Beautiful, moving film.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Ah, the 1990s and the halcyon days of STV. Phil Rhee returns as Tommy Lee in BOTB2 along with Eric Roberts. They are buddies who must avenge the death of their friend Travis (Chris Penn), who dies at the hands of Brakus, a Dolph Lundgren lookalike who talks like Ah-nuld. There is only one reason for the movie's existence, and that is the almost-constant kung fu fighting. There are a couple of decent firefights as well, especially one staged in the Arizona desert. Rhee is as impressive as ever, and Roberts fakes kung fu reasonably well. The big Native American actor from PREDATOR plays Rhee's blood brother. You understandably will have to suspend your sense of disbelief, as at any moment, our heroes could have been dispatched with a single bullet to the brain.

While Eric Roberts has had something of a resurgence in today's age with The Dark Knight and a stint on Celebrity Rehab, he truly was stuck in B movie hell for quite some time. Even after moderate successes with The Pope of Greenwich Village and Runaway Train, he simply failed to capitalize on those successes and went straight to video and eventually Lifetime. Case in point: Best of the Best, a martial arts movie that tried so hard to imitate better movies that the only thing that made it interesting was the fight sequences and ending.All that is thrown out the window in Best of the Best II, a sequel that to my amazement is not only cheaper but also more disgusting. Action movies don't have to be brainless, but Best of the Best II sure takes the cake with silly one liners and action that feels like it's on auto mode. Leaving off where the original ended, Alex (Roberts), Tommy (Rhee) and Travis (Penn) return home to the states to open up their own martial arts studio.But Travis has other plans in mind when he decides to fight to the death in an unsanctioned fighting arena known as the Colosseum, where the champion is Brakus (Ralf Moeller). When Travis gets the chance to fight, he is unfortunately killed senselessly and dumped into a nearby river. After learning of this, Alex and Tommy confront Brakus but get thrown out while tearing up his place. To make things interesting Brakus sends some henchmen to kill them, but Alex, Tommy and Alex's son escape to Tommy's foster parents where they learn to fight like Brakus from Alex's foster brother James (sonny Landham). When Brakus finds the location, Tommy will have to fight Brakus to get not only his freedom but save Alex's life as well.Best of the Best wasn't exactly Shakespeare, but it looks like it compared to the utterly idiotic nature of Best of the Best II. Cheaper than a Chuck Norris film, Best of the Best II mostly throws out the usual in any dumb action movie: thin characters, little plot and a lot of violent action that doesn't excite but rather disgust us with the way it develops. The first Best of the Best was something of a feel good movie, but this one made me want to vomit all over my lap when I saw it. Usually if there's one good action sequence in any movie, then it can't be all bad. Sadly Best of the Best II has no redeeming value as an action movie, though it tries hard when it wants to be an underground gladiator movie. As dumb as Best of the Best II can be, it could have been at least watchable had the film emphasized the arena instead of the characters, who are so thinly drawn out that there is little attention as to how they actually get to the point of fighting their way out like that Bruce Lee wannabe did in Game of Death.Roberts does try so desperately hard to inject some kind of drama or passion in this sequel, but even his minor talents can't do anything for him and the others. He sure looks fit here, which is why Best of the Best II feels like Rocky IV. From the montages to the cheesy dialogue to cold hearted villain, Best of the Best II is your basic ripoff of Rocky IV or any movie involving overcoming the odds. Rocky IV at least had good music to accompany the montages. Best of the Best II has some cheesy rock n roll score that couldn't be more simplistic if it tried.Getting back to Roberts, he does what he can to not be involved in his character. That's where the motivation for Best of the Best II falls apart, leaning on a flat personality like Rhee to carry the film when he has to fight Brakus. While he fights well, his acting is something of a disappointment, lacking much of a larger than life persona that should fit this movie. Even the additional screen time for Alex's kid doesn't help, giving us a lot of hokey sentiment that doesn't fit such a gratuitously violent sequel. Yeah Walter distracts a henchman so that his dad can beat him up, but so what? Even Moeller as Brakus seems largely forgettable, though his accent might be the only thing that makes his character stand out. He's given a lot of bad one liners that really make me cringe, and the only thing that makes him remotely compelling is that his muscles might be bigger than his head. Wayne Newton was fun to look at in Licence to Kill, but here he overstays his welcome and becomes something of a nuisance for those wanting a good scene stealer for the movie. Sadly he isn't, and as Brakus' manager he really is an egotistical jerk without a soul.The action is where Best of the Best II lives and dies, but unfortunately it dies before it lives up to its expectations. Various people get killed for no reasons, and what's with the guns? If Best of the Best II wanted to stick with some resemblance to the original, it should have been all martial arts and no guns. This is where Best of the Best II fails: when it tries to be something of a no win situation for the main characters. The finale is moderately entertaining, but it is more disgusting than exciting as with the rest of the film. People get their heads blown off, get their limbs broken, but not much of it seems to make sense as with the rest of Best of the Best II.Grade: D

