Best of the Best 4: Without Warning

We just keep getting further and further into weird ass territory in this series.  This time the cops think Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee (Silent Assassins)) is involved in a counterfeiting ring (Tobin Bell (Saws), Thure Riefenstein (12 Monkeys TV show), Jessica Collins (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Sven-Ole Thorsen (On Deadly Ground)) so he must go on the run while trying to clear his name and rescue his kidnapped daughter.

While this is a standard action movie plot it’s the second sequel to not showcase a kumite.  That’s fine but I can’t quite put my finger on why this particular story is hard to swallow.  Maybe it’s because Tommy is only a martial arts competitor and teacher and not a cop or anything like that so getting caught up in something as elaborate as a funny money operation feels out of place.

Anyway, by far the strangest decision made was to give Tommy a six year old daughter.  He was never married or had kids in the previous films and the closest he came to a girlfriend was the school teacher from part 3 so this new development throws any sort of continuity out the window.  A close friend could’ve been kidnapped instead and would’ve worked fine but I guess Phillip Rhee felt the daughter from the original script before it became a Best of the Best had to remain.

There’s also a very poor setup of making you think this hard boiled cop played by Ernie Hudson (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The Crow) is working for the villains.  The movie leans so hard into making you wanna hate this bastard with his insensitive remarks and flippant behavior that it’s obviously a ploy.  So naturally when a different mild mannered cop that Tommy is friendly with turns out to be on the take it comes as no surprise whatsoever.

The ending though is the stupidest part (spoiler for this paragraph).  Tommy races to the airfield to try to catch the plane that the bad guys are on and he’s carrying with him a bomb in a gym bag (sorry, too much to go into right now on how Tommy acquired a bomb).  He lifts himself up in the bucket of a fire engine and throws the bomb into the wheel compartment as the plane is taking off!  The plane explodes.  The end.  Now the movie has pulled some shit up to this point but I laughed out loud at this particular moment.  And what’s even crazier is they set up Tommy’s throwing accuracy earlier in the film by having him chuck paper towel into his kitchen trash bin.  He does the whole basketball announcer shtick too, you know “he’s only got three seconds left in the game, can he make it?!” etc.

This installment is probably on par with part 3 but at the same time it’s weirder.  Like Tommy gets in a scuffle with some henchmen in a bodega and the entire store gets wrecked and one of the bad guys gets shot in the face and everything.  His friend’s daughter also gets killed in the crossfire and it’s a heavy moment because this scene gets Tommy tangled up in the plot proper.  But Tommy goes home, bakes a cake for his daughter and goofs around with her as if nothing had happened.  He can certainly keep his emotions in check when he wants to.

Generally you know you’re not dealing with the smartest film when a lot of innocent people die in it.  A move like that is extremely tricky to pull off because it alienates the audience and makes the film seem careless and disrespectful.  But that’s one big thing they went for here by having the bad guys mow down whoever’s in front of them without consideration and it doesn’t work.

Another bland subtitle, another weak Best.  The first half of the series is good though with an undeniable work of genius in part II.  We’ll always have that at least.

Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back

In a small midwestern or southern town (we’re never told where specifically but it was filmed in Indiana and Ohio) there’s a group of white supremacists wreaking havoc.  They just murdered the local pastor and burned down his church.  They also hassle the other residents, recruit the aimless youth and generally make life miserable for everyone.

So how the hell does Tommy Lee figure into this?  He strolls into town to visit his sister, Karen (Anzu Lawson (lots of TV shit)), who also happens to be married to the sheriff (Christopher McDonald (Dutch, Happy Gilmore)).  The neo-Nazi assholes attack Karen and plan to overtake the entire township so now Tommy must stop them.

By the third film Phillip Rhee is the only original cast member left.  He also produced each one so he used his leverage to put himself in the director’s chair.  The results aren’t, shall we say, the best.  Number three is cheap looking and feeling.  This isn’t necessarily an automatic negative though and Rhee does what he can to squeeze the most out of what he has.  The action has enough of a mix with martial arts, a motorcycle chase and a shootout finale.  Rhee even manages to put himself in a clown costume for one fight scene with the red nose, large shoes and everything.  He also likes to throw his adversaries into objects like tables, bookcases and windows which adds value, impact and fun to the brawls.  The ending has a fair amount of explosions and puts forth a nice effort to make it exciting.  All appreciated.

However, there are definitely some problems.  The movie’s views on racism are sorta child-like.  The townsfolk are either hardcore racists or totally against racism without any shades of gray.  And the worst scene in the film is during a townhall where the local school teacher (Gina Gershon (she did this the same year as Showgirls)) gives an embarrassingly oversimplified speech about how racism is bad and racists don’t understand the true spirit of America.

