All hail the 1990s and those wonderful low-budget STVs. In ONLY THE STRONG, a young Mark Dacascos plays a special forces veteran who returns home to find his old high school in total disarray. Plot sound familiar? In this formula actioner, Dacascos happens to know a unique style of of martial arts called capoeira, which combines gymnastics, dance and kung phooey. He selects the school's 12 worst students and teaches them capoeira in an abandoned firehouse. Problems arise when the cousin of one of the students, a vicious drug lord, interferes. The film was shot on a zero budget, but the capoeira sequences are breathtaking. Problem is, capoeira never caught on here, so at times, the whole thing looks a little silly and dated. Sort of like when XANADU came out after the rollerskating craze was already over or when the Village People starred in a disco movie after disco had been officially declared dead. Anyhow, watch this for the amazing leaps and spins and cartwheels if nothing else. Dacascos, A Hawaiian native, managed to survive this silly film and went on to a long career, including playing The Crow on TV and a kick-boxing Native American in the memorable French actioner, "Brotherhood of the Wolf."

This movie proves that you don't need at huge budget, lots of well-known actors and all that to make a great movie. Even though it looks like this is made on a shoestring budget, they really managed to pull off a great martial arts movie here. They kept it easy and simple and focused on the fight scenes, and what fight scenes! They are very good, Marc Dacascos is great in it, and overall it was a very enjoyable experience from start to finish. The mix between martial art scenes and scenes progressing the feel-good story is perfect. Other action movies should take note of how this is done. Simple, standard, great action, you got it.

This movie explores the Brazilian self defense dance capoeira which is not known much about unless you've seen it. Lewis(Dacascos)returns to the high school from which he came where he is hired to teach a group of delinquents capoeira in order to harness their otherwise bad habits. He runs into some serious problems with a leader of the gang and city, Silverio(Prieto). Lewis may be getting involved with a problem that he can't solve in this action/martial arts movie. "Only the Strong" brings to light a very interesting capoeira that is otherwise unknown to common knowledge. The soundtrack also deserves some attention if you have any respect for music around the world. This movie throws in the catchy music that introduces the unique berimbau instrument that is used during the jogo (the game). Overall, "Only the Strong" was a C+ to B- movie on the basis of knowledge gained from it and overall originality that it took to create it on a low budget.

ONLY THE STRONG Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Sound format: Dolby Stereo SRA former Green Beret (Mark Dacascos) is employed by his local high school to rehabilitate some of its worst students by teaching them the art of capoeira (a form of martial arts from Brazil, using dance-like moves). But his work brings him into conflict with a local drug lord (Paco Christian Prieto), whose operations are threatened by Dacascos' interference...Predictable B-movie, elevated above the routine by virtue of its slick presentation and interesting cast (including Geoffrey Lewis), under the assured direction of Sheldon Lettich (DOUBLE IMPACT). The capoeira sequences are exotic and colorful, which blunts the impact of some pretty heavy fight scenes, and the script is alternately naive and obvious. However, the virtues are considerable: Ultra-buff Dacascos flaunts his pumped-up torso through a variety of tight-fitting vests (drool! slobber!), while ultra-cute Stacey Travis (the romantic interest) hovers around the periphery just long enough to temper the film's relentless macho swagger. Good, catchy music score, too.