Best of the Best 4 - Le feu aux poudres

Best of the Best 4, is better than 3, but just barely. Basically, I say this because part 4 doesn't contradict parts 1/2 (like 3 does), (ie. their is no reference to Tommy Lee having siblings).

Anyway, I liked the Russian plot line of the story, and especially Sven Ole-Thorsen's bit part as Boris. Aside from that though and a few fighting scenes, the movie is nothing special. The limited budget is also very noticeable (especially in the airplane blow-up scene).

Also, part 4 does not really have a moral or say anything like part 3 did, there are a couple of more better known actors (Hudson, Thorsen) in part 4, but alas nothing like the beginning of the series (and even these characters have very small roles).

Alas, it seems Best of the Best is the Rhee show, and to be truthful, he cannot carry a movie.

Saw on tape, Rating:4

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.

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.

BEST OF THE BEST 4: WITHOUT WARNING is the fourth and final of this martial arts-based series. Now that I've seen all of them, I can report that the second one is by far the best; the first one was weak and unfocused and the third too derivative a thriller. The fourth is much like the third was: it has some good action scenes but the plot is entirely derivative and it's not as good as the second in the series.

Phillip Rhee once again returns to write, direct, and star in the whole thing. Oddly, he's now a widower with a six-year-old daughter, which is bizarre given he was single in the last movie which only seemed to take place a couple of years previously. Rhee falls foul of the Russian mob, who are searching for a plot MacGuffin in the form of a computer disc that just so happens to fall into Rhee's possession. Action ensues.

BEST OF THE BEST 4 is a film with cheesy stunts and cheesier action, including an explosive encounter with a tanker and plenty of motorbike action. The action is pretty cool, especially the early encounter in a corner street store between Rhee and a couple of goons, even though the story and characters are sub-standard. Still, there are a few familiar faces in this one, not least Ernie Hudson (GHOSTBUSTERS) as a tough-talking cop, SAW's Tobin Bell as the villain of the piece, Schwarzenegger double Sven-Ole Thorsen as a henchman (what else?), Paul Gleason (DIE HARD) as a priest, and Art La Fleur (THE BLOB) as an ally.

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.