Unsurprisingly the script was for a different movie until Phillip Rhee made it part of the Best of the Best franchise.  The only time when a character mentions something from a previous installment is when Tommy confesses to the aforementioned school teacher/love interest that he killed a man years ago (Brakus) which is why he quit teaching martial arts.

And this brings up an interesting development for Tommy.  In the first film he was afraid of his own abilities because he knew he could kill Dae Han if he let himself.  Then in part II he commands Brakus to stay down during their fight but of course the brute doesn’t listen so Tommy is forced to take his life (spoiler).  Now in Part 3 he still holds back on killing anyone for a while but by the third act he seems to have gotten over this because he murders a number of folks.

That final fight is bullshit too.  Tommy is a world champion martial artist but some asswipe neo-Nazi can go toe to toe with him?  I don’t think so.  And those other neo-Nazis rallied around the two of them would never let Tommy walk out of there alive.

So yea, the whole thing doesn’t really come together.  Apart from not being as good as its predecessors and taking on a generic subtitle they switched from roman numeral numbering to Arabic numbering and that’s just silly.  You had a good thing going Bests but you fucked it up.

Best of the Best II

Cocky loudmouth Travis from the first film (Chris Penn (To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar)) tries his luck at an underground fighting venue called The Coliseum.  It’s disguised as a dance club located in a Vegas casino and get this, Mr. Vegas himself Wayne Newton is the maniacal host who juices up the voracious patrons dressed in fancy suits while they gamble on the outcome!  The mighty behemoth Brakus (Ralf Moeller (Gladiator)) is the reigning champ who shows no mercy to his opponents.  He kills Travis in the ring but Alex’s son Walter (Edan Gross (Ren & Stimpy, Empty Nest)) witnesses this from the rafters (sorta long story) and tells his dad what happened.  Alex (Eric Roberts (The Pope of Greenwich Village)) and Tommy (Phillip Rhee (Kentucky Friend Movie)) want revenge but they also go on the run because Newton and Brakus want Walter dead.

What an awesome direction for the series to go in.  Instead of an official legal tournament we shift to an illegal kumite which is generally always the way you wanna go with these.  The Las Vegas setting is a great call too because the greed, shallowness and vanity of the villains completely suits the town.  C’mon, you know there’s some shit like that happening there right now.

Understandably only Travis, Alex and Tommy are brought back this time.  Sonny and Virgil were weaker characters from part 1 and weren’t very good fighters either.  Alex and Tommy were the ones that formed the tightest bond so to continue to see that friendship flourish is wonderful.  They all moved out to Vegas together and support each other and hang out at the Mexican buffet and it’s just so touching.

And I absolutely love that the bad guy from the previous film, Dae Han (Simon Rhee (Showdown in Little Tokyo, Lethal Weapon 4, The Substitute: Failure is Not an Option)), travels all the way from South Korea to attend Travis’ funeral and show reverence for a fallen comrade.  He even teams up with Alex at the end to help kick ass.  Dae Han fuckin’ rocks man.

Expanding the action beyond the ring is another stroke of genius.  Newton’s henchmen chase after Walter, Alex and Tommy so they hide out at Tommy’s grandmother’s place in the desert (side note: Tommy is part Native American?  Didn’t see that coming).  This gives them the chance to train with Tommy’s cousin James played by the incomparable Sonny Landham (Predator, 48 Hrs.).  He’s an ex competitive martial artist who stole from the family to fund his overseas expedition in search of greatness.  He got injured by fucking Brakus during that time (what!) which ended his career so now he’s an alcoholic.

One of my favorite parts of the movie is when James wasted as a motherfucker in the afternoon eggs on Tommy to fight and gets two roundhouse kicks to the face to which he replies in his gravely ass voice “…pretty good, but you’re gonna have to do better than that boy”.  Every scene with James is some of the most entertaining shit in here.

The finale involves Tommy being forced to run through a gauntlet of challengers at The Coliseum in front an ecstatic mob to get to Brakus.  These fights are gripping because Tommy, Alex and Walter’s lives are on the line.  Each adversary gets tougher and weapons are introduced at one point.  The escalation is remarkable with the ultimate one on one, Tommy vs Brakus, being a nail biter.

No bullshit guys this second installment is a masterpiece.  Like Brakus is a total piece of crap but he actually has a bit of a moral code viewing guns as “unmanly” which gives him some dimension ok I really should stop.  There’s so much incredible shit.  It’s executed pretty perfectly and they seriously upped the ante in every single area.  It also has the rare distinction of being an R rated sequel to a PG-13 original.  Weird whenever that happens.  Anyway, if you haven’t checked this one out yet get right on that.  Best of the Best II truly is the best of The Best of the Bests.