Best of the Best 4 - Le feu aux poudres

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.

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 :)

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.