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Mind you, it's not supposed to be, but it is. As a wee tot, I watched this movie in the theatre (Being a huge wrestling and Hulk Hogan fan). All I remember from the night is we were the only ones in the theater, and that I didn't really like it very much. I blacked the rest out, and for good reason.

A poor film on par with the greats like "Gymkata" and "The Pumaman," "No Holds Barred" is a movie set in the high stakes world of pro wrestling. Well maybe the stakes aren't all that high...and quite frankly I feel dirty just calling these people "professionals" at anything. And really, except for the first scene, there's no wrestling to speak of. So I guess movie is about the marginally low stakes world of amateurish beating-the-c***-out-of-people. Sounds good, right?

Hulk Hogan plays Rip, the champion of the WWF (Never let it be said that Hulk Hogan was typecast, this and movies like Thunder in Paradise showed how he challenged himself with deep roles that really pushed the limits of his talents). Essentially he's playing himself, but with a wardrobe that's more black and blue than the Hulkster's red and yellow. He also has this hand gesture he does. It's kinda like the ozzy devil sign people make at rock concerts, except you stick your thumb in the air, and you curl your index finger in. My friend claimed that it was supposed to look like an "R." Try and see for yourself. If that looks like an "R," well, then, Mars needs women. But anyway.

Kurt Fuller, with his overacting detector obviously on the fritz, plays a TV exec with his slightly homoerotic heart set on getting Rip, who's evidentally bigger than Elvis, on his network. He won't have any of it (And exits the office with a triumphant hand gesture to no one but the camera), and so the movie follows Fuller trying to boost ratings and get back at Rip. He does so when he creates his brilliantly titled "Battle of the Tough Guys." Marketing genius, this guy.

From the numerous hand gestures, to the rather idiotic fight scenes (All played as if wrestling is very real and deadly serious) to the overacting, to the far too frequent shots of Hulk in nothing but undies, this movie has everything you'd ever want in a dumb movie. It's frivolous, not too taxing on the mind, violent, and includes the phrase "What's that smell?" "DOOKIE!" "Dookie?"

A classic for all time.

Let's face it, "No Holds Barred was a movie made to cash in on the big wave of Hulkamania and for the kids who were fans of Hulk Hogan, it must have been a dream come true. For anyone else, "No Holds Barred" is a painfully stupid watch with plot so unbelievably dumb and requiring such huge amounts of suspension of disbelief to even partly accept it as a reality. It does resemble a movie, but that's almost all it has going for it. To anyone who saw this as a kid, it may be nostalgic, but to any wrestling fans or people looking for a "so bad it's good movie" this is not it. It has a few scenes of that kind which will make you laugh in disbelief, but other than that, it has nothing going for it. Watch only if you are gigantic wrestling/Hulk Hogan fan or don't mind killing your brain cells. 5/10!

I haven't seen this since it came out, so I revisited it on TUBI. It still stinks after all these years. The biggest problem is Hulk Hogan can't act. He's one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, but that doesn't translate to the screen at all. He's painfully bad. His acting is often unintentionally funny. The sign he gives as "Rip" is silly and hackish. His love scenes with Joan Severance are silly, too, mainly due to his bad acting and having no chemistry with Joan on screen.

The supporting players, mainly Kurt Fuller and his 2 associates, are pretty good and are often funny. The scene where all 3 of them enter the dive bar is actually pretty funny and is intended to be so. That one scene is the best in the film. Tiny Lister is pretty ominous as Zeus, