Best of the Best

This series gets better as it progresses, but in this seminal episode, the formula is very derivative and lacks originality. US team goes to Korea to engage the Koreans in a tournament. The strange thing is, the tournament only contains the US and the Korean team. There's an A hole coach (James Earl Jones) that has a chip on his shoulder, and a fighter (Rhee) that lost his brother in the previous tournament, and is a grudge match to avenge the guy who killed his brother. There's no fresh element in the story until way at the end. So the movie is bit of a bore. They should have shown Rhee as an individual contestant who's a sensei at at his Tae Kwon Do school. Someone who has outstanding humanity, and fighting skills. Focus of the story would have been lot clear that way, and Phillip Rhee's unbelievable martial arts skill would have been highlighted more. This is middle of the road martial arts movie that didn't cash in fully on the star's potential.

Eric Roberts, Phillip Rhee, James Earl Jones and Chris Penn star in this 1989 drama. Five U.S. martial artists, Alex (Roberts), Tommy (Rhee), Travis (Penn), Virgil (John Dye) and Sonny (David Agresta) are chosen to compete in a karate tournament against South Korea. They are coached by Frank (Jones) and begin getting to know each other as well as studying their opponents. Tommy is up against a man who killed his brother in a tournament years before and tries to get past it. Travis and the others are off to a rocky start, but begin caring about each other and they learn that's what a team is all about. I've always liked and recommend this great martial arts drama.

The 80's had some good martial arts movies, and some bad ones (really bad ones), this movie is a good one. While yes it does suffer some of the typical things in a martial arts flick, one lines, bad jokes, and some great fight scenes. The US tournament, the bar fight, and the match against the Koreans were all preformed very well. I'm a martial artist myself, who goes to tournaments, and trains as well. The training scenes are done very well, and James Earl Jones who I must saw is a wonderful actor does a good job as the coach. The coach at first is a old school type coach (Tough training and very strict), who seem to have a softer side, when he learns that the team members need Tommy and Alex to win. Overall a good movie, that any body can enjoy and or relate to if they have had a coach who was tough.

This movie was mediocre. The ending really pissed me off cause in the end Tommy Lee could have finished the korean dude if he just shoved him a little.

Best of the best is probably the most underrated martial arts film ever but is also one of the best ever made..the characters prepare for a tournament against the unstoppable Korean taekwondo team, but they also prepare to overcome themselves to succeed ,they must learn that a team is not team if they don't care about each other...Eric Roberts and Philip Rhee are the stars of the film, they have their bigger fights on their inside during the movie...the final battle between the Rhee brothers is one of the best fights on cinema history and James Earl Jones make a perfect job as the trainer who needs to inspire his students to overcome themselves and have a chance to win to the Korean team...I'm a big fan of the film,every time I see it I get excited...A must seen film

This is one of the best films I have seen ever. Sure the acting is a bit cheesy, full of one liners and bad jokes, but something about this movie got me stuck to the screen every time I watch it. I am actually quite glad that they casted actors rather than serious martial artist experts (apart from the Rhee's and the Korean Team) to play the various roles in the film. This is a good movie for both general film lovers and Martial Art film fans, the end fights are very impressive. Personally, I did not enjoy the sequels that came after this so I say stick to the best. Best of the Best I.