The movie: Best of the Best

Henderson said:
I can't believe this thread has lasted 3 pages.

I think it's partly because many of us had seen the film at a time when the media still influenced our opinion of martial arts. It's really quite a classic in its own right, along with The Karate Kid, Enter the Dragon, (Shaolin) Master Killer, and The Five Deadly Venoms.
 
I thought the first was good, the rest were not quite on the same level. The sequels all had pretty poor story lines though the one with Eric Robert's son failing his black belt test was touching (that part...don't really recall any of the rest of the movie).

I enjoyed the scenes with the Korean team training.

Miles
 
Personally, I think The Seven Samurai was by far better than all of them. Sorry to digress. Carry on. :)
 
Y'know, I've never seen The Seven Samurai. I've heard many good things about it though. I'm sure it fits in the category of "influential classic".

I'd have to place Bloodsport in there too. Watching Van Damme act is like watching paint dry but the movie sure did bring a lot of attention to the arts. In that respect I'll give it a nod.

As for the continuing Best of the Best thread, I only consider the first one to really be worth discussion. Its sequels are, well, about as good as most sequels.
 
I concure, the first movie had a plot and a great message at the end. The fallow-ups were dry, the martial arts were poorly scripted, and at the end........ya-know I can't remember a single ending from any of the sequels, and that says something.

-Fluffy
 
The message of films like The Karate Kid and Best of the Best is what elevates it above most other films of its type. It certainly isn't the acting, authenticity, or Eric Robert's mullet.
 
Navarre said:
The message of films like The Karate Kid and Best of the Best is what elevates it above most other films of its type. It certainly isn't the acting, authenticity, or Eric Robert's mullet.

What I can say is that the Karate Kid brought so many to the arts, it's sick. Kids, adults, men, wemon, children all flocked in the 80's to TKD Karate....whatever. And we're still feeling the wave.

Those were not the "best" movies ever filmed, fine. But they had an instant and lasting immpact.
 
Yep. That's my point.

As cinematic achievements they're only so-so. But it brought a lot of ppl to legitimate schools so I respect them in that regard.
 
Navarre said:
Yep. That's my point.

As cinematic achievements they're only so-so. But it brought a lot of ppl to legitimate schools so I respect them in that regard.

Remeber that low jump spinning hook that Phillip had in one of his matches? I've been trying to do that kick for so long......I've been trained to kick high when I jump, that was a great move.
 
That is a good kick. My style doesn't work on that kind of thing but I would like to be able to do it.
 
Best of the Best was a good film! Can Eric Roberts really do Taekwondo or is he just another actor who was trained for a film? I haven't seen him in many Martial Arts films since Best of the Best and Best of the Best 2. What is James Earl Jones doing in this film, seems silly as he has probably never trained in any Martial Arts in his life and just seems like he was treating it like an American Football team especially the bit where he makes them do laps around the field. I think the Korean team's training was a lot harder. They had baseball bats wacked on their shins and the baseball bats broke but of course I don't know if this was fake or not!
Unlike James Earl Jones, Hee Il CHo is a Grandmaster and so was better experienced at training his team and getting the best out of them.
But by the end of the film everyone is friends which leads to the Koreans helping them in Best of the Best 2.
 
The there is the film I watched this week called Black Belt Angels starring a lot of people who were never in anything else.

The general plot is that a local developer, Mr Lucero, wants to get the building that is owned by a Mr. Lee (or Grand Master Lee) which houses his dojang and supposedly has room for ther businesses, which have left (other than a local rock band renting space to practice) First he tries to buy the place from Lee, which doesn't work. So he hires some thugs to trash the place and rough up Lee and his main instructor, Matt. The thugs get tossed out on their butts, but did manage to break a lot of windows. This doesn't work either so Lucero hires a coupe of Ninjas, and then later more Ninjas. In all of this are the named "Black Belt Angels" of the title, four female students of the school (two of them are Matt's daughters) and they spend much of the movie kicking up on various bad guys (a purse snatcher in the opening, and a lot of ninjas, too). The movie moves through various cliches such as the girls (and the rock band, one of whom likes one of the girls) holding a party to raise money and recruit students to pay off Lee's bills on the building), Lee, and Matt are kidnapped, the girls come to the rescue, Matt is being investigated by a cute blonde social worker questioning his ability as a single dad..and later falls for him and gets mixed up in everything else going on, the final showdown between Lee and the leader of the ninjas, and a few others along the way..., oh and the ninja teen ager who is a secret agent inside the dojang who has a showdown fight with one of the girls and based on her conversation, has a change of concious and comes to the rescue of the good guys at one point.

There are some pretty silly scenes, such as a drunk Lee being attacked by 5 ninjas and beating them all in the course of stumbling around and throwing pretty good kicks for a guy with that much JD in his system, complete with looney-tunes sound effects. Also using remote control toy police cars to play sirens around where the kidnappers are to make them think there are really cops outside.

My favorite scene was the oppening scene of the four girls doing form movements on a rocky beach with some opening music that I actually liked. (Unfortunately it went downhill from there)

This was a pretty bad movie. The director/co-writer has never done anything before and since and it shows. The acting is pretty bad, especially by the four girls, the dialog is terrible so I guess it's hard to be too hard on the actors if that's what they have to work with,. The plot, where it was not cliched, was, frankly, pretty stupid. Not a movie I recommend unless, like me, you really enjoy bad movies.


What was good about the movie was that the four main female characters, the Black Belt Angles (as they are called in word and song in the movie) were actually martial artists; a TKD 2nd Dan, 2 TKD 1st Dans, and a 1st degree BB from a Karate variant that I couldn't read. Also, the actors playing Lee, Matt, and the head of he ninjas also seem like legit martial artists. The choroegraphy of the fight scenes was actually pretty well done and is probably the best part of the movie. They wre not fancy, but what they seemed to be to me was real people who knew Taekwondo fighting it out, and that was very nice to see.

The movie centers around Taekwondo as it's main art and is pretty good at portraying Taekwondo both honestly and in a very good light. If you are a fan of Ninjistu, however, you will not like it as the ninjas are treated pretty badly (or portrayed as anywhare from compentent but overmatched by the good guys, to complete idiots)

So, if youlike Taekwondo and want to see it portrayed well and done well in a movie, this is a good example. If you actually want a good movie with decent plot, dialog, and acting...no

(NetFlix has it)
 
That movie brings back so many memories. I was about to start middle school when that movie came out man, and no one cause of none of my friends ever practiced martial arts wanted to see it with me, so I dragged my dad in there with me. Great cast, great plot, definately one of my favorite dvd's if not my all time favorite movie. I mean its such a great movie, it is one of those rare jewels that even a non martial artist could appreciate.

Something so strong driving me on, never tire
Something so strong born of the sun
Like a fire burns inside me so strong...

"A team is not a team if you dont give a damn about each other."
 
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