Best of the Best starts as washed-up Oregon martial artist Alex Grady (Eric Roberts) is invited to try out for one of five places on the US national Karate team that is due to fight team Korea in an invitational Taekwondo tournament in Korea itself. Alex jumps at the chance to try out for the team & is one of the five lucky ones who are picked to represent the US along with Tommy Lee (co-writer & co-producer Phillip Rhee), Travis Brickly (Christopher Penn), Virgil Keller (John Dye) & Sonny Grasso (David Agresta). Under a tough training regime run by Coach Frank Couzo (James Earl Jones) & guidance from sports psychologist Catherine Wade (Sally Kirkland) the five martial artist's home their bodies & minds to become the best of the best but will even that be good enough since team Korea are considered near unbeatable...Directed by Robert Radler this rather tame martial arts film seems to have developed a bit of a cult following over the years & has spawned no less than three sequels (although in name only to be fair), personally I didn't think that much of it & a half decent cast is wasted on broad sentiment, questionable metaphors & bad dialogue. The basic concept of Best of the Best is the same as Rocky really, the underdog in the fighting arena (be it boxing or martial arts) comes through in the end despite personal issues & fearsome, seemingly unbeatable opponents. Also, much like Rocky it has to be said, Best of the Best features several musical training montages that are horribly dated thanks to the lame 'Best of the Best' theme tune & the training methods. The character's are stock clichés, the fighter who wants a second chance to prove himself, the big fat strong one with a bad attitude & one who is scared to fight as his brother was killed in the arena ten years ago & thus seeks redemption & a chance to overcome & control his fear. Of course no martial arts film would be complete without a tough, but likable & fair coach & Best of the Best is no different, did you really think it would be? The film also tries to have a stab at a few moral messages like team spirit, if you try your best you will always be a winner & the pinnacle of Best of the Best's deep meaningful plot is a scene in which two young brothers are at a petrol station & the younger one drops his ice cream onto the ground & starts crying so his bigger brother lets him have his ice cream, with depth & meaning like that why was Best of the Best never nominated for best picture at the Oscar's?At over an hour & a half Best of the Best is kind of boring, it's well over an hour before team US even get to Korea & apart from a bar fight all the combat takes place during the last twenty minutes in very controlled tame bouts. I mean it's even rated PG so don't expect any gruelling fight scenes, a few kicks & punches & that's it & no-one dies either. In fact best of the Best features one of the slushiest endings I have ever seen in a martial arts film where the object of the character's is to beat the living hell out of one another, at the end of Best of the Best both the US & Korean teams hug & make-up & become friends. What? We don't want hugging & friendship we want to see people's teeth knocked out & bones broken.There's a few surprising names in the cast not least James Earl Jones who probably just needed the money & wanted a free holiday to South Korea. John P. Ryan has nothing more than a cameo & his character is totally forgotten by the end as are the themes of corporate sponsorship that his character raises while Oscar winning actress Louise Flethcher has a small role too. Eric Roberts has a very bad late 80's mullet hair do while Christopher Penn is as thin as I can ever remember seeing him in this. Phillip Rhee & his opponent Dae Han Park played by Simon Rhee are in fact brother's in real life.Best of the Best is a musical montage fans dream, there's about six of the things but everyone else is going to be disappointed. There's far too much pointless training filler & the broad morals raised are paper thin, a good cast wasted really. Followed by Best of the Best 2 (1993), Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1995) & Best of the Best: Without Warning (1998).

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much when i started to watch this. Having seen other such films from this era and genre I didn't have high expectations. However, after the first few minutes even, you feel yourself starting to connect with the characters and occasionally throughout you have a strange compulsion to throw your fist into the air. All that aside, just like this era and genre dictate, you've got the ever popular montage training scenes as well as the rudimentary bar fight with disgruntled locals flying throughout. Going back to fists being thrown into the air, by the end of the film you almost feel like your fighting and training with the team and you want nothing more than to see them win. All in all, i thoroughly enjoyed this film and would recommend it to anyone. Top notch.

Am I alone in thinking this film is a great comedy?I never caught it in the 80's and only saw it very recently, but it had me in stitches!! All the Rocky cliché's are in there, from the underdog theme to the punishing and adrdous training methods to the tough ass trainer, the magnificent Darth Vader himself, James Earl Jones (Frank Couzo).The dialogue has to be heard to be believed (Check out the quotes).......If you want to see if someone has a real sense of humour show the this film and see if they smile.Check Eric Roberts' wild over-acting and emoting......."This is the only thing I know........I am good at......"Check Fatso Chris Penn's pathetically edited fighting style.Check the driving hard rock soundtrack.Check James Earl Jones bellowing "U-S-AAAAA!!" whilst victoriously pumping his first aloft Just Check this film out!

There were two main stories in the film. One is a very touching story about a retired martial artist with a bad shoulder. He lost his wife, and now has a 5 year old son and lives with his mom. He gets invited to try out for the US National Karate Team, and he decides to do it.The other is a heartfelt story about a young martial artist who just wants to make himself, as well as his family proud.This is a very touching, and VERY emotional film. Storytelling was very bad, and the amounts of heartfelt montages were just too much for me to handle. Even so, the acting was very good, the character development was done well, and the fighting scenes were GREAT! One of the best American-made martial arts movies I've seen. Go ahead and give this one a chance. You might be surprised.