Occassionally, someone in Hollywood will get
the idea to make a serious movie within a silly genre. Sometimes
this works. Sometimes it doesn't. In the case of Best of the
Best, it just sometimes works.
The film follows the path of The Karate Kid,
which was the first (and still best) drama about the martial
arts, and tries to be just as serious. The only problem is that
Best of the Best lays the drama on so thick in places that it
becomes nearly impossible to take it seriously, almost degenerating
into unintentional satire.
The film is very loosly based upon the introduction
of Tae Kwon Do as an Olympic sport at the Seoul, Korea Summer
Games. The United States has been invited to compete in the
exibition games, and must therefore find the best fighters in
the country. What they get instead are Eric Roberts and Christopher
Penn.
A good actor should be able to sell any performance,
and Eric Roberts is mildly passable as a martial artist, but
Christopher Penn simply denies any hope of believability. It's
not that he's impossible to accept as a martial artist, but
rather that he's impossible to accept as a martial artist of
the required caliber to compete in the Olympics.
In fact, the only really credible star is
Phillip Rhee, who brings
genuine training and skill in Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido to the
film. He also proves to be a far better martial artist-turned-actor
than most, making it a shame that he hasn't been featured in
more films.
There are a total of five martial artists
chosen for Team USA, but Alex (Eric Roberts) and Tommy (Phillip
Rhee) are really the two stars. The backstory is that Alex used
to be a world class competitor, but a shoulder injury and the
death of his wife ended his career. Now he works at a factory
to support his son. When the invitation arrives to try out for
the national team, he jumps at the chance. This, of course,
sets us up for a conflict later, when Alex faces a crisis of
devoting his full energies to training, or worrying about his
son, who he had to leave behind.
Tommy, meanwhile,.faces his own problems.
He discovers that his opponent in Korea will be the feared Dae
Han (Simon Rhee, Phillip's real life brother). Dae Han killed
Tommy's older brother in a tournament years ago and the image
has haunted Tommy ever since. Not only is Tommy unsure of whether
or not he can even step into the ring with Dae Han, he also
doesn't know if he will be able to control himself if he does
and avoid seeking revenge against the
other fighter.
The problem with all of this is that the film
lays all of this
melodrama on so thick that it almost becomes comical. It's as
if the characters take turns breaking down into crisis, while
the gruff (with a heart of gold) coach, played by James Earl
Jones, tries to hold everything together, as he simultaneously
threatens to kick everyone off of the team.
Best of the Best sets us up for a conflict
at the end that it just
doesn't pay off with. The various fight scenes are adequately
filmed, and appropriately choreographed according to the various
skill levels of the actors involved, but there seems to be a
decided lack of excitement about everything. I won't reveal
which team finally wins, but I will point out that the tournament
is followed by one of the most spectacularly sappy scenes ever
put to film.
Best of the Best isn't a bad film, but it
does suffer from having
far more potential than it actually delivers.