Best of the Best 2 (the title on the version I saw said Best of the Best II) starts in Las Vegas where US Karate team champion Travis Brickley (Christopher Penn) has been participating in illegal underground fighting, a tournament called & held in The Colleseum under a casino called the Stock Exchange has both great dangers & great rewards for any fighter brave enough to enter. Get past three hand picked Gladiators & the final fight will be with the undefeated Brakus (Ralf Moeller) who kills all those he defeats. Brickly makes it to Brakus but is killed in the ring, witnessed by Walter Grady (Edan Gross) the young son of fellow US Karate champ Alex Grady (Eric Roberts) he tells his father who along with friend Tommy Lee (co-producer Phillip Rhee) want to avenge Brickley's death. However Brakus & his people play unfair & force Tommy to fight in the Colleseum while his armed men set out to hunt down & kill Alex & his son Walter...Directed by Robert Radler this was the sequel to the somewhat successful original martial arts film Best of the Best (1989) which was also directed by Radler & also starred Roberts, Rhee & Penn as martial artists. While the original was full of itself, wanted to preach a moral message & actually featured very little fighting Best of the Best 2 is an improvement in every way on it's predecessor. The script is far more balanced & far more like what I would call a proper martial arts action film rather than a lesson in how to get on & band as a team. While the original Best of the Best featured only a few very tame officiated fights Best of the best 2 has far more varied action scenes including car chases, shoot-outs, no holds barred fights & even the odd explosion. It's just a far more enjoyable film to watch & has much more action. The switching from an official tournament with fair play to a self proclaimed one where 'the only rule is there are no rules' is a wise move & makes for much more brutal & dramatic combat that includes weapons as well like staffs, silver nunchucks & even a bloke's ponytail. Sitting besides the martial arts fighting is a fairly basic but appreciated thriller as Alex & his kid Walter are hunted down by armed bad guy's, it's nothing amazing but it breaks the film up a little bit. Again the script tries to throw in all sorts of moral messages, from using ones inner strength, realising the importance of family & friendship to if at first you fail to keep trying. The whole script makes allusion's & references to ancient Roman gladiatorial battles from the name of the arena to the fighters themselves being called gladiator's to ancient stone style fighting ring to the costumes. It's not all perfect though, it's fairly predictable, at over 100 minutes it's too long & apparently by some bizarre coincidence Tommy Lee's brother is only one of three people in the entire world who can train someone to beat Brakus, gee that was lucky wasn't it?The fight scenes are very good here with no CGI computer effects, no machine gun editing & no shaky hand-held camcorder crap. The fights look impressive & look like proper fights where people get hurt, there's none of that ever so slightly embarrassing hugging & becoming best friends like at the end of the original Best of the Best. Having watched the original Best of the Best a couple of days ago I feel I am qualified to talk about series continuity, US Karate team member's Alex, Tommy Lee & Travis return while the other two don't. The villain from the original Dae Han also returns & helps out. Alex is now living in a nice big house rather than with his mom. Travis still likes to wear big Cowboy hats that make him look like a knob. Footage from the original is used during the opening credits. The rating has gone from a PG to an R (here in the UK the original was a 15 while this was an 18) which mean the violence levels have increased, from bloody gunshot wounds to blown off fingers to bloodied fighters Best of the Best 2 is far more brutal than the original. While the original had something like six musical training montages Best of the Best 2 thankfully features about three minus the awful 'Best of the Best' theme tune.Filmed on a bigger budget than the original Best of the Best this has good production values & looks decent enough, a lot of the cast return from the original with Wayne Newton, Patrick Kilpatrick, Meg Foster & Sonny Landham appearing. Kane Hodder plays a different character but pretty much the same role as he gets beaten up by Alex. It's not surprising that the notable absentee is James Earl Jones who does not appear.Best of the Best 2 is far more enjoyable than the slushy original, there's more action & it's more brutal, there are proper bad guy's who actually speak English & there aren't as many musical training montages. It's all good & it's all an improvement over the original while being quite enjoyable for what it is in it's own right. Followed by Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1995) & Best of the Best: Without Warning (1998).

I enjoyed this film because it was not only an action movie with some pretty good fight scenes, but also because it spent a bit of time on character development. Having the son of the main character be a martial arts student who demonstrates discipline and a bit of fighting courage made the movie a bit more dynamic in storyline than some early 90's action films. The character of James played by "Predator" star Sonny Landham was kind of a good family conflict and climax within the movie thus adding some depth. I found the movie fairly basic in terms of predictability, but it did have some spice within the plot. The fighting scenes were overall better than many other action films with animated injury sound effects and some good breaking clips. Overall the movie was enjoyable.