Best of the Best 4: Without Warning

The first two best of the best films, I feel, were the most entertaining but this fourth addition with Ernie Hudson was watchable and contained 2 really good fight scenes and one amazing shootouts! In general with it's low budget the film made due very well and I was glad I had watched it. If you liked the first two or three you will certainly enjoy the fourth.

They should have warned us :(

This is a long way from the excellence of the first two movies and really the movie doesn't belong to the Best of the Best franchise.

All the heart has been sucked out of it and we are left only with a below average actioner that has a plot that can only be described as cliched.

Are there some good fight scenes? Sure but you have to wade your way through a fair bit of rubbish to get to them.

Watch it as a stand alone film and convince yourself that is is not part of the above average franchise that is Best of the Best.

Unlike the producers, I have given you plenty of warning :)

Phillip Rhee stars as Tommy Lee, the same martial artist who must rescue his daughter from Russian (?) spies who want him to give them back the disc that he's gotten a hold of in exchange for his daughter safe and sound, much kung fu ensues. I actually enjoyed this the best, to be fair I sort of liked the first one, but this one had all the silliness and action that I've come to expect from the typical kung fu/actioner. This loses the racist elements of the abominable third entry and gives us more martial arts, stupid plot threads and a hot love interest for our hero. Phillip Rhee, while no gifted thespian, is surprisingly likable and seems far more exciting in the fight sequences than he was in parts 1-3. Indeed, his fight sequences are intensely choreographed and Rhee proves to be an excellent director as martial arts sequences go. Also the cast includes Ernie Hudson, Tobin Bell (Jigsaw from Saw) and Art La Fleur. Also there is torture that involves a pitching machine, bad guys who screw up a traffic light, to cause an accident and tons of kickboxing. Indeed the film is an excuse to give us Phillip Rhee at his ass-kicking best and frankly, who on earth can hate such a flick?

* *1/2 Out Of 4-(Pretty Good)

I loved the first 3 best of the best movies. Yes they are just simple action movies, with no great plot or story, but i liked them for what they are. This one reminds me of a low budget Die Hard 4.0 remake(in fact Die Hard 4.0 was made many years after this one) The story is very simple and easy to follow, Tommy Lee gets a disc and evil Russian Mobsters want it back, so Tommy Lee is gonna kick some Russian Butt, it did however not feel like a best of the best movie(the previous movies did not seem to matter, i mean Tommy Lee has a cop brother in law , why didn't he asked him to take the disc, and what about the girl from the third movie?) All in all, a action movie with some good martial arts. 6/10

The fourth and final entry in this franchise, directed and co-written by franchise veteran Phillip Rhee, is decent enough if hardly inspired. This time, our intrepid martial artist hero is working as a self-defense advisor for the police force when he gets caught up in a plot hatched by murderous Russian counterfeiters. When he's forced to kill a crooked detective who's in on the scheme, he must take it on the lam - all while doing everything possible to protect his little girl (Jessica Huang).

"Best of the Best 4: Without Warning" doesn't have *that* much to do with the martial arts, although it does feature the requisite scenes with Tommy Lee getting a chance to show off his impressive skills. It's pretty standard, unimaginative stuff, with no surprises and a bunch of typical characters. That said, Rhee is still enjoyable to watch as he struts *his* stuff, and there's one fairly good chase sequence. At least there's a respectable body count, and the baddies are mostly irredeemable garbage whose demises are eagerly anticipated.

One good thing that the movie can boast is a solid lineup of character actors in supporting roles, even if they've been better utilized in other things: Ernie Hudson (the "Ghost Busters" movies) as a jerk detective, Art La Fleur ("Cobra") as a store owner, Tobin Bell (the "Saw" franchise) as the main baddie, Chris Lemmon ("Just Before Dawn") as another detective, Sven-Ole Thorsen ("Conan the Barbarian") as one of the many disposable henchmen, and Paul Gleason ("The Breakfast Club") as a helpful priest. It's particularly good to see Gleason cast against type here, since he's best known for jerk characters himself.

Mindless fun overall, mostly for die-hard action fanatics who aren't particularly demanding.

Six out of 10.