{"id":2486,"date":"2024-08-18T17:54:03","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T17:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2486"},"modified":"2024-08-18T20:55:26","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T20:55:26","slug":"no-retreat-no-surrender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/18\/no-retreat-no-surrender\/","title":{"rendered":"No Retreat, No Surrender"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"No Retreat, No Surrender <\/strong>(1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Cory Yuen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Keith W. Strandberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Paul Gilreath\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David Golia and John Huneck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 1986 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kurt McKinney, Jean-Claude Van Damme, J.W. Fails, Kathie Sileno, Kim Tai Chong, Kent Lipham, Dale Jacoby, Ron Pohnel, Pete Cunningham, Tim Baker, Gloria Marziano, Joe Verroca.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $4.7M (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0I got the surprise of my life when I sat down to watch No Retreat, No Surrender<\/strong> the other day. I never knew a longer version of the 1986 movie existed. I was shocked when I saw that it had a running time of 98 minutes. Granted, it\u2019s been a long time since I last watched it (summer \u201987) but I remember it being only 84 minutes long. It turns out there\u2019s also an international cut of the movie containing scenes that weren\u2019t in the American release including a couple of crucial scenes; namely, the ones introducing us to the hero\u2019s girlfriend. In the shorter version, we first meet her at her birthday party. There\u2019s no explanation as to how the hero knows her. A reference to a visit to a pet shop is left unexplained. It\u2019s obvious a scene or two is missing. As such, the shorter version of No Retreat, No Surrender<\/strong> feels oddly incomplete.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That being said, let\u2019s talk about the movie\u2019s good qualities. I like No Retreat, No Surrender<\/strong>. It was distributed in the US by New World Pictures which, to me, is a strong point in its favor. One of the things I love about that studio is how they blatantly rip off hit movies and make no apologies for it. This one is a compilation of The Karate Kid, Rocky IV and The Last Dragon. How can I not love a mix like this? Alas, I didn\u2019t get to experience it in a theater since it didn\u2019t open near me back in September \u201986. Another cool thing about New World is that it didn\u2019t take long for their movies to come out on video. I was able to rent No Retreat, No Surrender<\/strong> about a month later. I set aside my homework (community college, first year) to watch it right away. Certain things just take precedence, know what I mean?<\/p>\n

\u00a0After refusing to sell his karate dojo to an organized crime syndicate, the owner (Baker, Bloodfist II) has his leg broken by a thug known as Ivan the Russian (Van Damme in his first role). Not wanting to put his family in any further danger, he relocates to Seattle and gives up martial arts. His teenage son Jason (McKinney) is of a different mind. He sets up shop in the garage and continues to practice on his own. It doesn\u2019t take him long to run afoul of neighborhood bully Scott (Lipham, Extreme Prejudice) and his pals at a local karate school. It has something to do with a long-standing rivalry between Scott and R.J. (Fails), Jason\u2019s new best friend.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After being humiliated at his girlfriend Kelly\u2019s (Sileno) birthday party by Scott and arrogant martial artist Dean (Jacoby), Jason visits Bruce Lee\u2019s grave and pleads for help. He\u2019s a Bruce Lee superfan. Sure enough, the late martial artist materializes and agrees to train him. Naturally, Jason is the only one that can see him which earns him some funny looks from R.J. Meanwhile, things aren\u2019t too great on the homefront either. Jason constantly argues with his father about his getting into fights. During one heated argument, Jason calls his dad a coward for running away from the thugs that took his school.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sure enough, said thugs show up in Seattle and try to strong-arm champion fighter Ian Reilly (Pohnel) into selling them his karate school. It will all be decided by a full-contact kickboxing tournament between Ian\u2019s best students and a team from New York. At the last minute, the lead thug announces that the team is to be replaced by….you guessed it, Ivan the Russian. Naturally, the climax is a final showdown between Ivan and a vengeful Jason who jumps into the ring after Ivan defeats all the others.<\/p>\n

\u00a0No Retreat, No Surrender<\/strong> is hardly great cinema, but it is a good movie. It has its flaws. There are gaps in the narrative. For example, how is it that Ian seems to have no clue that his students are harassing Jason? He\u2019s a decent guy (and Kelly\u2019s big brother) and would likely boot the troublemakers out of his dojo. Also, the nature of the rivalry between R.J. and Scott is never explained. Many 80s action movies feature a training montage of the hero getting into shape to face-off against his nemesis. No Retreat, No Surrender<\/strong> has three. It gets redundant.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Despite these flaws, it\u2019s a fun movie. R.J. is a great sidekick. He\u2019s funny and has serious skateboarding skills. There\u2019s a scene in a breakdance club which erases any doubt as to what decade it\u2019s set in. McKinney is very likable in the lead. Van Damme isn\u2019t in it that much; the opening scene and the finale, that\u2019s it. He\u2019s as wooden as Ivan the Russian as Dolph Lundgren was as Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. The fight scenes are very well-choreographed. The storyline is predictable but compelling. I love the addition of Bruce Lee\u2019s ghost; it gives No Retreat, No Surrender<\/strong> its own identity. It\u2019s an unusual movie, that\u2019s for sure. It\u2019s also highly enjoyable. I can see why it attained cult status.<\/p>\n

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

No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New World\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Cory Yuen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Keith W. Strandberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Paul Gilreath\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David Golia and John Huneck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 1986 (Philadelphia, PA)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Kurt McKinney, Jean-Claude Van Damme, J.W. Fails, Kathie Sileno, Kim Tai Chong, Kent Lipham, Dale Jacoby, Ron Pohnel, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2503,"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-2486","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-Retreat-No-Surrender-PI.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\/2486","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=2486"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2506,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions\/2506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}