Best of the Best 2 (1993)

 

This small franchise feels a lot like the 'Bloodsport' and 'Kickboxer' franchises, if you can call them that. All three started out with a solid original movie that became fan favourites over time. And all three followed on from that original with declining sequels that basically destroyed the franchise. The only key difference, this franchise managed to hold onto its main stars for at least one sequel, plus this franchise enhanced its cast for its sequel.

So Eric Roberts is back, along with Philip Rhee and Sean Penn! Heck, even the Korean martial arts team from the first movie turn up! Continuity bonus earned! The story follows on from the first movie with the boys setting up a martial arts studio in Vegas, Vegas? Thing is, Brickley (Penn) has been secretly competing in a violent underground MMA tournament (before MMA became mainstream) and promptly gets himself executed by the main end-of-level boss. It now falls on Grady (Roberts) and Lee (Rhee) to uncover what actually happened, because the bad guys made it look like an automobile accident.

So yeah, the plot is pretty darn generic to say the least. I mean, the whole secret underground fighting tournament where fighters get killed? That is one mega unoriginal plot right there. I also found it quite amusing that this is happening right in downtown Vegas, or so it seems. At a big venue, or underneath one, plenty of people and potential attention? Seems risky to me. I guess being in the desert makes it easier to dispose of bodies. Naturally the actual arena looks like your standard gladiator-type fare. Circular, flames around the edge, iron bar guarded entrances and exits, a baying mob of wealthy elites watching behind glass screens etc...The main end-of-level boss is, of course, an oversized man mountain called Goro...I mean Brakus. They even have their 'Running Man' style announcer and host in the form of Wayne Newton.

The story unfolds in highly predictable stages that we've all seen before. The good guys start snooping around and the bad guys don't like it. The good guys get too close, so the bad guys shoot up their home, of course. The good guys take their family to relatives outta town, who happen to be Native Americans, just so the movie can have some spiritual training montages. This also seems to be an excuse to cast Sonny Landham as the one and only person who knows how to beat Brakus. But first, he's gotta sober up, only then can he become a Native American Mr Miyagi. Am I complaining about this? No, no I'm not, the casting is action flick genius. Anyway, the bad guys find them, and shoot up their home, of course. The good guys then return to face the bad guys on their home turf, in the arena.

To be fair, despite the paint-by-numbers plot, the actual action sequences are pretty good. Nothing special, but good. When it comes to the meat and potatoes of the movie, the fights, again its pretty good. Rhee is a good martial artist and can hold his own. The other fighters in the arena are also good-looking fighters who can actually do the moves, not much trickery involved. Obviously its all in the same vein as a certain Jean Claude Van Damme classic, but it's still good. Heck, the final battles in the arena are a pretty good take on 'Street Fighter 2' truth be told, especially with the boxer. The final boss Brakus is played by German Arnie wannabe Ralf Moeller, who is actually a pretty good fit for this role.

End of the day this was actually a good little action martial arts flick. It's definitely better than I expected and the martial arts is still of a good quality. The only real drawback is the fact its a complete mish-mash of other movies. A little bit of 'Bloodsport', 'Kickboxer', 'The Running Man', and a whole host of cookie-cutter, straight-to-video-type action revenge movies. You could almost have any A or B-level action star in here, and it would still work fine. 

7/10

Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1995)

 

The original movie was a bit of a cult classic, a favourite for the martial arts fanbase. The second was definitely a straight-to-video type picture, but twas actually pretty good, keeping much of the original cast whilst boosting it further. We are now firmly entering the B-movie era of this franchise. Top shelf in the videoshop, but in the far corner where no one can quite see it.

Tommy Lee (Philip Rhee) is now the sole survivor in this franchise with all other cast members falling by the wayside. In this high-kicking adventure, Lee is visiting more family members, but this time in the small all-American apple pie town of Liberty, USA. Unfortunately, this town has a problem, and that problem is an ultra-religious church with ties to a group of neo Nazis. So obviously this ain't good for business, anyone's business, so leave it to Tommy Lee, and one righteous Sheriff, to have to clean up this town.

