Hulk Hogan - Der Hammer

Hulk Hogan stars as a champion wrestler (A real acting stretch...) named Rip, who is forced to defend his honor, his title and his girlfriend from a greedy corporation that wanted him to sign for their network (Because wrestling sells!) however when Rip declines, the network gets a circuit fighting championship called (and i'm totally serious) "Battle of the tough guys" who's champion Zeus (Played by Tiny Lister Jr) maybe the deadliest man alive. Rip refuses to fight, until his brother is attacked and put in a hospital. No Holds Barred is pretty much what I expected from Vince McMahon production starring the least versatile actor in the action genre (Hogan) it is basically lots of unintentional humor, tons of awkward sequences, a couple okay action sequences and tons of stupidity. In other words it's not unlike wrestling itself, so I give it a fair rating mainly because anyone renting this knows what they're getting. The movie is cheap but well made enough for what it is and really wrestling fans will probably enjoy this. I myself found this to be ultimately hilarious. They're are moments of such absurdity that you only chuckle to yourself. (Such as the way Hogan jumps 20 feet in the air after being stuck in a limo, how he forces a guy to crap himself and of course the way Hogan recites from his cuecard. (I.E:"I'm not going to be around when this check clears!") No Holds Barred is a lot of fun, true, though it's mainly because of how ridiculous it is. Fans of camp should really enjoy this clever clinker.

* * out of 4-(Fair)

Hulk Hogan must have gotten other movie offers from other studios - so upon seeing his choice for his first starring role, you have to wonder why on earth he picked this one! Could the other offers been even worse than this? Seeing that the "trivia" section for this movie states that he found the original draft unsatisfying and rewrote it without credit, you also have to wonder how it was originally.

Whatever the case, the end results are really bad... but so bad that they are often hilarious to watch. Now, the movie was done somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the acting is so over the top... the plot is so simple-minded and unbelievable... that you can't accept the majority of the hilarity as intentional.

If you can stop laughing long enough to study the movie, you'll see just how badly made it is. The editing is terrible - it's obvious a good number of scenes (containing a good amount of explanation) are missing, and other scenes are clearly chopped down to a fraction of their original length. This may explain why there's barely a feeling Hogan is the star of the movie - there are long stretches when he's nowhere in sight, and he actually doesn't get to do as much as you might think. (It doesn't help that in some long shots, he appears to be replaced by a double.) And while Hogan seems to have aimed the movie towards his youthful fans, the violence level (including attempted rape, savage beatings, and death) makes the movie a questionable choice for this age group.

No matter how low your expectations are going into this absurd late 80s Hulk Hogan vehicle, it's quite likely to limbo right under them.

Hogan is the "star", but he actually gets very little screen time, disappearing for large chunks of the film while the focus is on the villain of the piece played with a "Hey, it's a paycheck" glee by Kurt Fuller. When he is on screen, Hogan struggles playing a character that is more or less the same one he'd played for nearly a decade in the WWF.

None of this would've mattered much had the film at least given us some entertaining wrestling moments and perhaps a few good montages set to cheesy rock music, but it can't even seem to do that right.

'No Holds Barred' is awful even by the standards of low budget late-80s wrestling movies, of which it may be the only one.

My review was written in May 1989 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

A disappointing big-screen vehilce for wrestling champ Hulk Hogan, "No Holds Barred" should nonetheless birng out the Hulkster's legions of fans to generate good opening but wobbly legs this summer for New Line.

Despite pro wrestling's renewed popularity in recent years, the films about grapplers have all flopped, even with casts including Sylvester Stallone, Roddy Piper and Sgt. Slaughter.

Here Hogan plays himself, still the World Wrestling Federation champ (pic's executive producer is WWF's head honcho Vince McMahon). He's nmed Rip for story's sake. He strikes the same poses, makes the same grimaces and uses the same holds the fans are accustomed to, and is even accompanied by the same announcers (in cameos): Mean Gene Okerlund, Jesse (The Body) Venturaa and Howard Finkel.

Extremely lame plotline has tyrannical tv network boss Kurt Fuller unable to coax Rip away from a rival ewb. Fuller' countermove i to telecast live tough-guy contests, with muscular and mean black wrestler Tiny Lister emering the winner. In cliched fashion, Rip must meet Lister (as Zeus) in the octagonal ring while a race against the clock goes on to find his kidnapped girlfriend (Joan Severance) or Rip will have to "throw" the match to save her pretty neck.

Fan are bound to be disappointed by the uninteresting wrestling action on display here poorly photgraphed to boot. Toilet humor abounds and far too much footage is devoted to Fuller' wimpy, bumbling henchmen Charles Levin and David Palmer.

Best scenes, sure to please smallfry, are when Hogan as Rip takes his rassling into the street and applies it comicbook-style to smash up limos and anyting else in his way.

Unfortunately, Hogan's acting is poor, his line readings lacking any conviction. His talented and beautiful leading lady Severance has to carry all their scenes together, including a misjudged homage to Frank Capra's famous Walls of Jericho bedroom scene in "It Happened One Night".

As archvillain, Fuller closely resembles Bill Murray in "Scrooged", but overacts unbearably. Lister, with frightening crossed eyes, is physcially right but tuck with unfortunate stereotyping, as is the rest of the film's black cast. An engaging and funny supporting role is essayed by another pro wrestling champ, Stan (The Lariat) Hansen.

it's silly,but pretty entertaining. i first saw this movie in 1990 i think. it's really the only hulk hogan movie worth watching more than once. it's the best pro wrestling movie ever. it's not as fun as pro wrestling itself,but still fun. i give no holds barred **1/2 out of

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