K.O. Review
Director: Antoine Blossier
Date Created: 2025-06-06 14:00
2.5
K.O. Review: Written and directed by Antoine Blossier, this French action movie is about corruption in the world of boxing and is toplined by Ciryl Gane, a high-profile MMA fighter making a leading-man debut. It also features Alice Belaïdi, Mathieu Lestrade, Gwendal Kerdelhue and Maleaume Paquin. With a runtime of around 90 minutes, the plot of the story is around Bastien, a troubled former MMA fighter who’s reluctantly drawn into a troubled mission in Marseille to locate a missing child.
When K.O. turned up on my Netflix list, I was curious for one reason only — Ciryl Gane. I’m not a big MMA watcher, but I couldn’t front that I was looking forward to having an actual whooper of a combat fighting movie. For sure, I wasn’t looking forward to being challenged, either intellectually or emotionally, and on that front, the movie doesn’t fail. (I also looked forward to good fight scenes, and, to its credit, the movie delivers on that front.) But is the film K.O. all that it’s cracked up to be? My opinion is somewhat mixed.
K.O. Review
Starting with the best part, I loved how realistic the fight scenes were. The way the movie uses real MMA moves — grappling, leg kicks, takedowns — has that jittery and raw feel. You can see that the fight scenes are staged to Ciryl Gane’s strengths. He’s not a professional actor, but when he’s on stage fighting onscreen, you can sense that sort of naturalistic energy that makes you sit up and take notice. For action and martial arts enthusiasts, those scenes are obviously the highlight of the movie.
But this French action movie K.O., strikes a series of action movie cliches. This is a very predictable story. It’s one we’ve already seen, to wit: a former fighter pulled back in, a kidnapped child, a callous villain, a gang-ridden city. There are no surprises of any sort, and the emotional impact is missing.
I don’t want to be too hard on Ciryl Gane. It’s the first time in a movie role that he carries the entire burden, and he holds his own. But his acting is stiff. In a few crucial scenes, his expressions and emotional tone ring hollow. That being said, I don’t think anyone is going to go into this movie looking for Oscar-quality acting. They’ll get ya for the fight scenes, and in that world, Gane is a master. Once set loose, he’s as ferocious as a wild beast, and in those heightened moments, naturally, you can’t look away.
The antagonist in the K.O. movie is mean and vicious, but also highly one-dimensional. He’s a violent performer purely for the sake of being evil, and the script doesn’t end up giving him layers or backstory. But I wouldn’t lie, the actor did an amazing job of being very threatening and unpredictable.
I would also like to appreciate Alice Belaïdi as Kenza, the tough-as-nails lady cop foisted on Bastien. She’s a force to be reckoned with and positively unrelenting, despite the script not always doing her justice. She adds a little attitude and zip to the film, particularly in moments when she intimidates gang members or delivers a punch of her own.
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Netflix’s K.O. is violent—really violent. The fights are nasty and gruesome, and while the camera at times tries to look away at the worst possible moments, the scenes still manage to leave a mark. This is also not a film for children or for those who do not like grindingly brutal action. But if you can appreciate gritty thrillers with nothing held back, this may be your kind of film.
And besides a formulaic storyline, I felt that the film truly lacked an emotional core. We’re supposed to sympathise with Bastien’s guilt and his mission to save the kid who’s gone missing, but the screenplay never cuts deep. There aren’t a lot of moments of silence when the characters really open up or cement. Also, there were fragments and snippets that felt like concepts lifted from other action movies — gang wars, dirty cops, hostage rescues we’ve all heard before.
Summing Up
If you enjoy MMA, or you simply enjoy action films that don’t waste any time, chances are you will like the movie, but for me, K.O. on Netflix is an okay watch. Rich characterisations and a unique plot aren’t where you’ll find them, but fight scenes, decently executed, hold your attention. I’d say that it’s a good second-screen content when you’re in the mood for action entertainment, but don’t want to think about it too hard.
K.O. 2025 is now streaming on Netflix.
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