IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

ralph aouad I was put of by all the negative reviews for this movie, but in the end I said what the hell the previous 3 were all very good, with 1 and 2 being personal favourites. to my surprise, part 4 although a different theme than 1 and 2, still maintains the spirit of the series somewhat, from the acting to the action and even the music. As a fan of best of the best, this movie was highly entertaining. its somewhat in the mold of die-hard type action, however nobody does fight scenes quite like Phillip Rhee (still known as Tommy Lee in the movie), and so calling it an imitator is misleading since rhee brings so much more to the action due to his martial arts background. In these type of movies its never about the plot, but how the overall movie flows and entertains. tommy lee is a likable hero as usual, and the supporting cast are as well. the bad guys are even very entertaining to watch. while this movie can never have the budget of die hard, in my opinion it has more likable and realistic characters. If your a fan please ignore the haters, just don't expect this to be anything like 1 and 2 or as good. its better than 3, which itself was good and underrated in my opinion. I can understand fans complaints that this movie has nothing to do with the best of the best universe, that is true, however its still a movie that stands on its own, and provides fans of Phillip Rhee yet another good action movie with heart. Im glad I watched it, and sad that it ended here.

ebiros2 Best of the Best is well named, because this is one of the if not the best martial action movie series ever made.All the sequences are beautifully choreographed, and the action and the story comes together as one - which many martial action movies fail to do.Phillip Rhee is a multi-talented director, actor that puts the likes of Chuck Norris, and Michael Dudikoff to shame. Only Bruce Lee had his kind of precision movements on screen.The series also gets cudos for not losing quality through out its four episodes. Every other series of this type was a hit or miss proposition. They never were as consistent as this series.The movie is also beautifully made, that has crisp looks, and elegant style.Maybe this was the swan song for this type of martial arts action movie, but as they say, swans last song is its most beautiful,as this movie is.

Comeuppance Reviews Tommy Lee is back! Not the Motley Crue drummer of course (in the press he's always Rocker Tommy Lee, and he's called that so often he should just legally change his first name to Rocker) - It's Phillip Rhee, and this time he teaches martial arts to police officers. He has a young daughter, Stephanie (Jessica Huang), and life seems good. All this ends when a gang of Russian-type mobsters, working out of an abandoned warehouse (where else?), begins a large counterfeiting operation. The details of this illegal activity are on a disc, and Tommy inadvertently ends up with it.Now on the bad side of criminal mastermind Slava (Bell), as well as his many goons, including Boris (Thorsen), he entrusts Stephanie to a priest (Gleason), so he can go off on his own and fight the baddies. But while he has some friends on the force, notably Jarvis (Lemmon), he also butts heads with the hard-line Detective Gresko (Hudson). Can Tommy Lee stop the counterfeiting agents, rescue his friends and daughter from imminent doom, and clear his own name in the process? Some people might think about the Best of the Best series, "there are FOUR of them?" While it may seem puzzling and hard to justify, this fourth entry in the series was solid fun and worth seeing. Phillip Rhee is a very talented guy - he stars in the film, he directed it, co-wrote it, and he's a gifted martial artist and worked on the choreography. He's also likable. Rhee does seem to have well-rounded skills, and because of this, his name should be more well-known outside of die-hard action circles. He's so badass, he doesn't turn off his lights at night using a lightswitch like a sucker, he JUMPKICKS his lights off.Supporting him is an impressive array of B-movie names. Tobin Bell puts in an understated, low-key villain performance, which was a welcome change from the frothing-at-the-mouth baddies we usually see. He pulls off a tricky balance - be subtle but not be boring. He does a great job, and, interestingly, there's some pre-Saw torture he's involved with. Coincidence? Or did the makers of the unending Saw franchise see this movie and picture him as the ultimate torturer? And speaking of people who probably saw this movie, there's an American Beauty (1999)-like fantasy sequence one year before that film. Is it possible the American Beauty people saw this movie and thought, "If we rip this off, no one will know, because we don't share any of the same audience"? Hudson plays the BYD (instead of Black Yelling Chief, here he's a detective) and there's even a fight scene between him and Rhee where Hudson attempts some Hudson-Fu on him. Chris Lemmon's not in it that much and resembles Joe Piscopo. It's no Firehead (1991) for him. Paul Gleason, Art LaFleur and Sven-Ole Thorsen round out the cast of familiar faces, and someone who's been turning up a lot lately, David "Shark" Fralick (Deadly Reckoning, 1998, Executive Target, 1997 Inside Edge, 1992) is on board as well.A highlight of the movie is a combination stickfighting/fencing fight scene. We don't believe we've ever seen that before. While the movie falls prey to a cliché we see often "We've got to get the disc!" - a movie about a disc - Best of the Best 4 has a lot to offer in the pure entertainment department. Regardless of how you feel about the other Best of the Best movies, you should see this one if you love that implausibly-plotted-but-who-cares-let's-have-fun action style pioneered in the 80's.For more action insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

disdressed12 believe it or not,this movie is worse than number three.it's slower,the acting is worse,and the story is very weak.there isn't a lot of good to say about this movie.even the fight scenes are more dull than number three,and i would have thought that impossible.this is a very slow 90 minutes.painful,in fact.i stuck it through,hoping it would get better.if you really want to see this movie,you should try to find a cheap rental of it.it is hard to find(for purchase,that is)and probably for good reason.like number three,this movie has nothing to do with the first two.it is the same in name only.anyway,the most i can give Best of the Best:Without Warning is 2/10