A fighter unexpectedly gets a shot at the title. He has to train like he’s never trained before while dealing with financial issues and a new relationship. I’m pretty sure most of us saw this when it was called Rocky. Now writer/director/star Eduardo Castrillo (Hunting Season) gives it a Muay Thai spin in Worth. Are the results worth your time?
Ricky (Eduardo Castrillo) is an up and coming fighter. He’s just met Danielle (Samantha Aper) who is a paralegal. He’s training for the big fight, she’s part of the team working on an important case. Of course, they fall in love. Complications ensue. Tragedy strikes. Can Ricky go the distance?
There are some obvious parallels here from the basic plot to the sound-alike names of the main characters. But there’s also a major difference, Rocky was a sports film with drama added. Worth pretty much eliminates the sports to concentrate on the drama. And that’s a problem for a film who’s marketing revolves around the squared circle
There’s almost no training footage in Worth. And when we get to the fight at the end, it lasts about three minutes. And it’s not a very thrilling three minutes either. Now, taken strictly as a drama Worth isn’t horrible. It’s not really my kind of film but it was OK. There’s nice chemistry between the leads and Tony Todd, (Immortal, The Debt Collector) shows up in a small role as a police detective. It’s nothing great, but for an obviously very low budget film it’s better than you might expect.
But the advertising makes promises the film doesn’t even try to keep and the result is a disappointment. I can see the commercial appeal of selling it this way. But the resulting unhappy viewers and bad word of mouth aren’t going to help the film. Worth should simply have been sold as a romantic drama, it would have had a better chance of satisfying its viewers that way.
Worth is available on Amazon Prime, Tubi, and other streaming services from Uncia Films.