Forced to Fight Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Forced to Fight Blu-ray Movie Review

Enter the Dragon; Bring the Family

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 17, 2012

Former kickboxing star Gary Daniels has an ideal face for the camera. Handsome, stoic and slightly mysterious, Daniels doesn't display a wide range of emotion, but his demeanor suggests that there's more going on below the surface. Entire screen careers have been built on the curiosity provoked by such emotional icebergs, because they make otherwise two-dimensional characters interesting to watch. In the first Expendables, Daniels' bad guy, known only as "the Brit", made a worthy addition to the league of villainy led by Eric Roberts simply because Daniels suggested there was more to the character than just a bad guy, though exactly what was unclear.

In the mixed martial arts extravaganza Forced to Fight, Daniels' stoic features serve him well as a former fighter forced out of retirement and struggling with the better angels of his nature. As his character agonizes at a crossroads between his responsibilities as a husband and father (and brother) and the thrill and rewards of the ring, Daniels doesn't try to overact the internal tug-of-war, which an actor with more extensive resources might have been tempted to do. He and co-writer/director Jonas Quastel save the battling for the elaborately choreographed fight scenes, which are, after all, what viewers really came to see. The story itself, and the bruises on Daniels' face, do the rest.

Image Entertainment is releasing Forced to Fight directly to video, but the film is much better than that treatment might suggest. Forced to Fight was a joint Canadian-Romanian production that failed to find theatrical distribution, probably because Daniels isn't a martial arts star at the level of Jet Li or Jean-Claude Van Damme and because no one knows how to market "B" pictures anymore unless they cost more than $100 million and feature massive effects. Forced to Fight is tidy, efficient and inexpensively made (although it doesn't look cheap). The film also revives the martial arts tournament genre, which has been absent from the screen for some years.

Though most of Forced to Fight was shot in Romania, the story is set in Brooklyn where an illegal, anything-goes combat scene has moved underground, changing venues every few weeks and streamed over the internet. The overlord of this empire is Danny G. (Peter Weller, in fine form), who recruits the fighters, promotes the games, hosts the venue, provides the net servers, makes the book and, most importantly, keeps the money no matter what. As far as Danny G. is concerned, this is his sport. So Danny doesn't take it kindly when, in the film's opening sequence, a young fighter named Scotty Slavin (Arkie Reece) refuses to take a dive as instructed. With predictable efficiency, Danny has the errant fighter "seen to" by his thugs.

Scotty is the younger brother of Shane Slavin (Daniels), a former legend in the ring who has left that world and is trying to lead a normal life as the owner of a small auto repair shop with a wife, Connie (Alexandra Weaver), and son, James (Corbin Thomas). Just before Danny G. catches up with Scotty, he goes to see his older brother, where he announces that he's leaving for California, apologizes for all the trouble he's caused and offers to pay back some of the money he's borrowed from Shane over the years, which Shane refuses. Later, when Scotty winds up in the hospital, all his money is gone.

Using Scotty's debts and threats of violence against Scotty and his family, Danny G. forces Shane out of retirement, and Shane's return comprises the bulk of Forced to Fight. What distinguishes the film from other tournament pictures is the degree to which Daniels and Quastel delineate Shane's inner battle. He isn't just doing "one last job" as a necessary evil, after which he'll return to his former life without batting an eye. Shane is an addict re-entering a world from which he only barely managed to extract himself the last time. As Shane acclimates himself to the meaner, dirtier world that underground fighting has become since he left, we watch him get hooked on the adrenaline and testosterone. As the competitive fire reignites, he begins to evolve into someone his wife and son don't recognize and, indeed, are afraid of. Eventually he falls out with Scotty as well. All of this suits Danny G. just fine. As Shane's old life falls away, Danny is acquiring a new fighter for his stable.

Throughout his acting career, Peter Weller has often been cast in oddball roles, even in the early phase when he usually played heroes like Robocop or Buckaroo Banzai. But in recent years, when he's appeared as villains in 24 (season 5) or Dexter, he's seemed to confirm what many actors have said in interviews: that it's more fun to play the bad guy. As Danny G., Weller seems to relish every possible nostril flare, raised eyebrow and puff of cigar smoke. In the brief interview in the disc's extras, he offers a sharp and insightful psychological portrait of the character, but in the film he provides an infinite series of variations on Danny G.'s basic modus operandi. This is a man who enjoys owning people, and Weller etches an acid portrait of a manipulative S.O.B.

Of course, the main attraction of Forced to Fight is the bouts in the makeshift ring, which have been choreographed by Daniels and stunt coordinator Claudiu-Cristian Prisecaru (who also plays Shane's "handler"). Kinetic, brutal and as realistic as safety will allow, the sequences are a melange of fighting styles, including the lowest form of street combat. If "fight club" had ever been taken over and reorganized by the corporate elements it was founded to oppose, it might have looked something like this. Director Quastel shoots these sequences with a camera circling and dodging to get closer, like a member of the privileged live crowd angling for a better view of the carnage. One of the most subversive elements of Forced to Fight is that the very spectacle that draws us in as viewers is also the cesspool from which we hope that Shane will ultimately escape, as it threatens to destroy both him and his family—and Danny G. grins knowingly behind the whole enterprise, watching the monitors as they reckon the odds.

Forced to Fight Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Forced to Fight was shot on the Red system by Romanian cinematographer Radu Lopotaru, and it's presented by Image Entertainment on a 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray that delivers a clean detailed image with solid blacks, good detail and no significant noise or encoding or compression errors. Some occasional minor banding is the full extent of digital artifacts. In what is probably both a stylistic choice and a practical necessity for harmonizing the footage shot in Brooklyn with that shot in Romania, Lopotaru has opted for a dingy, earth-toned palette with very little blue. The Brooklyn of Forced to Fight is a grittier, darker world than the real locale, which makes it easier to accept as a place where a gambler and criminal like Peter Weller's Danny G. can rule the night.

Forced to Fight Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Although it's nominally an action movie, Forced to Fight doesn't provide much opportunity for elaborate surround effects, because the main activity is always front and center. The Blu-ray's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track provides an effective sense of the excited crowd during the fight sequences, but the action remains forward. The rest of the film is dialogue-driven, and so is the accompanying mix. The surrounds supply environmental cues appropriate to the scene, and dialogue is always clear. The underscore is the first for a feature film by Canadian composer Kenton Gilchrist, and it's a promising start.

It's worth noting that the Blu-ray jacket labels the sole subtitle option as "English SDH", but the main menu says, simply, "English". My own spot check suggests that the latter is correct, since the usual descriptions of relevant sound effects are not included.

Forced to Fight Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes with Peter Weller (720p; 1.78:1; 2:25): Interviewed on set, Weller gives his insightful take on the character of Donny G.



• Filming the Fights: The Making of Forced to Fight (720p; 1.78:1; 2:55): Filmed at Castel Studios in Bucharest, this featurette shows the construction of the set and camera rig used for most of the fight scenes, along with some production footage. Brief footage of a stunt involving Scotty's run-in with Donny G.'s enforcers is also included.



• Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 1:21): The trailer is direct and efficient.

Forced to Fight Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's nothing original about Forced to Fight, but lack of originality doesn't mean a genre picture can't be entertaining. What's required is that the filmmakers take enough pride in their work to invest it with craftsmanship, and Forced to Fight is an example of what happens when they do. Its script has a story with more than paint-by-numbers beats. Its villain conveys a sense of danger and even, thanks to Weller, an occasional whiff of devilry. And its hero comes off as someone with genuine feelings, instead of just a dancing piece of beefcake (which is often Van Damme's problem). Though light on extras, the disc is recommended.