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