Street Survival

Wasn't sure what to expect from this film in terms of quality but the premise interested me, homeless man skilled in street fighting takes on drug gang. The street as a home to the fighter hasn't been explored too much, only Hard Target, They Live, and the recent Fighting come to mind. This film is very low budget, thats obvious enough, but the filmmakers made the most of what I'm guessing were limited resources and gave the movie some decent production value. The acting won win any awards, but its on par with what you see in many big budget teen oriented films these days. Most of the cast appear to have spent many hours in the gym so they look to have come prepared. The actors playing the lead hero and lead villain handle themselves nicely on screen and both have strong physical presence. The fighting in the film is strictly martial arts and there are several fight scenes in the movie, some are better staged than others but overall they are well choreographed and the hero definitely has skill. The camera remains on the fighters for the most part which is nice, as I personally find quick camera cuts and chop editing annoying when it comes to fight scenes. Some of the scenes are a little corny, but the story is a heartfelt one. My only real criticism is with one scene that could have used a little less dialog, I understand it was supposed to help in terms of exposition but in a larger budget film it would have been a flashback scene, here it just involves a bit too much recounting of events. In summary, Street Survival is a worthy effort from those involved and succeeds as an entertaining low budget action film.

I love a well done low budget movie which I consider this one is. What works is that most all of the cast are unknowns and it gives it more grit and realism. You have good versus evil and at the end revenge. The movie goes at a good pace and has good performances Michael Francis as the ruthless druglord Diego and his beautiful henchwoman Ania Zalewski. Rey Hernandez and Barbara Perez are also impressive in their roles. This movie doesn't try to overextend itself on its low budget but as the title states most of the action occurs on the street giving it an authentic feel to it. One of my favorite low budget movies!

Rey Hernandez is used in this effort as a vehicle of revenge against just about anyone who crosses his path - the chip on his shoulder is massive and whilst efforts are made to soften the character with the use of some standard set ups and support players that we have all seen so many time before - he is just a thug working for those on the margins.

The fight scenes vary in quality and for the most part are good - the only concerns are some of the obvious miss matches which involve him fighting a woman and a biker half his size - based on previous fights - you are left with no doubt that he will win and just left with the feeling that he is a bully. The relationship with the Doctor is added to soften and the sex scene seems and bit out of place.

In general it's a simple and clear movie that gives us a good good guy and bad bad guys and in between a couple of layers of good bad guys and bad good guys just to reinforce the main characters quest and motives.

Having seen many films of this type recently - I was impressed that this was a more genuine effort than most of these low budget efforts - I rated it highly on this basis and think it deserves a view for the fact they have tried hard and this comes through the screen.