{"id":10992,"date":"2025-02-01T20:03:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T01:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10992"},"modified":"2025-02-01T20:03:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T01:03:20","slug":"best-of-the-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/02\/01\/best-of-the-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of the Best"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Best of the Best <\/strong>(1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Taurus Entertainment\/Drama-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, martial arts\/sports violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Bob Radler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Levine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Paul Gilman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Douglas Ryan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 10, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Eric Roberts, Phillip Rhee, James Earl Jones, Sally Kirkland, Christopher Penn, John Dye, David Agresta, Tom Everett, Louise Fletcher, John P. Ryan, Edan Gross, Simon Rhee, Master Hee Il Cho, James Lew, Ken Nagayama, Ho Sik Pak, Dae Kyu Chang, Kane Hodder, Ahmad Rashad.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $1.7M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sometimes when you don\u2019t ask for much from a movie, you end up getting more than you expected. I went to see Best of the Best<\/strong> on a Saturday night (November 11, 1989) with medium expectations. I figured it would be just another sports flick celebrating the underdogs that rise to the challenge and, against all odds, triumph over a formidable opponent. Well, it is and it isn\u2019t. Sure, it\u2019s as clich\u00e9d and formulaic as they come. There\u2019s not a single original plot element. Some of the more dramatic story developments are eye-rollingly hackneyed. Despite all this, I really like Best of the Best<\/strong>. I let down my guard and went with the flow. I ended up enjoying it very much.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It\u2019s all about a major martial arts tournament between the US and Korea. After a grueling try-out, five American martial artists are chosen for the team. They are Alex Grady (Roberts, The Pope of Greenwich Village), a widowed father with a bad shoulder who hasn\u2019t competed for three years; Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee), a martial arts teacher still recovering from a childhood tragedy; Travis Brickley (Penn, Reservoir Dogs), an obnoxious redneck with a big mouth and bad attitude; Virgil Keller (Dye, The Perfect Weapon), a devout Buddhist and Sonny Grasso (Agresta), a streetwise fighter from Detroit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Their coach, Frank Couzo (Jones, Conan the Barbarian), expects his fighters to give all that they\u2019ve got and more. He intends to win, not an easy feat against a team that trains harder and longer than the Americans. In fact, it\u2019s downright impossible. While Couzo and his assistant Don Peterson (Everett, Texas Chainsaw Massacre III) see to the guys\u2019 physical training, Kathryn Wade (Kirkland, Anna) sees to their mental training- i.e. yoga, meditation, etc. After a period of intensive training, they head to Korea to face their opponents but not before a few personal dramas play out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Alex has a 5YO son Walter (Gross, Child\u2019s Play) who he left in the care of his mother (Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo\u2019s Nest). When the boy sustains a life-threatening injury, Alex is forced to choose between his son and teammates. As a boy, Tommy witnessed his older brother\u2019s death in a martial arts match. His anger causes him to hold back and not use his full strength or finish off his opponents. He wants revenge against the fighter who killed his only brother. Guess who he\u2019ll face off against in the climactic match? Yep, same guy!<\/p>\n

\u00a0It goes without saying that all five team members make the trip to Seoul for the tournament. It would be unfair to say that Best of the Best<\/strong> is completely predictable. I said something earlier about triumph, but I never specified what kind. That\u2019s all I\u2019ll say about that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I guess the biggest question about Best of the Best<\/strong> is how actors like Roberts, Jones and Fletcher got roped into this gig. I honestly can\u2019t say, but they do a good job with what they have to work with. Roberts tones down the crazy to play a father who loves his son more than anything in the world. He\u2019s also a decent fighter even if he\u2019s not a trained martial artist. Overall, the acting in Best of the Best<\/strong> isn\u2019t awful. It\u2019s no better or worse than many B-level flicks with lots of martial arts. While I never fully believed Penn\u2019s character transformation, it\u2019s a nice touch.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Best of the Best<\/strong> is a movie with a good heart. The team members learn to become a team. Personal dramas are resolved. It ends on a very nice note. Some of it- okay, a lot of it- is far-fetched but so what? The martial arts scenes are well done; the fight choreography is top-notch. The soundtrack is typical 80s-type stuff. Listen to some of the lyrics, it\u2019s like something Survivor would come up with in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can\u2019t describe Best of the Best<\/strong> as hokey or contrived since it\u2019s so sincere in its intentions. Directed by Bob Radler, it works much better than it should. It\u2019s a likable movie with lots of heart. It\u2019s a solid Saturday matinee flick.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Best of the Best (1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Taurus Entertainment\/Drama-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, martial arts\/sports violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Bob Radler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Levine\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Paul Gilman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Douglas Ryan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 10, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Eric Roberts, Phillip Rhee, James Earl Jones, Sally Kirkland, Christopher Penn, John Dye, David Agresta, Tom Everett, Louise Fletcher, John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Best-of-the-Best-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10992"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11045,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10992\/revisions\/11045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}