Born to Race (2011)

Undescribable Perfection

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Half the reviews are like "this is a great movie" and I can't help but wonder why so many people think this is good. I'll admit, considering that it probably had a budget of a penny and a piece of string, the production value is okay, and the screenwriter clearly knows his car jargon. The story is where things fall apart for me. Its like the first 5 minutes of Tokyo Drift (but even stupider) stretched out to 90 minutes. Who would want to watch that? A lot of the characters are unlikable and don't act logically. Why would Danny risk ruining his image with a sponsored racing company and his professional future by intentionally bringing their car to an illegal street race knowing there's a risk of wrecking it? I guess the movie wouldn't have a plot if he didn't. Jake is an egotistical jerk with an asshole father. Why would Danny's father let him compete in the drag race if he was caught street racing and he said earlier that he wouldn't sign him up for the race if he was caught street racing?There are some technical flaws, too. In one scene a 2011 car is shown about to crash, but the car in the actual crash is a 2004-06 car of the same model (and its pretty obvious, too). I guess they couldn't afford a newer one or even a bodykit for the crash car. There's also a shot of Danny's Subaru at a stop sign with his turn signal on and you hear the clicking of the turn signal even though we're outside of the car. Why would they put that in?There are other Fast & Furious ripoffs out there like Redline (which is also terrible) but those movies are at least fun popcorn entertainment with characters you can route for. I'm giving Born To Race such a low rating because it plays up this dumb high school drama with characters I want to punch in the face (played by actors who all look like they're 25) and tries to make it more serious than it is.

Born to race is essentially the street racing movie that can relate to real life. Not only is "Need for Speed" and the "F&F" series unrealistic (still great!), but neither of those use realistic cars that you can typically get(veyrons, 911gt3s etc.). Born to Race uses cars like imprezas and mustangs. This makes it so that teenagers and the younger drivers can actually see themselves with these cars and relate. Of course we can't and won't street race, but its still nice to see a car like yours being focused on in the movie. Those are not spoilers, its in the description of the movie... It is an enjoyable movie for a Sunday night or an airplane flight. Whether its flashy enough for a theater; your choice. Although I do not regret watching it, parts were a bit sappy. Only certain lines though, and this happens in all movies anyways so why complain. I held back on these kinds of smaller racing movies because I was attached to the big one; Fast and Furious. After watching this, it really was worth seeing.

I have a hard time watching movies and TV shows anymore because of the facts are invented and the actors don't act like real people. I hated the Fast N furious movies because they weren't realistic at all. This movie might not have all the splash and dash but it still has a lot of good stuff that (as a person who has driven a WRX STI) I can see really happening. It is low budget and there is evidence of this, it also follows the same formula that nearly all movies follow but it is better than most. You can tell they went into great depths to keep the technical parts accurate and the details of sounds matching the cars were done well too. Many cars, such as the mustang and STI have VERY distinctive sounds and it was good to see that they matched them correctly. The story is good and the characters act like real human beings. For a "B" movie its better than most "A" movies.

Gearheads may have been given a lot of trash-worthy action-racing titles lately, mostly all trying to rip and copy on Vin Diesel's Fast & Furious franchise. But the stupid part about it is that it seems like each one of those "street racing" movies get dumber by the sequel and stupider by the spin-off, except for this movie...Born to Race.I loved this movie because it stays completely true to itself. One of the dumbest parts about Tokyo Drift was how many cars that kid burned through, there was no respect for the vehicles they way they respected the cars, the tuning and the performance in this movie. Now, if you're not a gear-head a lot of the lingo will go over your head, but if you're not really into cars or racing movies then I don't see why you would be reading reviews for a movie about cars and racing(?) Anyways, the writing is actually several times better than most Hollywood flicks. They don't have "easy answers" for everything and most scenes fade out instead trying to drag on and force characters to resolve things. Mostly because in real life we don't always resolve things in one sitting.I also liked that the movie stayed true to the character direction, even with its clichés...It was easy to both hate and root for the protagonist in this film because you could understand why he did the things he did, but at the same time, he was a young idiot, so the director and writer did a job of balancing it out.Also, I just have to say, that 2011 Black Mustang was a freaking beast and the Subaru was a true standout star. I'm glad they also kept the races realistic with real cars and not all that crappy CG stuff.This was a good low-budget film for car enthusiasts and racing fans.