Yeah, so this plot is one big massive cliche bubble-wrapped in predictability. The entire angle of an ultra-religious church set within a small isolated US town is so corny, it's the basis for many horror movies. Ronald Ermey portrays the preacher who runs the church, which sounds good, but alas, he doesn't really do much here. Good casting wasted there. The neo Nazis are led by Hansen, played in a menacingly cornball fashion by Mark Rolston. Now Rolston really chews the scenery well here. His snarling over-the-top racist leadership is both comical and fun to watch. He is joined by a large platoon of your stereotypical skinhead and deep South hick types, plus one musclebound goon. There is even a small subplot surrounding a local lad who is discouraged by his humdrum life in the sticks, and finds solace with the Nazi group (despite not being entirely sure about their ethics).

I think you can probably guess what type of antics these Nazis get up to in this movie, and I think you can probably predict how it all goes down. The Nazis burn down a local African American-run church and kill the preacher. Tommy Lee comes to town and immediately crosses paths with the Nazis in the local diner (best place for it). Tensions are high, but Lee is stoic. The church is slowly getting stronger within the small community (via threats from the Nazis) and wants to expand by purchasing local land for its base. Lee's family get attacked by the Nazis, but he saves the day. The Nazis disrupt a local fair, but again Lee saves the day whilst meeting love interest Margo (Gina Gershon). The locals bravely reject sale of the land to the Nazis which angers them, heightening tensions. Margo and Lee's sister are then attacked by the Nazi (again!) which pushes Lee over the line. He proceeds to take matters into his own hands.

What follows is your standard covert operation to take down the bad guys' lair. Obviously this starts as covert, only to fall apart and end up in a full-blown conflict. I think the amusing thing is this church and the Nazis have this quite large military-style base all set up on this land they're trying to buy. I think they were supposed to be stockpiling weapons for a race war, but I'm not really quite sure how far they think they'd get with that. As if you'd be able to do this unnoticed. You might be able to bribe the local cops, but it wouldn't be hard to get other help from outta State. Anyway it doesn't matter because Lee and the local Sheriff wipe them all out 'Commando' style baby.

Turns out that Lee is so righteous and heroic that right at the end, he even manages to make all the Nazis change their ways and see the light. Just enough time to walk away from the baddies lair, striding across the tarmac, shirtless, muscles gleaming, with a bit of blood strategically placed to make him look just that bit cooler. They really went to town with the baby oil here. You still have the same issue with this movie, in that you could literally replace Rhee with any other action star. The franchise doesn't die without him basically.

This third entry marks the exit from the martial arts genre, and the entrance into the all-out action genre with guns ablazin'. Wise move? Well kinda, the martial arts genre in the early 90's was saturated, and there was far more quantity than quality that's for sure. I think this franchise had reached its peak with martial arts, the second movie rounded that off pretty well. So this movie delving into the Commando/Rambo genre is a smart move. The only problem is this franchise wasn't that big or successful in the first place, so the move feels empty; it didn't reenergize anything. Also, this type of flick was ten-a-penny back in the day too. Nonetheless, this is a better entry in the cheaper action genre. 

6/10

Gran Turismo (2023)

The life of the young bedroom-dwelling videogame nerd living at home with their parents. Let's take some really good car racing gamers and put them into actual real racing cars to see if they can actually really drive them. Because this is exactly how you recruit young talent these days, by their videogaming prowess. Wait, this is actually a true story??!! Well, I'll be a plumber's brother!

Yes, so in case you never knew (and I'm sure you probably didn't), there actually was a real videogame programme organised by Sony and Nissan called GT Academy, where actual gamers had the chance to compete to gain the opportunity to become real race car drivers. Who knew! No literally, who knew?? This competition was based on the Sony game Gran Turismo 5 and featured thousands of gamers competing in time trials, culminating in a final race to reach the next stage. The next stage was an actual racing camp to train for a track race in real (Nissan 370Z) cars. Whoever won got an actual racing contract with Nissan, no seriously.

