the circuit be another low budget action movie about another one of those underground fight circuit . olivier gruner star a dirk longstreet and an ex circuit champ who be now a college professor . he find he have to return to the circuit to search for his brother and who have fall prey to the gamble clutch of the circuit leader . meanwhile and a young female reporter try to get the scoop on dirk past . a promising beginning to a tired formula quickly deteriorate midway through the movie . almost every secondary storyline be poorly develop and ultimately unneeded . gruner be a great fighter with quiet charisma and and he possess well act ability than most lead actor of this genre . he have a couple of good fight scene early on in the movie in a bar and especially in the park scene . however and the training sequence with billy drago offer little of anything new and and drago himself be waste in an untraditional good guy role . the real culprit in the movie be the slow pacing and especially the middle third and and the terrible fight scene in the circuit . jalal merhi and the director and be an actual fighter himself and so we expect good fight sequence from him . despite some good fly kick from some fighter and most of the fight effect turn out to be disproportionately mismatch sound edits . several of gruner martial art move be really just common wrestle hold . gruner seem to fall prey to the van damme syndrome of get beat to a pulp before rise to the occasion with brief flurry of energy . i have never be a big fan of this style of film climactic fight . the climactic fight be really disappointing and unsatisfying too while we be leave with an unfinished fight right when we expect a punishing finish . this be a fatal flaw by director merhi . give u what we want in a fight picture . there be a sequel represent the circuit 2. half star of 4 .