Street

This movie was just awful. I give it 3 stars for actors who are at least better than a high school actor trying to pad a college application with extra activities. But the rest of it... I don't even know where to begin.

The script is basic. Just simple, non imaginative, cliché. The directing is the same. I will leave those elements alone, because you can almost enjoy those aspects in bad, low budget movies when you are going in to them knowing it was a bad low budget movie.

The star of the movie, the fighting, was OK at best. For such an obviously low budget movie that brought in some MMA names, they should have really done much more to make sure the fighting was way better. And maybe they did...maybe it was just lost in the editing. But none of the fights had any sort of drama. No build. No gripping action.

But the thing that KILLS this move...the bad technical aspects. The utter lack of proper post production. I hate seeing seams in the walls of cheap sets. It is a sure fire give away that you are dealing with low budget. The lighting had no character to it. Did anyone do any color correction? It looked like raw footage. And the sound mix was the absolute killer here. It really played like a temp cut that they rolled out because they just gave up. No attempt at SFX through most of the edit, other scenes just had a background SFX track playing on a loop, music cues dropping out all of a sudden, popping in hot in other places, playing loud under dialogue in other spots so you couldn't hear a thing. If the producers don't have respect enough for their film to finish it properly then nobody should but the time into watching this. Unless you are making a low budget film and want to see a good example of why post production can help a bad movie out, then watch this as a cautionary tale. It will convince you to find more money for post for sure.

Hey I was wondering if anybody knows the name of the very first song they play in this movie I've been trying to find it but I can't ! Please and thank you! it goes something like this "I've been here before I'm not gonna fall, well prepared ready for war, it's time to bet it all it's time to settle the score, A champion me from the start, was born with it see I do it from the heart, it's time to go get it it's time to tear them apart, it's time to jump with it, weak from the strong great from elite I came right out of the streets, where we all fight they eat, where we all fight for peace, I'm about to be king of the streets, I don't really care what you say I run the streets, I'm from the streets, I'm a champion inside I can't be beat, oh yeah oh yeah, cause I'm from the streets yeah I been through things you can't talk about

I was very excited to see that there is finally a new MMA movie out and that it is a respectable movie. I knew going in that this was not a high budget movie and quite honestly I was being a bit of a pessimist which probably worked in the movie's favor. I expected bad writing, bad acting, cheesy fights and a plot as invisible as Wonder Woman's plane. I am not comparing this movie to Here Comes the Boom, I am comparing it realistically as a small budget film and I have to say that when I first saw Beau Casper Smart in the opening scenes in his apartment with the corn rows, I was not too sure I was going to like the protagonist so I was already thinking the worst but to my surprise the movie, Smart and the other characters started to grow on me and though it does not end with Rocky style heroics and a 7 - 12 minute long music infused fight scene, it is much more of what you typically expect from MMA fights that last 3 rounds. A bit more realistic if you ask me. Most fights in real life do not last nearly as long as Hollywood portrays. A lot less like volcano eruptions and a lot more like earthquakes. I have to say that when the movie was over it made the cut and now sits on my DVD shelf in the fight movie section right beside Here Comes the Boom and Blood Sport. I will admit that there were a couple of cheesy scenes where Smart falls in love with the lady lead and the first workout sequence building up to the big fight; music was like something you would see in a faith based film but what the film did was tell a story from start to finish that actually made sense. I wish that they would have shown the female lead, Kate Minor, up to down a little more. She has some sexy legs. Only one scene shows them.

The general acting is OK for a zero budget movie like this. It is FAR from good but the bigger problem than the actor's abilities is the horrible directing. The whole make of the movie looks like a film school project of a beginners class and that's 50% the director's fault. 40% of the rest that is bad is on the seriously bad and cheap production. I wouldn't be surprised if it was made over the course of two weekends with a budget of less than 10.000$.

The story is predictable but if you watch a movie of this type you are probably a martial arts fan and can forgive a lot. I know I have enjoyed movies with a story that's worse if the action rocks. So how about the fights? In few and fitting words: Unimaginative and boring. You can see that Beau Casper Smart has the moves - being a professional dancer it comes as no surprise. But it seems the choreographer has no experience choreographing fight scenes. It looks like he watched a few MMA fights, then made up a list of moves that he thinks are typical, pressed shuffle and just went with the outcome. There are barely any dynamics in the fights, the camera angles are boring and mostly sub par, the cuts feel like someone said "hey, don't forget a cut and angle change there, dude" at some point.

I think if you put a real fight choreographer in charge of the fights, give the camera to someone who's used one for more than a couple of family vacations and make sure the director isn't stoned or on the crapper while the action is happening you could get some really good results out of Beau Casper Smart. Comparing his acting to Van Damme or Segal he actually looks pretty good. Compare him to Scott Adkins, though, and you see he still has a loooong way ahead of him. But I'd definitely watch it if he gave another martial arts flick a try.

Remo Street is a former wrestling champion who spends his days job searching and forces himself to train at night whenever and however he can. It seems his life long dream of becoming a professional MMA fighter escapes him until one night when a door is opened and he is given the opportunity of a lifetime.

The film is definitely great for its budget and the quality is that of many digital features out there. It's amazing what they can do these days in film and STREET is a great example of being resourceful with your knowledge with skilled actors and crew. It's an action packed non stop film that you really shouldn't pass up.