So at first I'm watching this thinking, this is corny as hell and I know exactly how this is gonna go. The main character, Jann Mardenborough, is a young misunderstood Black kid who plays Gran Turismo all day, which understandably upsets his dad. It looks like he is throwing his life away until entering and wins this GT competition. At this point, everything changes and his dad starts to take notice. So far, so corny. At the academy things take another predictable twist as we get a very cheesy, over-the-top, militaristic 'Top Gun' with cars scenario. Heck, you could even throw some 'Days of Thunder' into the mix. This entire first half is an almost entirely different movie from the second half, one big cliched training montage.

I think David Harbour's cliched hard-ass training coach character, Jack, says it best at the start when he essentially rips apart the entire premise of the movie. Gamers into actual racers? Videogames aren't reality. We the audience are thinking exactly what he is saying. Honesty there is so much cheese in all this its hard to take anything seriously. The moment when Jann is telling Jack and his team how their cars are running, where the problems are, and that he (a videogamer) knows more than them, really made me scoff frankly. Obviously, in this movie Jann is proved correct, but come on!

The second half of this movie actually turns into a whole dramatic biopic about Mardenborough and his actual racing career. It's so weird, we go from stupid cliched videogame competition nonsense, to a proper biopic that even incorporates a real crash that saw one spectator killed! Talk a tale of two halves. The second half is actually quite good for a racing flick. For the most part, Mardenborough doesn't really do that well, but he's always just about competing. Jack (a former racer himself) stands behind him all the way as he just about manages to hold his own. Things take quite an emotional turn with the crash, but Jack motivates him to get back on the horse, so to speak, and they enter Le Mans with two other racers from back in the academy. A full team of videogame racers, competing in Le Mans! Honesty, this is all true, apparently.

It's at this point where you'd obviously expect Mardenborough and his team to win Le Mans in a rousing and emotional fashion. Proving all the doubters wrong, winning the complete trust of Nissan and all their backers etc...But no! In line with reality, the gamer team finished third at Le Mans, which was still a solid performance. We then find out more about Mardenborough's career in the end credits. Funnily enough, with a bit of Googling you'll see that despite this rags to riches tale of sorts, and despite Mardenborough legitimately proving people wrong and doing really well for himself, is actual racing record isn't all that good. He hasn't won very much at all, competed a lot, but not been that successful.

A strange and quite unbelievable story, and a strange combination of genres in this movie. Going by the title, you'd think this was just a silly racing flick, ala 'The Fast and the Furious', with flashy cars, sexy girls, and young people saying 'bro' all the time. It does indeed kinda start that way, and things don't look too good. But then the movie has a change in gear and becomes something much better. Don't get me wrong, there's still lots of hammy car porn with meaningless internal engine sequences and closeups of disc brakes and pads etc...You know, to make things a bit more 'cool'. Obviously, most of it is pointless and adds nothing.

There are some visuals taken from the videogame, but for anyone who hasn't played it, then this is all pointless. Luckily you don't need to have played the game, I mean, it's a racing simulator, so everyone can get on board. Truth be told, the movie didn't really need to be called Gran Turismo, but I get why they did that. But yeah, overall this did surprise me. I expected another dire videogame adaptation, but we actually got a biopic, and quite a fun one. If you can look past the videogame aspect, and ignore the terrible casting (Ginger Spice?), this is pretty solid entertainment, well, the second half is anyway.

6/10

I Swear (2025)

 

A middle-aged man enters a lavish, grand room; this is his moment. He nervously awaits the honour of a lifetime, to be awarded an MBE from Queen Elizabeth II. Everyone is seated, quiet and calm, ''f*ck the Queen!'' is suddenly blurted out across the room to an understandably stunted audience. And with that, this biographical drama about John Davidson kicks off.

