Review of Best of the Best

This is an unusually plotted film in as much as Eric Roberts is top billed as martial arts fighter Alex Grady, but the job of bringing the story to an emotional climax is given to Phillip Rhee in his match against Dae Han Park (Phillip Rhee's real life brother, Simon Rhee). The movie resonated with me much more when I saw it years ago, closer to it's original release. Today it has a rather tired look against some of the more outstanding martial arts movies out there. For all the talk about the fighters selected for the American National Karate Team to operate as a unit, it took the longest time for Travis Brickley (Chris Penn) to realize that he was being a jerk most of the time, something which came naturally to him. James Earl Jones on the other hand, had to work at being a jerk as coach Frank Couzo, who's over-emoting and general lack of self awareness was embarrassing most of the time, and very much in evidence when Grady's son was seriously injured in an accident. It all works out over the course of the story, with the championship tournament in Korea proving that you don't have to win a fight to maintain integrity and reveal true sportsmanship. The moving tribute offered by Dae Han to his defeated rival Tommy was the kind of scene designed to bring a tear to the eye of the viewer, followed up in due fashion by the rest of his teammates. It can be an inspirational story for younger viewers, though not to be confused over the idea that three months of training is sufficient to over power practitioners of Tae Kwon Do who have been doing it for a lifetime.