I was lucky enough to catch this movie at the video store a few years back. I liked it so much that I actually bought it when it went on sale.Some of the reviews on here compared this film to Fast and Furious, which doesn't hold water as far as I'm concerned. Sure there were fast cars and racing. However, Born to Race was done on a lower budget but was as equally enjoyable and stands on its own merits.Just taking the time here to recommend this film. It was very good by all accounts and pleasurable watch.

Half the reviews are like "this is a great movie" and I can't help but wonder why so many people think this is good. I'll admit, considering that it probably had a budget of a penny and a piece of string, the production value is okay, and the screenwriter clearly knows his car jargon. The story is where things fall apart for me. Its like the first 5 minutes of Tokyo Drift (but even stupider) stretched out to 90 minutes. Who would want to watch that? A lot of the characters are unlikable and don't act logically. Why would Danny risk ruining his image with a sponsored racing company and his professional future by intentionally bringing their car to an illegal street race knowing there's a risk of wrecking it? I guess the movie wouldn't have a plot if he didn't. Jake is an egotistical jerk with an asshole father. Why would Danny's father let him compete in the drag race if he was caught street racing and he said earlier that he wouldn't sign him up for the race if he was caught street racing?There are some technical flaws, too. In one scene a 2011 car is shown about to crash, but the car in the actual crash is a 2004-06 car of the same model (and its pretty obvious, too). I guess they couldn't afford a newer one or even a bodykit for the crash car. There's also a shot of Danny's Subaru at a stop sign with his turn signal on and you hear the clicking of the turn signal even though we're outside of the car. Why would they put that in?There are other Fast & Furious ripoffs out there like Redline (which is also terrible) but those movies are at least fun popcorn entertainment with characters you can route for. I'm giving Born To Race such a low rating because it plays up this dumb high school drama with characters I want to punch in the face (played by actors who all look like they're 25) and tries to make it more serious than it is.

This movie was a pleasant surprise. I went in expecting a dumb car movie that's a knockoff of any number of other dumb car movies and was treated to a well-executed thoroughly enjoyable fun dumb car movie.I say dumb because the teen drama part of the film is really predictable. It's a paint-by-numbers movie that hits all the required tropes and stereotypical characters, but it's very well done.You know the tropes when you see them, the actors know them, the movie is conscious of them, but it plays it well and moves on.Dumb things the movie does (including dumb character actions) are forgivable, because it's a fun movie.On to the cars...I'll preface this by saying I'm more of a fan of older generation car movies (Vanishing Point, Dirty Mary & Crazy Larry, etc.), and tend to be an American car guy who finds imports dull. Chipping a car doesn't have the same appeal to me as wrenching on one, so I'm a viewer with a bias. BUT...That said, I was very pleasantly surprised. There were plenty of new and old cars to look at, some less common, some more common, some domestic, some import. One of the people I watched the movie with was a huge import buff, and enjoyed it for the imports that were highlighted. I enjoyed it for some of the less-common domestics in the film.The good racing scenes are done well, and the speed of the races is done well also. There's not a huge amount of time distortion done to most of them during drag racing sequences, just good editing to add to the feel of the movie. The road racing sequences are done pretty well, edited well, and are engaging (and even if one or two may fall in the "dumb" category, it's still a fun movie, so you can forgive it).The car tech-speak I'm familiar with (non-import stuff) struck me as showing the movie hired at technical adviser at least, and also elevated itself a bit. So it wasn't completely dumb.Overall, it's a well-executed, thoroughly enjoyable fun mostly-dumb car movie that left me smiling.

I saw this movie on the cable video store and it caught my eye. I'm a car guy and have seen the Fast & Furious franchise movies amongst others. The movie starts off like F&F movie, in particular Tokyo Drift, with the LA Street Race scene. The kid ruins his life and makes a turn around, I'll leave it at that and you can get more from the synopsis.What makes this movie great is they do use a mixture of Domestic and Import cars. The opening credits have one race with a late model mustang and late model Monte Carlo, which then has your imports. There are more scenes like that including a new 5.0, the last generation camaro, and some oldies, including a street race with a Belair and a Grand National. This Definitely something that does stand out from the other movies by not having just imports or having one single American muscle car.Also another plus is the final scenes of the movie take place at the race strip, which in my opinion and through out this movie, is trying to get the underlying message that knuckleheads need to start taking this race scene back to the track instead of the streets.Another point which no one has pointed out is the use of the 2011 Mustang in this movie. Older car buffs might see this. 20 yrs ago the, the competition was the Late Model 5.0 and the Buick Grand National, which are seen in this movie. The director does show that this rival lives on with the new 5.0 Mustang and now with the WRX Subaru. Just a little something to note, nothing to write home about. Overall this movie is definitely worth renting or buying whether your a fan of the illegal race scene or fan of the F&F franchise. The movie holds its own and is not a let down like the Asylum movies "Street Racer" and "200 MPH"