Review of Born To Fight

Introduction

Possibly released to cash in on the popularity of Ong-Bak, this is another Thai style martial arts film.

The themes are pretty familiar though. Drugs bust goes wrong, policeman gets killed, evil drug baron involved. Policeman takes death of fellow policeman badly and resigns from force to spend time with family. Gets into some compromising situation that might just require his skills to get him out of.

Oh, and there`s a lot of fighting involved.

A film from the East with no Hong Hong Legends (or their spin offs) involvement? Yes, this one is brought to us by Momentum Asia.

Video

A 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, and it`s a pretty good job, despite some of the weirder colours presented (these are intentional though, I`m sure). The print is nice and clean, and pleasantly free of dirt and dust, given its lower budget origins. There is some grain around too, and at times there`s quite a lot of it, but it`s not too bad overall.

Audio

A choice of three Thai soundtracks - DD2.0 stereo, DD5.1 and dts. The dts and DD5.1 give you the most boom and bang for your buck, but sometimes this is to the detriment of the dialogue. And you may not speak Thai, so you may not be too worried about what`s being said as you`re reading the subtitles, but it can be important to hear what`s being said, and the tones of voices. Some nice atmospheric effects crop up now and again too.

The DD2.0 soundtrack has less boom and bang and more dialogue, so the choice is yours.

Features

A collection of bits and bobs masquerade as extras.

On the Set of Born to Fight is the first featurette, which is a brief behind the scenes look at some of the filming, particularly at some of the stunt sequences.

The Cast of Born to Fight is kind of an alternate credits sequence. It introduces us to all of the stars showing off their skills and telling us a little bit more about them.

There are also interviews with cast and crew, but they cut to another person just as one is about to get interesting.

There are also some trailers.

Conclusion

Lights! Camera! Action!

Plot?

No, leave that out!

Yes, basically this film is all about the fighting. Forget the story or the "threat" element of the story. Just watch all this crazy fighting. Here`s another fight. Wow, look at that stunt. Ooh, those people really are athletes.

Whilst that might sound negative, I enjoyed all the fighting. It is sometimes nice just to sit down and marvel at the fighting skills on display without having to worry about the intricacies of acting performance and sub-plots. If you want those things, look elsewhere. If you want some mad fights and silly stunts, this will do for you.

A reasonable DVD effort, nice transfer, acceptable sound and some not too taxing extras. This one`s going cheap in the sales so fans of the genre might want to take a look.