Der Unbesiegbare - Best of the Best

Eric Roberts and Phillip Rhee return as the two karate champs Alex Grady and Tommy Lee who team up to take on a Schwarzenegger style brute named Brackus (Rolph Moller) who kills their friend Travis Brickley (Christopher Penn), they begin training with Lee's uncle (Sonny Landham) who is the only one who can teach them the ways to destroy Brackus in this mediocre yet definitely improved sequel. Good fightscenes and a scene stealing performance from Wayne Newton make this one watchable.

Not as good as the original. In this second movie of Best of the Best,we only see a few of the people from the original.

This movie does not take place in a karate tournement,but instead in the coloseum which is a place where it is arranged illegal fights to the death. This movie has much more hardcore fighting and explicit violence than the original,but it misses those important moments that the original had.

Even though this movie does not show friendship and feelings like the original,it still is very entertaining.

So I advice all fans of the genre to go see this one,because it has some really impressing fighting scenes.

If you want to talk about a movie that's a black hole for careers, let's talk about Best of the Best 2. Director Robert Radler wound up working on Power Rangers episodes, Eric Roberts usually appears in magazines making jealous comments about his much more successful sister, and Philip Rhee...well, the less said about Best of the Best 3 and 4, the better. Ralf Moeller, the chief bad guy, usually winds up playing the big sidekick, most visibly in Gladiator. Ironically, he's probably made out better than anyone else involved, save for the invincible Wayne Newton.

Judged by the standards of its genre, the movie isn't entirely terrible. Judging action movies on the same scale as more respectable fare is like expecting your 59 cent hamburger to taste like steak, and Best of the Best 2 is better than a lot of comparable movies I've seen. The fight scenes are refreshingly high-impact and plentiful, Newton is as deliciously slimy as Richard Dawson in The Running Man, and Moeller makes for a formidable bad guy in the ring. In these respects and others, this movie compares well with better-known movies like Bloodsport or the terrible Kickboxer.

The bad parts are definitely bad, however. The script, as is usual for the genre, consists of the standard tough-guy posturing, but is not even particularly clever at that. Roberts looks like he's being directed to think about his paycheck whenever he's supposed to act happy. Rhee (the real star) does a good job in the ring, but his transformation from calm martial artist to brutal vengeance artist is not really played at all. The bad guys, other than Moeller and to some extent Newton, are completely devoid of menace. The worst part of all - and one of the most cringe-inducing scenes I've ever witnessed - is the first scene with James, where a pathetic drunk's tragic fall is played for laughs. This scene will and should offend almost anyone who understands it.

On the ugly side, the movie's production design definitely reflects its budget. Best of the Best 2 looks and sounds at least 10 years older than it actually is. In style, form, and substance, it's well behind the curve. Some of the violence is really painful to watch, namely two close-ups of Rhee breaking limbs in hapkido arm locks. This is a cheap shot, but Roberts' girlfriend looks like she's about 70. All told, it is not a study in economy. Shot for about the same budget as a Star Trek: The Next Generation 2-part episode, this movie looks way worse.

Is it completely terrible? Well, don't be looking for The Godfather. If some cheesy fighting is your bag, however, you're looking at the right movie. Recommended for genre diehards and 12-year-olds, but not really for anyone else.

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.

I saw this movie for sale at a local store and decided to check it out, and I have to say, I was impressed. Briefly summarized, this movie is about three good friends who were once champions in a karate tournament, two of them teach karate to young children, and the other fights for money. In a typical turn of events, the third is killed (big surprise) and the two others decide to get revenge. The action is nonstop, and even though this is a reused storyline, the acting is incredible, Eric Roberts is an amazing actor, and he never comes across as fake or overacting, and Philip Rhee is an amazing martial artist. This is a must-see.