Underdog Kids

My kids, (son 10, daughter 9) absolutely loved this movie! They cheered, they laughed and yes they even teared up at times. I don't care what the technical reviews are... Our whole family enjoyed it for exactly what it is...a feel good family movie without sexual innuendo or foul language.

Imagine my delight when I found out that taekwondo maestro Phillip Rhee was returning to movies after a 17-year hiatus. The fact that it was for a family film only lightly dampened my enthusiasm, but that thudding noise you heard earlier today was the sound of my crest falling when I saw just how stinky of a picture this turned out to be. UNDERDOG KIDS is clearly Rhee's passion project, and while I like the idea of a positive coming-of-age karate flick, it does far too many things wrong to endear anyone but very tolerant viewers.

The story: An ex-MMA champ (Rhee) coaches troubled inner-city youths en-route to a tournament which will pit them against the nefarious Beverly Hills Junior National Team.

Other reviewers have called it before me, and I concur that this a pretty obvious melding of THE KARATE KID and Rhee's own BEST OF THE BEST. I don't mind the mix, but the filmmakers have disappointingly decided to go the sappiest and most juvenile route with it that they could have. Whatever the movie has to offer in the way of inspirational life lessons has been dipped in schmaltz and covered in cheese, because one of the few things that can halt the pitiful sob stories of the kids and the hammy character-building of Captain Rhee is the asinine comedy, the highlight of which involves the designated fat kid of the group winning a match by farting in an opponent's face.

To their credit, almost all of the featured children have some serious moves, and if placed in the hands of more ambitious directors, they could probably make one heck of an action movie. Most of the fights here aren't bad, but aside from the overuse of slow motion and occasionally choppy editing, the tone of the movie ensures that the importance of these scenes never rises above that of a bunch of kids fighting each other – not even with the gravity of THE HUNGER GAMES. Richard Norton, Don Wilson, Dan Inosanto, Benny Urquidez, and Jun Chong pop up briefly, but not only do they not fight, they don't even have any dialogue. Phillip Rhee himself only has one match, and I am 90% sure that he's been considerably stunt-doubled.

I'm all for martial arts in the family medium, even when it goes against my expectations, but even if there are some kids over the age of eight who are up to sitting through this, I don't think their parents will be. As both a filmmaker and veteran of the golden era of low-budget karate movies, Phillip Rhee represents one of our best chances of seeing the style of yesteryear revived in the new millennium, but if UNDERDOG KIDS is a taste of what Rhee is interested in doing with his experience, I will be less interested in any future features he directs. Skip it.

Phillip Rhee is a man of many talents. I've watched all his Movies since I was a Kid. Every Movie has a positive story & message, Underdog Kids is no exception. This Movie delivers the true meaning of Martial Arts, self-discipline, courage, friendship, love, respect and honor. Important parts to Martial Arts & Life that I see disappearing, over run with brutality & violence to make money or have a Gold Belt. This Movie shows that there is more value to life.

It's a heart warming story, with many challenges young kids face on a daily basis & show's how these particular characters overcome the obstacles. It's an inspiring independent Movie to watch, that I think all ages would like, although its aimed toward a Family orientated genre.

It doesn't have all the glitz and glamor you'd get from a blockbuster Movie with massive funding. It somewhat lacks post production and fancy editing, however the story surpasses that. For me thats what a good movie is all about. So go in with an open mind, sit back with some popcorn & enjoy Underdog Kids.

The martial arts choreography and stunts were good (and that's pretty much it).

The story, the script and the characters felt so sub-par that it ruined the movie for me. It was so badly written, awkward, poor acting including the main actor, the martial arts master Phillip Rhee who both wrote and directed this movie, apparently not having any producers, co-producers etc. helping him with everything that is wrong with this movie.

But as I said, if you can wade through what is almost a parody that might be called "Mighty Karate Ducks" you will see some really nice choreography and stunts. It's clear Phillip Rhee had a casting that focused on martial arts skill and not acting. His acting was weak too.

Not worth the rent. If you have a serious craving for some martial arts and you've seen everything that is out there then you can at least check this one out an skip the nonsense between the martial arts sequences.

