Karate Tiger VII - To Be the Best

There was a point, I think it was 3rd January, 2005, at about 11.00 o clock pm, that i thought 'Glow,' the Reef album, would be the most offensive thing I would ever meet. I regret to say that I was wrong. I am a nice guy, and I love PM Entertainment films, just look at my Shotgun review, and so I bought this DVD for more of the same nail biting, teeth clenching acting and violence I expect from Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi. The film had a good set up, American kick boxing team wanting to beat some Thai ass, a very good looking blond woman and guys with great muscles.

However the film lacks proper violence, it does not contain any gratuitous shootings or cuttings, or even any proper sex, but what it has plenty of is greased up oily men poking each other in a ring of ropes. It replaces blood and gore with grease and sweat. Where some people I know may like this, I had to get a sick bucket on stand by. The scenes which aren't in the ring looks like there would be better suited on Sunset Beach. The acting made me choke with laughter, especially the two pitiful uses of f***, yes ONLY 2!!! Something is definitely wrong here.

Well I have already wasted 5 minutes reviewing this waste of a movie so I shan't waste any more time on it, I mean I could cutting my arms or stabbing pins into my eyes (which I did have to resort to whilst watching it).

I hope this has been helpful fellow PM Entertainment fan, watch Shotgun, Rage or To The Limit, but NOT to be the best.

Yeah, I admit it. I was the Production Designer on this ultra-low-budget film... and the first few minutes of Helicopter footage are the best moments in this entire film. As opposed to most other PM films, this had little preproduction time. Rick (Pepin)& Joe (Merhi) heard that the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas was going to be torn down, so we rushed over to shoot there in order to incorporate the demolition of it in the film... but it ended up being delayed by Las Vegas's Building & Safety! Other problems we had... somehow we ended up with less than half the "extras" that we needed to fill in the audience for the fight sequences, and then a key (expensive) scene involving the villain being thrown off the Sand's top floor Penthouse didn't work out because of the bad weather... and Red Horton, our Stunt Coordinator refused to do the jump because of the wind. It eventually snowed. Sooo, all of my Art Department's budget that was spent on replicating the overhanging Portaco in the front of the hotel and the rental of dozens of huge "air bags" went down the toilet. We did end up shooting Red falling through the Portaco "set piece" I built (with the uncredited & UNPAID help of Grand Master Set Builder and Special Effects Artist, Gary Kennedy) but Don "overload" Power screwed it all up by using WAY TOO MUCH flash powder and smoke... so that it overexposed and burned the film. You couldn't see a bloody thing on the dailies except a giant WHITE FLASH! Gee, Thanks a lot Don! Sooo, don't bother watching this, unless you're totally BORED and there's NOTHING else on the tube.

It's a okay Action Movie but I will say if you enjoy this then you love Best of the Best Movie Series

To be the best is a little naive replica of Final Impact, this time all shifted as a Team of American kick-boxers training for the world championship. The script it's fairly poor and it seems written by unexperienced people, and thank to the so-so actors, the good Mike Worth was left alone holding up the shaky story. This time a dubious affair of bets and fixed bouts, but luckily without pretensions (the low budget prevented it).

Mehri seems to need Lamas for his charisma, while Martin Kove tries to be convincing as an upright coach of the team. No, he can't. He looks more a shrewish foreman than a mentor. Anyway, on the ring, the fighting scenes are memorable. Well choreographed they're pretty realistic and captivating. Mike Worth, Vince Murdocco, Steve Vincent Leigh were phenomenal. If just they showed more action and less chats this flick could have taken an higher vote.

Sad the choice to put a commentator during the fights. A real disgrace because an easy-to-find song under the FX would have been found even by a child, and all the work would benefited. As fighters the actors do a great job, and that's all I asked for this action movie. Again, the editor cut a lot of fights (condensing them in a big video-clip) to save time: but time for what ?! These are not mistakes attributable to money, and still they occur !

7,5 / 10

If you want to see a really strong dramatic piece of celluloid you've come to the wrong place. But if you really want to be entertained with spectacular fight action with some drama, this is the film for you. To Be The best offers fight fans everything they could want in a fight action film. The fights are some of the best. The choreography is so well done you really feel these men are pummeling each other. The fight direction and editing is extremely well done. Oh, and by the way there is a strong story here not just fights.