Raze DVD Review

     Actors: Zoë Bell, Rachel Nichols

Director: Josh C. Waller

Format: Multiple Formats, Color, NTSC, Widescreen

Language: English

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Rated: R

Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO

DVD Release Date: May 20, 2014

Run Time: 95 minutes

 

       

        There is so much promise for genre fans in a premise such as the one we are given in Raze, but the film suffers because the writers stopped developing anything beyond this premise and director Josh C. Waller seems content without interesting characters, dialogue, or plot development. It plays out like a blend of Hostel and The Hunger Games, offering no surprises but plenty of clichés. It is truly disappointing to see such an opportunity go wasted like this, despite all efforts from star Zoë Bell.

 

        Bell has worked in Hollywood as a stunt woman for many years, brought into the spotlight with Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse film, Death Proof. She is given another opportunity to head up an action-packed grindhouse film with Raze, and she destroys each action scene with competence missing from every other aspect of filmmaking here. Fortunately and unfortunately, Raze has little else to offer other than repetitious action scenes.

 

        The film opens with a poorly executed twist that allows us brief introduction to the situation through a minor character. A group of fifty women are abducted and imprisoned and forced to fight each other to death in order to save their loved ones. This tournament is bet on by a mostly unseen crowd of wealthy elitists, run by an oddly civilized couple (Doug Jones and Sherilyn Fenn).

 

        With the rush to provide the brutal girl-on-girl fighting, insignificant things like character development are skipped over, allowing little impact when each of the characters begins killing each other off. It is clear fairly quickly that Sabrina (Bell) is our hero, but we don’t even know enough about this character for anything that happens to her to matter. Although I would not want to endure any more of the horrid violence, this film could have withstood a longer running time if it were afforded more time in-between battles.

 

        The special features include a commentary track with Waller, Bell, producer/actor Andrew Pagana and writer/producer/fight choreographer Kenny Gage. There is also optional commentary on the deleted scenes, not to mention additional interviews with the cast and crew, and plenty of behind-the-scenes footage. On top of the deleted scenes, there are also extended fight scenes, a gag reel and the original short film that inspired a feature film adaptation.

 

Entertainment Value: 7/10

Quality of Filmmaking: 4.5/10

Historical Significance:  2/10

Special Features: 8.5/10


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