I recently had the opportunity to visit South Korea.  I felt that it was imperative to the success of my trip that I learn a bit about the culture before I stumbled headlong into it.  Fortunately, I had a solution.  What better way to familiarize myself with this rich, unique, and very different culture than to watch a film that clearly displayed their culture?  I chose Best of the Best.

Best of the Best is the tale of the US karate team as they prepare to compete against the Korean tae kwon do team, who “enjoy complete government support and funding” and whom they have never beaten.  If you ever wanted to create a compelling argument for not using untrained actors to play martial artists, this would be all you would need.  There are however plenty of notable names.  Eric Roberts is the incessantly crying main character, Alex Grady, James Earl Jones is coach Clouzo, the worst coach of any kind ever, and Christopher Penn is the profane cowboy Travis Brikley.  Phillip Rhee (by far the best martial artist of the bunch) plays Tommy Lee, not the drummer but the tae kwon do instructor with the troubled past.

This is by no means a good movie, but it is fun and it is possibly the most quoted kung fu Friday movie ever.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Alex: Tommy! No! Coach! Coach! He’s gonna kill him!

Tommy: I wanna kill that son of a bitch.

Alex: Then kill that son of a bitch.

Tommy: Alex! I’m afraid!

Travis: You shouldn’t block with your face

Best of the Best also features the best bar fight scene ever!

Best of the Best is worth the watch. While the fight scenes featuring the “actors” aren’t very good, the rest are pretty descent.  There is plenty of 80’s cheese, a training montage, and a climatic final battle.  I give it a rating of 7 roundhouse kicks to the face.