Best of the Best 4 - Le feu aux poudres

Is there a Best of the Best 3.5? I'm just asking because in this film Tommy is a widower with a six year old kid and last time we saw Tommy he was young free and single. He's also got his Tae Kwon Do school back after telling folk in the last film he gave it up. Hey-ho. Let's not over think things.

Who's gonna mess with Tommy's family this time and then act all surprised when his cheesy feet start zooming towards their faces, knocking their teeth out and stuff? This time you've got the bad guy from Saw, some other guy, and Killian's henchman from The Running Man out to get a disc from Tommy that he didn't even know he had, as some girl slipped it into his pocket shortly before being machine gunned to death by a bad guy from some counterfeiting gang.

This gang steal and entire truck at the start of the film and waste loads of cops so we know they mean business. They also prove to be the biggest bunch of morons Tommy's had to face, as they do the one thing that Tommy hates the most – That's right, they target his family.

Blah blah fight scenes, blah blah threats. Tommy kicks his way through a lot of bad guys in this one, but I reckon we spend a bit too much time with the bad guys in-fighting rather that Tommy jumping all over their heads. He's also managed to go up against bad guys that take themselves out! Not only are they all threatening and shooting each other, one of them manages to kill more bad guys than Tommy.

Seriously, there's loads of bad guys chasing Tommy at one end of a tunnel on motorbikes, and this one guy at the other end of the tunnel grabs a truck and speeds towards them, then misses Tommy, then hits the rest of the bad guys causing a huge explosion that takes out a helicopter too. All Tommy had to do was get out of the way.

Phillip Rhee also directs this one too, and it'll do for a quick action fix. The second film's the best one in the series by my reckoning. I think there was plans for a fifth one where Tommy didn't even bother getting out of bed while the bad guys just took care of themselves.

If bad movies bore or make you upset, don't watch 'Best of the Best 4'. The initial opening displays a burst of energy in setting things up, but there's also some real stupid moments. How far in the future from 'BotB3' does this take place? The cracks are starting to show.

Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee) is now a single dad and teaching martial arts classes to law enforcement for a living. Bad guys successfully hijack a shipment of the paper that money is printed on by the US Treasury Dept. A young lady working for them in possession of the mini-CD that stores the template to print currency has second thoughts and in one of the those only-in-the-movies moments slips it unbeknownst to Tommy. The rest spells itself out as the German bad guys led by Lukasz (Tobin Bell) want it back.

You got Ernie Hudson sporting a bald look as an a-hole cop. Paul Gleason (The Breakfast Club, Die Hard) plays a priest. Sven Ole-Thorson is bad guy muscle naturally. None of them really help this movie or stand out. Phillip Rhee is still able to shoulder the lead role though, but the story is boring. Low budget limitations show up in some laughable special fx and someone obviously had a fondness for slow-mo which gets used in many of the fight scenes bringing them down. The finale of the series, last sequel but also slightly better than the original.

There's not a whole lot to bite into with 'Without Warning'. If you've seen your share of movies, you know where this is going before it even gets there. There's no real energy to the proceedings. Nothing to make it even a guilty pleasure. I wanted to like it, but it feels subpar. Boring at times and much of the action not noteworthy.

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.

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

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 :)