{"id":2484,"date":"2024-08-18T13:31:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T13:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2484"},"modified":"2024-08-18T21:09:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T21:09:36","slug":"no-holds-barred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/18\/no-holds-barred\/","title":{"rendered":"No Holds Barred"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"No Holds Barred <\/strong>(1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Line\/Action-Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (wrestling violence, crude remarks, brief language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Thomas J. Wright\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dennis Hackin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jim Johnston\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frank Beascoechea\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 2, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Hulk Hogan, Kurt Fuller, Joan Severance, Tom \u201cTiny\u201d Lister Jr., Mark Pellegrino, Bill Henderson, Charles Levin, David Paymer, Pat O\u2019Bryan, Jesse Ventura, Gene Okerlund.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $16M (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0The sports action drama No Holds Barred<\/strong> is notable for being pro-wrestler Hulk Hogan\u2019s first starring vehicle. In it, he plays pro-wrestler Rip Thomas, a nice guy called to the mat by an unscrupulous network president and his fighter, a vicious ex-con named Zeus (Lister, Extreme Prejudice). Hogan\u2019s a great fighter and talented showman, there\u2019s no question about it. But an actor? That\u2019s a bit of an overreach for the big lug. Let me put it another way. The comedy in No Holds Barred<\/strong> comes from watching Hogan try to act outside the ring. Director Thomas J. Wright (Torchlight) allows his star the opportunity to do a love scene and a dramatic scene requiring him to cry. It remains one of the most unintentionally funny performances to date ranking right up there with Vanilla Ice in Cool as Ice and Steven Seagal in On Deadly Ground.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In order to boost ratings, World Television Network head Brell (Fuller, The Running Man) tries to entice Rip to come work for him, but the wrestler turns him down citing loyalty to his employers. When Brell insists, Rip roughs him up. Not one to take rejection lightly, Brell tries to have Rip assaulted only for the fighter to thoroughly thrash his attackers. Later, Brell comes up with the idea to start his own show, the no-rules competition Battle of the Tough Guys. The winner is Zeus, a convicted killer with an extremely limited vocabulary. Brell and Zeus publicly call out Rip, but he declines. They force his hand when Zeus puts Rip\u2019s younger brother Randy (Pellegrino, Fatal Beauty) in the hospital. Out for revenge, Rip accepts their challenge to fight on live TV.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The love scene I mentioned earlier involves Samantha (Severance, See No Evil, Hear No Evil), the newest member of Rip\u2019s team. She has a ton of promotional ideas, but he\u2019s only interested in making goo-goo eyes at her. You know they\u2019re meant to be together when they get stuck sharing a bed in a hotel room. There\u2019s a joke in here somewhere about Sam not taking it lying down, but I can\u2019t think of it at the moment. ANYWAY, she\u2019s the movie\u2019s one and only plot twist. As a courtesy to those who haven\u2019t seen No Holds Barred<\/strong>, I won\u2019t reveal it but most will see it coming.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I think the reviews for No Holds Barred<\/strong> were overly harsh. One critic commented that it\u2019s for \u201ceasily entertained 13-year-old boys\u201d. Uh, who do you think watches wrestling? Doesn\u2019t it make sense for the movie to be aimed at the same audience? Executive producers Hogan and promoter Vince McMahon aren\u2019t going for the little old lady demographic with this one. There\u2019s fight action every ten minutes or so. A lot of it is rough and\/or exaggerated. The plot exists merely to tie the fight scenes into a cohesive whole and make it look like a real movie. It\u2019s a silly story with cartoonish villains, but it works.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I will concede that No Holds Barred<\/strong> is weirdly uneven. Wright has trouble finding the right tone. It veers awkwardly between heartwarming drama and violent sports action. It\u2019s easily one of the most brutal PG-13 movies I\u2019ve ever seen. Professional wrestling is fake, we all know that, but the other stuff looks real and painful. The scenes of Samantha being physically attacked by Brell and his goons leave something of a sour taste. And Zeus, I promise you he starred in many little kids\u2019 nightmares. That guy is a complete psychopath! This material overpowers the rest of No Holds Barred<\/strong>, especially the dramatic portion where Rip tries to help his injured brother regain the ability to move after being rendered paralyzed by Zeus. Why aren\u2019t the police called? Because in reel life, it\u2019s up to the hero to dole out justice not the proper authorities.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hogan\u2019s at his best when he\u2019s in berserk mode. Look at the scene where he responds to an attempted kidnapping in a limo by beating the hell out of his assailants and tearing the car apart. He growls, leaps around and looks insane just like he does in the ring. One guy is so scared he has a BM in his pants- \u201cDookie?!\u201d (actual quote by Hogan). Fuller plays it to the point of high camp as the villain too vile to be taken lightly and too cartoonish to be taken seriously. Lister simply goes scary-crazy as Zeus. Severance is okay as the love interest. At least she\u2019s easy on the eyes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The fighting is definitely the best part of No Holds Barred<\/strong> especially the climactic match where Rip and Zeus really go to town on each other. Of course, there has to be a kidnapping plot. How else is Brell supposed to make Rip throw the fight? Well, we all know how this will turn out, right?<\/p>\n

\u00a0In any event, I like No Holds Barred<\/strong> probably more than I should. It\u2019s a ridiculous movie aimed at kids and wrestling fanatics of which I am neither. Still, I find it fun… and funny too. Hulk Hogan the actor, now that\u2019s a laugh. Gee, I hope he doesn\u2019t beat me down for saying this. Respect, big guy, respect.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Holds Barred (1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Line\/Action-Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 93 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (wrestling violence, crude remarks, brief language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Thomas J. Wright\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dennis Hackin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jim Johnston\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frank Beascoechea\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 2, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Hulk Hogan, Kurt Fuller, Joan Severance, Tom \u201cTiny\u201d Lister Jr., Mark Pellegrino, Bill Henderson, Charles Levin, David Paymer, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/No-Holds-Barred-PIC.png?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\/2484","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=2484"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2510,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484\/revisions\/2510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}