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Released By: Cinema Epoch
Released On: October 21, 2014
Director: Frank Lin
Cast: Alison Dahlstrom, Ricky Cole,Ingel Catindig, Richie Greenfield, Jae Phan
Year: 2014
The Film:
With a dancing battle concept that most of us from the 80's will be familiar with, Battle B-Boy definitely had the potential to up the ante offered by films like Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. Mike, Jay, Richie, and Ben are trying to hack out a meagre existence for themselves as costumed dancing animals at children's birthday parties, but are constantly being upstaged by the younger attendees. After being shamed at a pool party in front of a young beauty from back in the day, "Ugly Rachel", the group are left to wonder what the future holds for them.
The answer comes after Mike chases down two martial artist street criminals who have mugged his father, and lays a sound beating on them that Bruce Lee would've given a thumbs-up to. The street justice is witnessed by Jimmy, an older hustler from the neighbourhood who sets up battles in an underground circuit specializing in "Da-Fi"....the art of Dance Fighting. Jimmy teaches Mike the three rules of Da-Fi; Fight to the music, don't get knocked out, and don't tap out...but Mike isn't too keen to get involved. But when his Dad suddenly needs heart surgery, Mike realizes that Da-Fi is the only thing that can raise the money.
Enlisting his friends, they begin training under Jimmy's watch, and working their way through different battles, learning the ropes. As their collective journey progresses, so do their individual challenges; Jay wants to buy his sister a new wheelchair, Richie can't relate to his father, Rachel tries to deal with her feelings for Mike and her recently dead Dad, and Ben is a virgin who wants hook up with a shapely competitor. As they work towards the final battle, which will take place in a warehouse with a lot of empty boxes and eight people watching, the underdogs fight to overcome their obstacles and emerge as the ultimate Da-Fi champions.
Battle B-Boy, why did you let me down? Potential was here, in spades. This either had the possibility of being a completely over-the-top-asskicking-with-loud-music extravaganza, or, failing that, a shining example of so-bad-it's-good filmmaking, but Battle B-Boy accomplishes neither. First, to focus on the good; the dramatic subplots. They're TERRIBLE. But that's a good thing, because in the right group, the terribleness of the seriousness of the situations could amount to some stellar levels of hilarity. Unfortunately, taken on their own, they're just bad. This is largely in part due to some pretty poorly written dialogue combined with some not-so-great acting/delivery, but it's hard to figure out which is the bigger culprit.
The fights, which should be the highlights of the film, are not poorly done, but they fall short of professional, which means that for every punch or kick that looks like an actual hit, you get a half-dozen that are obviously staged. The upside to this is that one of the fights is SO horrible, you may find yourself laughing through the entire thing. The final nail in the coffin for this one is the editing, which is choppy as hell, and there's a stretch of one scene in which the camera is out of focus, all of which do nothing to keep the viewer moving with the film. And speaking of moving with the film, all of the things working against Battle B-Boy make the approximately 100 minute run time FAR too long. And so, sadly, what could've been an entertaining throwback to a lost genre, or a bone-snapping B-Grade martial arts flick becomes an exercise in wasted potential.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Battle B-Boy comes to DVD from Cinema Epoch with a 1.78:1 transfer that looks decent for the most part. Colour levels are solid, black levels are good, and there's nothing noticeable in the way of compression artifacts to speak of.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track makes heavy use of the sub and surrounds, sometimes too much. Dialogue is clear for the most part, but there are a few sections where the volume of the music washes out the vocal track. One problem that existed on my setup (YMMV) was an audio synch issue that existed throughout the film, requiring an audio delay correction on the receiver. This in conjunction with the authoring problem in the special features (more on that soon) would tend to indicate that somebody may have been asleep at the QC switch.
There are a few extras on the disc as well, though they're laid out in a fairly strange way. First up are two Trailers, the regular trailer and a teaser, which make Battle B-Boy look like a pretty awesome film. Up next are 3 Deleted Scenes, which run almost 8 minutes, and are available separately from the Special Features menu.
Bootcamp Interview (3:01) is an interview that takes place at the "Fight Camp" for Battle B-Boy, where the actors were trained to choreograph their fight moves. Writer/Director Frank Lin discusses the fight scenes, and Richie also makes an appearance.
Bootcamp Video (3:31) is a showcase reel of sorts from the Fight Camp, with music playing overtop of it. So if you want to watch actors train to choreograph fights after you're done with the Bootcamp Interview, this is the place to do it.
Also laid out on the Special Features menu screen are 7 more individual "fights" from the Fight Camp, also with music. It's worth noting that 2 trailers, 3 deleted scenes, 2 Bootcamp Videos and then 7 fight scenes as well as the option for the commentary puts 14 items on the Special Features screen, making it a confusing mess, compounded by the selector/highlighter that loses alignment once it crosses over to the right side of the screen.
A feature-length commentary is also available, with Frank Lin and various other cast and crew.
The Final Word:
A sub-standard film that doesn't really need to be seen. The disc from Cinema Epoch, who haven't disappointed me up to this point, looks like it received the bare minimum of attention. Avoid.
