Best of the Best 1989 by AverageMansReviews

Best of the Best 1989 by AverageMansReviews

Review Time

Warning: there is flashing effects/colourful effects/burning/dislocation/racism/domestic violence/bodily functions/medical/references to vehicle hit

Team Korea vs. Team USA: briefly:  Alex Grady [Eric Roberts:] he is currently an auto mechanic engineer,  a dodgy shoulder, he used to be one of the best martial artists in the world and one son, but when he is on this opportunity, he goes in for this tryout, where he and a small selection of other martial artists are selected to take on the highly talented, skilled and ruthless martial artists from Korea. The head coach of Team USA is one; Coach Frank Couzo [James Earl Jones:] he will not tolerate less than 100% of their focus, dedication and determination to be victorious.

Generally speaking: the framework and pacing; well for the framework we have plenty of training montages and slow motion effects, the pacing of this 97 minute film is good; as in it is uncomplicated as it moves with good purpose

Action, comedy and art; we have martial arts; including a bar brawl which has moments of comedy in it, before I continue I should point out that there are some outdated comedy references, but I digress; Grady is using a telephone in this bar to phone home to talk to his family; meanwhile things/this situation is brewing, so it eventually kicks off with these bar patrons and the Team USA, where Grady quickly finishes the telephone call to participate in this rumble, then we have some scenery training of some description first with Team Korea standing under this waterfall or Team USA running on a beach as the sun goes down and we have the opening ceremony with all of its prestigious grandeur.

Character developments and performances; the character developments have a good variety to them; such as in one way or another some deaths [no these characters don't die so this is not a spoiler,] or something like Chris Penn as Travis Brickley: he is a martial artist of the Team USA, that happens to be in one of those guys that is an unpleasant person and he is a hothead to; we also have these elements of coming-of-age: even though these characters are fully grown, we still have elements of this character growth; just not the young age part associated with this expression: especially good performances with good chemistry throughout this cast, an excellent performance from Roberts and obviously a masterful performance from the one and only Earl Jones as he really does legitimise this whole sport/competition, with his larger-than-life stage presence and booming voice of a strict nature, consequently because he legitimises this sport/competition he also legitimises this film to be taken seriously as Rocky 1976: with predominantly 3 major differences: the difference in sports; one being martial arts and the other in boxing and on some research this film had $5 million as a budget and altogether took $16 million at the box office, whilst Rocky 1976 had $1.1 million as its budget and took an astronomical $225 million at the box office. But back to this film; Earl Jones should have without a shadow of doubt been at the very least nominated for some positive awards for this really strict and gritty performance, I will even go one more step and say he should have won a positive award somewhere for this performance and Roberts should have been nominated for some awards as well, but my point here is; without Earl Jones in this film; okay it would probably been still on average a good movie, but just a good movie probably circling in my opinion a 6/10: it is difficult to tell because he has such a massive bearing on this film it would be hard to tell if I have gotten my prediction spot on or possibly less in the marking.

This film receives: 10/10, this film is top-notch entertainment; even though it is a little bit cheesy from time to time, the reason it gets this marking is simple; it knows what it is and it sticks to that and does the best with what it has at its disposal, so this is one those rare occasions I have to say it is; the final piece of this section is incredibly harsh and completely unwarranted, because if you choose to watch this film on average and hopefully; you will come to the conclusion of this film clearly knows what it is, so I am not sure how they could have avoided this negative award, even if they could go back and change it. The Stinkers Bad Movie Awards 1989 Worst Picture Phillip Rhee [as Tommy Lee: one of the best martial artists that Team USA has] Peter E. Strauss