As I write this, the recent controversy at the UK 2026 BAFTA Awards ceremony has just about died down. So without trying to jump on any bandwagons, I will be truthful. Up until this incident, I did not know about John Davidson or that much about Tourette's. Yes I've heard of Tourette's, but I was completely uneducated on the facts. As for John Davidson, I knew nothing of this man. I have never seen the old BBC documentary 'John's Not Mad', but I do vaguely remember it from back in the day.

So I went into this pretty blind really, only going off the overplayed controversy that recently bubbled up. Although, unlike some, I was aware of Tourette's, so I had a basic understanding of what to expect. What I saw was a genuinely thought-provoking biopic that not only got me thinking, it pulled at my heartstrings too. The story is a simple one, nothing that you haven't heard before truth be told. A young lad growing up in a blue-collar environment (in Scotland), in a relatively poor family, struggles but eventually overcomes his problems as the years go by. The obvious difference here is not money or drugs or whatever, it's an uncontrollable condition that makes normal life extremely hard, nigh on impossible.

So, as I watched this story unfold, I started to understand John's dilemma. It suddenly dawned on me how much of a nightmare his life was back then. I am nearly 50 years old, and I grew up in the 80's and 90's. The majority of people around my age will know how different life was back in those eras, and without sounding too condescending, younger folk simply won't understand. I grew up at a time when respect for your elders was paramount. I was raised to act a certain way, to not say certain things, to behave a certain way, to do certain things. I knew what was expected, and I knew what was frowned upon. If ever I put a foot out of place, repercussions could be swift and at times painful. Yes, the 80s were for many, the era of slipper, wooden spoon, and even belt punishments.

So what I'm saying is, as a kid, I knew to behave. I would often get into trouble, but it wasn't deliberate; it was stupidity. At the same time, you knew where to draw the line. The mere thought of even being dragged into the Headmaster's office was enough to terrify me, not just because of what the school might do, but what my parents would do. So, I'm sitting watching this film about a young boy who is uncontrollably shouting out severe profanities, spitting at people, hitting people etc...and he can't stop it or explain why, it made me quite anxious. It made me think a lot about my childhood, and how the consequences of doing something like that would probably have been astronomical!

I think the early part of this film showcasing how painful John Davidson's life must have been growing up, is by far the best and more impactful. Not only do I think the young actor (Scott Ellis Watson) who portrayed Davidson put in a better performance (no disrespect to Robert Aramayo, who was also brilliant), but I think it made more of a power punch hammering home John's predicament. This was in an era when people weren't properly educated on something as serious as HIV, so you just can't imagine how something like Tourette's was looked upon.

The film isn't all doom and gloom though. There are many moments throughout when you can smile, you can laugh, although I was asking myself if I should. When John goes for a job interview at the local community centre with old boy Tommy (Peter Mullan), his lengthy interview definitely makes you laugh. The odd little comment he makes towards people or in the heat of a moment can also be funny, although counter to that, it also shows how Tourette's can put someone in a lot of trouble. Cliche alert! The film is a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. One minute you can be giggling, the next you're slapped across the face.

I did learn some things from this film too. For instance, I thought John was born with Tourette's, I just assumed it was something people are born with. Nope, apparently not. As we find out in the film, John developed it as a young boy. Bit of Googling and I am now more aware, and that's the aim.

Anywho, I think if there's one thing the BAFTA incident has done, it's brought WAY more attention to a film that probably would have gone under the radar for many people. The ironic fact that the very same people at said event, wanting to show understanding and empathy towards a minority group and their disability, couldn't actually do so when faced with said disability, and resorted to the very same pitchfork mob mentality as depicted in the film they were there to award, is astounding! The celebs were inadvertently given one chance to actually prove their empathy, totally failed, and apparently still don't understand why! Unreal!

So, to round this up. The film will open your eyes, you might not think so, but you end up fully understanding (at least older folk will, not so sure about the smartphone generations). All the performances are top-notch, award-winning. Most of the actors don't even come across as if they're acting for Pete's sake, they really are that good. Peter Mullan being a clear standout. It's a tough film, no doubt about that, and at times the story feels a bit cheesy. John going into a nightclub, gee I wonder what will happen here. But this only shows how even the simple things were almost impossible for John to enjoy. The film shows how isolating this disability can be, how one person can overcome insurmountable odds, and offers us, the viewers, low points that make the high points much more valuable.

