t have a lot of mobility, and like it or not, size makes a pretty big difference since leverage is great when it can be applied, but until that happens, size and sheer strength will win out quite often, especially if the bigger person knows how to use that size to their advantage. So in summary, with size, experience, and leverage, the other person has to find some way to beat the individual that has so much going for them. That’s kind of why Over the Top was a bit frustrating since the sheer size of Bull Hurley should have been a huge disadvantage for Lincoln Hawk.
But again, size isn’t everything. In this movie though, pitting a baker that’s had no experience up against professionals that have been doing this for a while is an uphill climb from hell since the reality is that bakers do tend to work quite hard at their craft and as such do develop a fair amount of muscle if they’re doing everything by hand and not utilizing machines for a good part of their work. It’s nothing against modern bakers, but those that do things the old-fashioned way developed a lot of toughness and muscle in their arms that might not always have been evident but were there when they required it. The only problem is that the repetitive motions that a baker tends to make don’t all have a lot of weight involved, since dough and other ingredients don’t tend to press back when the baker applies a bit of force to them, at least not in the manner that another human being will when it comes time for the competition.
The movie has the look of an action-comedy that’s bound to be a bit difficult to get into for those that might not enjoy the slightly campy feel of it. But it does look like a movie that will be easy to follow, since there’s not much else to it apart from the fact that Melanie, the baker, needs the money, and Danny might simply need validation for having lost to one of the toughest arm wrestlers in the movie. It might be worth a watch for the reason that it could be kind of funny given that the trailer already makes it appear as though there might be a healthy amount of humor to it. In a way, it also brings to mind the movie Chick Fight, which is about another female protagonist that is looking to change her life and create more cash flow while stuck in a hopeless situation. This appears to be a prerequisite for these types of movies, as the idea of someone that’s down and out and in need of a miracle is the best person to play such roles. Arm wrestling is perhaps one of the last things that anyone might have thought about when bringing it back for a movie idea, but it would appear that someone felt it was a worthwhile pursuit. Over the Top even had a few female arm wrestlers, but they weren’t exactly the main characters in the story.
One downside about arm wrestling movies is that the action has to come from just about everywhere else in the movie, such as the training montages and other parts of the movie. As an activity, arm wrestling is kind of hard to get into since it’s two people grunting and groaning until one of them pins the other’s arm or until an arm breaks since to be fair it doesn’t take quite as much as a person might think. The best way to understand this is to arm wrestle someone or place your elbow on the table and bend your arm outward until the back of your hand hits the table. Now imagine adding speed and force to that. Yeah, it’s a little more dangerous than people think.
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