Prepare to get…wait for it… Beatdown!

The Flick

 When Brandon’s (Rudy Youngblood) brother Frankie gets in over his head with a local mobster and ends up dead, Brandon is left with a week to cancel out his 60k debt.  He returns back to his small hometown where his father (Danny Trejo) lives to devise a plan to pay back the debt.  He sets Brandon up with a job at a local construction site where he meets Todd (Jeff Gibbs) who introduces him to an underground fight club scene in the area.  There he meets Drake Colby (Michael Bisping) who begins setting up betting on fights for him in order to the money needed for his debts.  Brandon’s success creates a new perspective on life and with it, he comes up with a new plan to get back at the mobster that placed him in this predicament in the first place.

Being an MMA fan, I really appreciate the attention to detail that Tapout and Lionsgate used throughout this film.  The montage scene about 40 minutes into the film actually shows off Brandon performing some of the standard exercises you’ll find in an MMA fighters workout. This realistic approach to on-screen training is something that is usually given a backseat or made unbelievable in other fight movies. During the actual fights, you’ll see Brandon follow the number one rule in MMA fighting, protect the face.  Doing this ultimately allows him to win against the others that don’t. On the flip side, the fighters tend to roll out of the mount positions a little too easily.

The greatest addition here is the inclusion of Danny Trejo as Brandon’s father.  He adds what little comedy there is to this fight heavy flick while providing some small emotional background for the main character.  The conflict between the two is the only bit of drama that this film really offers. In addition to Trejo, casting Susie Abromeit as Brandon’s love interest Erin was also an excellent choice.  She’s otherwise unknown but fits the eye candy quota very nicely and does an excellent job bringing her own drama to the screen.  The rest of the supporting cast also does a good job of bringing this unlikely story to life.  

Audio/Video

The 1080p widescreen presentation that Beatdown offers is incredibly crisp.  The colors are very solid and stand out quite well against an otherwise dark palette.  The blood used throughout the movie looks particularly stellar and very realistic.  They also use the an effect similar to ramping to speed up some of the scenes.  It works when it’s used and isn’t oo overbearing.  Occasionally the picture quality suffers from some minor graininess, but it doesn’t distract from the rest of the feature.  

If there’s one thing the Tapout films do consistently well, it’s adding incredible soundtracks to their movie releases.  Beatdown features songs from Freakhouse, Parker Theory, Tommy Fields, Ill Mass and much more. Most of the stuff is great hard rock that will certainly get your blood pumping.  The montage I mentioned earlier runs along Eyesore by Janus and is particularly awesome.  These hard rock and rap tracks coupled with the heavy amount of fight scenes throughout the film will give your speakers a workout regardless of your setup.   

Special Features

Beatdownon Blu-ray comes as a single disc collection with the following extras:

• Commentary track with director Mike Gunther, actors Rudy Youngblood, Susie Abromeit and Editor Dave Macomber
• Behind the scenes with interviews
• Six Days on the Set with Michael Bisping featurette
• Choreographing the Beatdowns featurette
• Beatdown Contest Winner featurette
• Official Trailer and also from Lionsgate Trailers

The behind the scenes interviews lasts about seven minutes and has Rudy Youngblood, Danny Trejo, Eric Balfour and Susie Abromeit taking a minute or so to talk about how it felt to play their role in the film.  The comments are pretty general and don’t really capture interest.  The director Mike Gunther and Joe Passarelli drop by and tell us about working in Austin, TX as opposed to Los Angeles or New York.  Aside from the surprising fact that this movie was shot in eleven days, there’s not much to this feature.  The Six Days on the Set with Michael Bisping featurette has the MMA fighter talking his way through the scenes he films – he’s very funny and seems to take great joy in mocking the movie business – good-naturedly, of course.  He seems to be enjoying himself in this new environment and gets along well with the other actors and fighters in the film.

The Choreographing the Beatdownsfeaturette has Gunther, Bisping and Youngblood providing more commentary on the movie and the fight scenes.  It could have been the most interesting feature on this disc, but sadly it’s way too short and altogether lacking to really be worth more than a single viewing.  This Beatdown Contest Winnerfeaturette hasKevin Mattson repeatedly telling the viewer how grateful he is to have this “opportunity of a lifetime.”  Finally, the TapouT Promos feature the “future of MMA” – essentially, a bunch of pint-sized kids attempting to beat the crap out of each other.

Overall

Lionsgate has been doing a great job bringing your favorite MMA fighters to the small screen with the Tapout series of films.  Beatdown is another fine addition that offers a high quality transfer mixed with bone-crunching fight scenes, awesome music and better than average acting.

ComicsOnline gives Beatdown on Blu-ray 4 out of 5 bloody fences.
 

Buy Beatdown on Blu-ray at Amazon.com now.

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