Lastly, can I just ask? Who remembers that Cadbury's Flake advert?? Eh? That really brought back some retro advert memories right there, oh boy! I hadn't seen that in literally decades. 

9/10

Best of the Best (1989)

After a flurry of big hit movies such as 'Top Gun', 'The Karate Kid', and 'Bloodsport', with martial arts and all-American jingoism being at their peak, it was inevitable that more popcorn movies like this would appear.

This is a strange mix of the above, and one that I can't quite decide if I like or not. There is an international martial arts tournament coming up in South Korea, and America must pick its fighters. Five athletes are chosen and must undergo a rigorous training program before heading off to the competition. Once there. The five fighters will take on five Korean fighters in a showdown for points. Who will be the best of the best?

For starters, what kind of international competition is this? The only countries competing are America and South Korea, and it's a five vs. five competition with each fighter paired against another, one at a time? It's clearly a proper legit competition, no underground setup or anything, but for such a grand setup, it's very small in scale and with limited competitors.

As for the actual US fighters, well they're your typical videogame-type roster. Chris Penn is the typical brash, heavyset American bully character who wears a Stetson. Not even sure how he got picked really, seeing as he's a bad loser and very aggressive. Then you have the streetwise Italian guy who's a bit of a showoff. The quiet spiritual Buddhist guy. Phillip Rhee is your stereotypical sensible Asian fighter who's probably the best of the bunch. And finally Eric Roberts as the all-round fighter who's just a decent guy, yet looks like a villain.

The five are coached by Frank Couzo, portrayed by a totally out of place (for this type of budget movie) James Earl Jones, who is bizarrely and unrealistically strict. Like this guy trains his fighters as if they were in the military. Heck, half the time this movie feels like a military flick with a bunch of guys training for the special forces or whatever. When Eric Roberts character suffers a family crisis with his son getting hit by a car, Couzo refuses to let him go see the kid! If he does, he's off the team. So he quits, as does Rhee's character after a training accident. It's at this point I started wondering if this competition could go on seeing as the US team was now down to only three fighters. Seems like it would have been cancelled, but Coach Couzo didn't give a shit apparently.

I should also point out that a female coach is also brought in at one point to help Couzo. Unfortunately this character does virtually nothing and has no real reason to be in the film other than being the hot blonde woman. You could literally take this character out of the movie and lose nothing, it wouldn't make any difference at all. I genuinely think they added her to the movie just for sex appeal.

As you might expect there are a few training montages throughout, accompanied by a typical 80's soundtrack. They are exactly what you're thinking, literally, and they suffice. Again, expect a bit of 'Karate Kid', a bit of 'Rocky', and a dash of 'Top Gun' machoism and sweat. The beginning of the movie sees the boys get into a big bar fight before they start their training. They all literally destroy this place as coach Couzo watches and doesn't once think to stop them before they get arrested or seriously hurt. Other than that not much happens until the big finale battle.

The grand showdown certainly looked pretty good. Again, it's exactly what you're thinking. Take a pinch of 'Karate Kid', a pinch of 'No Retreat No Surrender', and a decent amount of 'Bloodsport' and voila! Each fighter takes on their Korean opponent. Chubby Penn goes down. The Italian goes down. The Buddhist goes down. Eric Roberts manages to get his shoulder busted but continues to fight and win with one arm strapped up (he literally wins with only one arm). Then finally Rhee's character has the all important final fight with the one Korean with the eye-patch who, as it turns out, killed his brother! Don't worry, he wins, but he doesn't finish him with a fatality, he chooses friendship, literally.