This is horrible. And, of course, even if the film does have a message, the message doesn't overshadow the choppy editing, exaggerated fight sequences, unrealistic performances, cheesy dialogue, ineffective humor, and predictable plot. This film is the worst example of martial-arts filmmaking I've seen in years. It does not even come CLOSE to Rocky or The Karate Kid. Those movies are MUCH better not JUST because of the message, because from a filmmaking perspective, those films are excellent. Underdog Kids uses the aesthetics of martial-arts filmmaking and butchers it-somehow, Philip Rhee is actually being unintentionally satirical when using the aesthetics of classic boxing/martial-arts films. However, this makes for good entertainment, I guess, because it's so terrible-THAT terrible, it's actually funny.

Now, what's this film about? Well, you won't find many differences from this film's plot and other classic karate film plots. This film follows the same basic concept of good-kids-versus-bullies-and-ruthless-Cobra-Kai-like-team. Nothing new, just your typical martial-arts storyline that doesn't have much originality to it. But, hey, Rhee doesn't care, 'cause as long as he's getting that cold, hard cash at the end of the day, he doesn't care that he just made the worst martial-arts movie of all time. The story follows a group of kids who are trained by Philip Rhee's character, a martial-arts expert who understands the art and teaches them how to fight not only the other side (which is a Cobra-Kai-like team with your typical angry instructor), but to fight their struggles. However, the message doesn't matter, 'cause everybody gets lost in the meaningless editing techniques used throughout the film.

Particularly, its choppy cuts. The cutting and transitions don't seem to mix well, and the editing, as a result, doesn't exactly add to the excitement of the action scenes due to its choppiness. The cutting just doesn't work, but you know what also doesn't work: the slow-motion.

Apparently, Philip Rhee hasn't watched The Matrix, and should know that you don't need fast editing and camerawork, or even slow-motion, to create an exciting action scene. The Matrix doesn't just have exciting action scenes, it has a good story.

Philip Rhee, however, seems to focus on using exaggerated slow-motion techniques that just look dumb and don't even mingle well with the action scenes. Rhee relies on this slow-motion technique to propel the action scenes of Underdog Kids.

But this is where Rhee really fails-the fight scenes. Nothing looks realistic-even the moves which are mastered by the kids are moves that even Bruce Lee wouldn't be able to do. They include crazy flips, all kinds of kicks, and certain movements that make us wonder if we're just hallucinating or if this is actually real life. These moves are so exaggerated that the fight scenes suffer as a result of the terrible choreography. Especially the reactions of the victims don't feel genuine either. The victims' reactions are terrible and feel like the actors are just acting and not actually bringing realism to the screen-like this is even the way people react when fighting.

Oh, and yes, don't get me started on the ending. We all know the team of good kids are gonna win against the ruthless team, so I don't even need to put up a Spoilers! alert for that one. And, yes, they do win at the end-and also, to make the opposing sides reconcile, Rhee decides to cram in an inept conclusion to both teams' feud by having the villains instantly change their ways, abandon their instructor, and apologize to the opposing team. And WOW! That's just...that's just...well, that's very good writing.

And, yes, let's not forget the dialogue. Corny discussions are frequent throughout the film, which include dialogue like "That was mean, man" and "He calls that the fart of death" (in one scene I will later discuss). This dialogue is low-budget, lowest-rate, and just dumb. If only Rhee watched The Social Network as well.

Not only does Rhee includes this kind of dialogue, but the film has terrible humor as well. One scene, in particular, is ineffective in adding to any humorous effect intended by Rhee, in which a boy, pinned to the ground by his fighting adversary in a martial-arts fight, uses flatulence to win the fight. Is this even considered funny? That's because it isn't: it's cheap laughs. And, of course, we need commentary on the boy's flatulence as well ("He calls that the fart of death")

Overall, Underdog Kids shouldn't even be a movie: it is so dumb and terribly made that it seems to be one of the movies you watch to laugh at just because it's so bad. Watch this as a guilty pleasure.