Hardcore Raw & Uncut
Label: Fall Thru Entertainment
Author: Rowald Pruyn

From the ancient times of Roman reign, where honorable yet blood-thirsty citizens of Rome screamed their throats sore in the Colosseum, to the sizzling streets of the modern superpower the United States where the blood-thirsty children of honorable citizens scream their throats sore at violent group beatings. Two centuries apart, yet the blood lust that is aroused when standing nearby a fight hasn't dwindled for a bit. The smart entrepreneurs at Fall Thru Entertainment understood that well when they shot and marketed the street fight DVD-compilation "Hardcore Raw & Uncut."

It was a big surprise to find this DVD package among the weekly stash of reviewable items. The people at RapReviews do exactly what the name stands for: write rap related reviews, so when you come face to face with the picture of a bald-headed goon getting smacked in the head with a bar stool, raising an eyebrow is virtually unavoidable. It mystifies me on the whole why the makers of this violent piece of visual viciousness decided to send a copy to our website. Some of the background music is indeed composed of gritty, southern-style rap music, but just as easily Fall Thru used violent hardcore music to accompany their fighting sequences. This 'soundtrack to violence' could have better been taken care of by the evil mixing panel wizard Necro to provide for the necessary musical violence. Now, the music sounds like how a broken mirror looks like: lots of bits and pieces and seven years of bad luck.

"Hardcore Raw & Uncut" was made after the supposed success of the series "Ghetto Fights," whose title needs no explanation. Most images were shot before, during or after hardcore concerts and show how violent mosh pits can get bloody and vicious in just a few seconds. One of the most shocking examples of such a mood change is a fat punker kid that gets severely beaten, because he was so unwise to bring brass knuckles to a concert. He gets ravaged by five or six huge skinheads both inside and outside the venue and is kicked in the face while he is on the ground bleeding heavily.

The camera work of this particular observation of "the reality of the streets" is just as fragmented as the background music. Most of the footage was shot in shady concert halls and on dark after-hour streets with patrol cars racing by and people running towards or from the action. It is amazing that the cameraman didn't get arrested for shooting his material at least a couple of times, because there are shots available of law abiding officers arresting people in a far from diligent manner. We've come a long way since Rodney King, apparently. The violent sequences are pretty much randomly put together. A series of fights flaring up at rock festivals and punk concerts is followed by shots of beautiful women strutting their stuff and showing their own particular piece of ass. Interludes of Jackass-like stunts are shown in between the sequences to give the viewer the feeling he is still watching entertainment in the flesh, not flesh in the meat grinder. A concrete road block smashing the windshield of a Neo Nazi owned hearse does not stand for the most delicate sense of humour, but it can be entertaining to some.

The most fascinating aspects of "Hardcore Raw & Uncut" are the facial expressions and behavior of the people involved in the fights and the crowd surrounding them. Why do the fighters immediately take off their shirts when they have decided to attack the foe-of-the-evening? Why do the big-breasted girlfriends first try to make peace, then start bitch-slapping the drunken guy who is dude-slapping her boyfriend? And why does a bony ninety pound kid think he can take on a brute twice his size? That, unfortunately, remains in the dark of the streets, but I have no doubt that a modern-spirited sociologist would have a field day with these kind of real fights.

The DVD also shows trailers of other knucklehead conventions as an extra. They even surpass the level of violence of "Hardcore Raw & Uncut," which is not an easy thing to do. They include a special on ghetto car rallies and the intimate portrait of a despicable street criminal that goes by the illustrious name of Jiggaboo Jones. The curly-haired, shades-wearing hoodlum steals cars and robs a woman at gunpoint. Her fear is definitely no acting, and it's puzzling why this film hasn't reached a police headquarter somewhere in the US, especially with the recent trial against the makers of the notorious "BumFights" series.

Whatever your opinion of these videos is, their significance is not be ignored. With all the restrictive policies in the world, you cannot stop people from wanting to do drugs, and you cannot stop them from beating each other senseless all the same. This bottom feeder video is shocking, hilarious, banal and grim at the same time. Watching shocking footage has been highly popular ever since "Faces of Death" made it to the video stores, and I have no doubt this will find its way to people's living rooms too. The quality of the shown material is not up to standard to be able give it a passing grade, however. Let's hope Fall Thru Entertainment doesn't take offense and starts sending by participants to persuade me to change my mind.

Content: 3 of 10 Layout: 3 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 3 of 10

Originally posted: May 30, 2006
source: www.RapReviews.com