So strange as it might seem, the Yanks actually lose the tournament, down to Rhee being all nice. But the Koreans get all soppy, and in the very end its a big hug and make-up moment. Overall the final showdown is pretty decent, but at the same time a bit cheap looking really. The odd shot of about ten people watching and cheering in a US bar doesn't really help because it looks like they had an extras shortage. Also, the fight commentator sounded like something from a TV sitcom, really amateurish. 

I can see why this has gained a bit of a cult status, what with the casting and reasonable fight sequences. Looking back its certainly up there with other tournament fight movies, what few there were. It's pretty obvious that the reason this never took off back in the day was simply that Jean Claude Van Damme had cornered that particular market. He was the martial arts King in Hollywood and no one was coming close. Had Van Damme been in this, well now you're talking, the movie takes on a whole new level. As it stands now looking back, yeah its fine, a solid fight flick, even if the movie poster does make Roberts look like the main bad guy.

6/10

Major League: Back to the Minors (1998)

A new season, new team, new roster, new coach...same old story?

Yes back in 1989 we were gifted with the surprise sports hit 'Major League' which saw the mix of rugged veteran stars and upcoming newbie stars come together to produce one of the best baseball movies to date. The fact that it was a decent comedy as well was just the icing on the cake. Five years later we were given a sequel that was basically a poor remake of the first with the odd change in casting. It was a new season, but the same shit happened all over again. This now leads us to this belated sequel, nearly ten years after the original classic. Was it worth the wait?

So this time, we meet up with Minor League pitcher Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula) who has recently been caught cheating in a game. Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen), now the owner of the Minnesota Twins, hires him to manage their Minor League affiliate team The Buzz. Naturally, this team are not doing too well and the roster is made up of various eccentrics and weak players. Can Cantrell turn this team around? So yeah, it's the same spiel, the only difference here is the plot deviates somewhat as Cantrell clashes with the Twins manager and both teams end up playing each other in a challenge (which turns out to be the movie's big finale game).

I guess one of the funny things about this movie is the fact they couldn't tear themselves away from the original two movies entirely. They had to try and get previous actors and their characters back despite the fact it doesn't really add up. Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) is back commentating for The Buzz games. Why? Why would this one-time big league sports commentator now be working with a Minor League team? And coincidentally, The Buzz. Catcher Rube Baker (Eric Bruskotter) is now coincidentally playing for The Buzz. Pedro Cerrano (Dennis Haysbert) and Tanaka (Takaaki Ishibashi) both come back to coincidentally play for The Buzz. Heck, even Duke Temple (Steve Yeager) is back, now a coach with the Twins! I get that they wanted some continuity with the previous movies but this just seems unrealistic as most of these players would be retired by now or possibly still with Major League teams. But also, this is supposed to be more of a standalone movie, so don't rely on characters from the previous movies.

As for the plot, I appreciate that they did at least try something somewhat different this time. Yeah most of the movie revolves around The Buzz trying to get better in the league, but the deviation to challenging the Twins after both managers get into a childish fight is a reasonable move. The Twins manager is played by Ted McGinley who delivers a decent, devious man-child-like character in the Twins manager. This works well against Bakula's sensible nice-guy persona. The thing is, it's the same type of persona Bakula always uses, he's a bit of a one-note actor. Think Sam Beckett as a baseball manager.

 As for the rest of the team, you have a player who used to be a ballerina. A pitcher who pitches really slowly. A player who is old and overweight. Rube Baker still can't throw to basemen, Cerrano and Tanaka don't seem to have improved with Major League experience, but they do have one decent hitter in Billy 'Downtown' Anderson (Walton Goggins), who keeps the team afloat. So expect the usual type of baseball hijinks, but maybe not as much as you might expect.

Overall this isn't too bad really. It's actually much better than the second sequel 'Major League II' because that merely went over the same ground, a soft reboot almost, even redoing the same sight gags and hijinks. A complete waste of time, but this third entry actually does try to be different and does well introducing some new characters. Obviously, this was always gonna be along the same lines as the previous movies, it's a baseball story, so what do you expect. But overall this movie is a nice, easy-going sports comedy that should please sports and comedy fans alike.

6/10