Born to Race

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.

Since the beginning you know how the movie will be end. Is not at all original, the movie just takes things (a lot of them) from other movies. Bad acting, poor dialogs, anodyne characters. The hero, the guy that looks like a young Quentin Tarantino is boring, and at the end, who cares if he wins or not? Like other reviewer said, the film is full of clichés: the High School bad guy, his girlfriend who fall in love with the new kid in town, the rich dad, the drunk/loser dad, etc, etc. Nothing new. If you want to waste 94 minutes of your life, go ahead and watch it. There's a movie much better than this, even better than Tokyo Drift. Is called "Initial D". I assure you, you won't be disappointed with Initial D. You won't regret using 107 minutes from your life to watch it.

I was lucky enough to catch this movie at the video store a few years back. I liked it so much that I actually bought it when it went on sale.

Some of the reviews on here compared this film to Fast and Furious, which doesn't hold water as far as I'm concerned. Sure there were fast cars and racing. However, Born to Race was done on a lower budget but was as equally enjoyable and stands on its own merits.

Just taking the time here to recommend this film. It was very good by all accounts and pleasurable watch.

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.

Ever since the mainstream success of 2001's "The Fast and the Furious", street racing movies have been a recurring subject for big and small film studios alike. Despite the relative popularity of movies in this vein, they tend to draw the ire of "gearheads" (or petrolheads, for those across the pond) due to their questionable representation of cars, car culture, racing, and automotive technology. Whether it be nonsensical techno-babble, or impossible-to-reconcile vehicle physics, there tends to be a deluge of blind idiot errors or silly oversights that annoy those of us whose hearts pump synthetic oil rather than blood.

No movie is wholly immune to such things, but thankfully, "Born to Race" averts the aforementioned TFATF-esque ludicrousness. The research has clearly been done when it comes to the techno-babble strewn throughout the film. Moreover, car culture and drag racing is more or less accurately represented where other movies fall flat. The American muscle cars shown aren't the typical triumvirate of Mustang, Camaro, and Charger/Challenger (though these are certainly featured within). A Buick Grand National plays a significant role in the film, and is a recurring sight throughout, and there are scenes exhibiting an Oldsmobile 442, Chevrolet Bel Air and Nova, and even the Lil' Red Express 1979 Dodge D150 drag truck. In summation, the cars, car jargon, and car culture has a greater, more accurate representation than most Hollywood racer films.

The other large failing of many street racing-genre films is the catastrophically canned acting the leads and support dole out. While the script is nothing short of generic high school hero stuff, the acting is of an unusually high caliber. Lead Joseph Cross, of "Running With Scissors" fame, delivers a solid, if slightly weedy performance, and the big bad bully, played by Brando Eaton, does well with what he's given to work with. My personal favorite character, the father of the protagonist, played by veteran John Pyper-Ferguson, puts forth an excellent effort, managing to be lovable, despicable, and humorous all at once.

Where other street racer movies are a complete mess of poor acting and Wikipedia knowledge, Born to Race manages a solid cinema experience for a fraction of the cost of the big boys. I would recommend this film to any street racing/drag racing aficionados, as well as anyone who likes a decent high school hero drama-type story.