Karate Tiger IV - Best of the Best
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Karate Tiger IV - Best of the Best |
| Original title | Best of the best |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1989 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Robert Radler (Bob Radler) |
| script |
Phillip Rhee (Story) Paul Levine (Script) |
| production | Philip Rhee, Peter E. Strauss |
| music | Paul Gilman |
| camera | Douglas Ryan |
| cut | William Hoy |
| occupation | |
| |
Karate Tiger IV - Best of the Best (OT: Best of the Best ) is an American martial arts film directed by Robert Radler from 1989.
action
The finals for the choice of a US Taekwondo team to compete three months later against Team Korea has just been scheduled. Also taking part are Alex Grady, who was sidelined due to a serious shoulder injury, and Tommy Lee. Both are brought into the team by coach Frank Couzo, even though President Jennings loudly rebels against Grady's nomination. Furthermore, the impetuous Travis Brikley, Buddhist Virgil Keller and Sonny Grasso will compete for the USA in this important tournament. A three-month training program must be completed. For this purpose Couzo gets the yoga and martial arts expert Catherine Wade put in front of her nose.
The training is completed with the latest technology. Video recordings of the opponents are evaluated and impact speed measurements are carried out. The training is tough, but records from the Korean team show the incredible brutality and severity of the opponent. But now Tommy Lee is supposed to play against Dae Han Pak, the fighter who once killed his brother in a similar tournament. What Tommy Lee doesn't know: Couzo was the coach of the team back then and still blames himself for not having trained Tommy's brother enough. Alex also has problems: his son was hit by a car and is in a coma. He leaves the training head-over-head against Couzo's will to be with his sick son. When he wakes up again, Alex flies back. But Couzo doesn't want to take him anymore. Tommy can't handle the pressure and also leaves the team. After Catherine intervenes, Couzo brings Alex back into the team, who in turn convinces Tommy. Grown together as a team, the five fighters fly to Seoul .
In the first two rounds, Virgil and Sonny lose on points against the Korean fighters. Travis brings out a draw, but is subject to the Korean in a strength competition. Now it's up to Tommy and Alex to bring the win home. Alex wins on points against the Korean but is injured on his weak shoulder. He holds out the last 30 seconds in terrible pain and can even knock the Korean fighter out . Tommy should now clearly defeat Dae Han Pak. The fight is even at first, then Tommy wins the upper hand and can almost knock Dae Han Pak out. But the experienced fighter gets up again, but is badly beaten. On the advice of his teammates, Tommy refrains from landing the final hit, as otherwise there would be the risk that his opponent could die. So the Korean team wins with one point. At the award ceremony that follows, Dae Han Pak limps towards Tommy, thanks him for the fair fight and explains in fragile English how sorry he was about what happened to Tommy's brother. He offers him friendship and presents him with his medal. Then the other fighters also go to their opponents and present their medals to the American team.
background
Lead actor Phillip Rhee not only provided the idea for the film, which Paul Levine wrote as a script, but also worked as a producer. Simon Rhee , who plays his opponent in the final battle, is actually his older brother.
The film grossed just $ 1.7 million when it was released in the United States and is ranked 74th on the list of worst opening weekends.
The German distribution company at the time decided to ascribe the film to the Karate Tiger series, the original title Best of the Best was used as the subtitle. However, the film itself is actually the beginning of a series that continued with Best of the Best 2 - The Invincible in 1993, Best of the Best 3 - No Turning Back in 1995 , and ended in 1998 with Kick Fire - Without any warning .
Publications
For a long time, the film was only available on VHS in German-speaking countries (contrary to several rumors, the two FSK16 versions of VCL and Ascot are uncut), only a bootleg DVD has been in circulation for several years. It was not until June 2017 that the Nameless Media label released the film as part of a collector's edition limited to 222 copies, which for the first time also contains the three follow-up parts of the series in uncut form on Blu-Ray. At the same time, Shamrock Media released the films individually as well as limited mediabooks, which contain both DVD and Blu-Ray, later followed by the non-limited single release on DVD and Blu-Ray.
criticism
The film was panned by the critics. Hardly any critic has said a good word about the film. In particular, the performance of the actors, the poor direction and the level story were criticized.
“Some of the scenes in this movie are shameless (Roberts trying to talk his son out of a coma). Some are hilarious (Kirkland explaining how to focus your concentration, while we hear flute music designed as a subtle ripoff of Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid ). Some are gratuitous (the Texan directs racist insults at the Asian, then of course has an offscreen change of heart). Some are inexplicable (why do we keep seeing that slow-motion black-and-white shot of the ice cream cone being dropped?). There is not a single scene in this movie that I found amusing, original or interesting. What we really have here is a documentary of the actors wasting their lives. "
“Some of the scenes in this film are shameless (like when Roberts tries to wake his son out of a coma). Some are hilarious ( Kirkland tries to show the fighters how to focus while listening to flute music, with Kirkland supposed to be a subtle copy of Myagi-san in Karate Kid ). Some are superfluous (the Texan [meaning the role of Chris Penn - the author] yells racist insult to the Asians, but then apparently has a change of heart offscreen). Some are inexplicable (why do we keep seeing a black and white slow motion shot with a falling ice cream cone?). There isn't a single scene in the film that I find amusing, original, or interesting. What we really have here is a documentary about how actors waste their time. "
"Martial karate film that blatantly strikes nationalist tones and plays down chauvinism and racism as" industrial accidents "."
Web links
- Karate Tiger IV - Best of the Best in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Box Office Charts. BoxOfficeMojo.com, accessed September 28, 2010 .
- ^ Karate Tiger IV. Online film database , accessed September 28, 2008 .
- ↑ DVD-Forum.at: "Best of the Best 1-4" announced in the Complete Edition by Nameless Media - Blu-ray - DVD-Forum.at. Retrieved September 17, 2018 .
- ↑ Gerald Wurm: Karate Tiger 4 - Best of the Best appears on Blu-ray (Schnittberichte.com). Retrieved September 17, 2018 .
- ↑ Roger Ebert: = Review. RogerEbert.com, accessed September 28, 2010 .
- ^ Karate Tiger IV - Best of the Best. In: Lexicon of international films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .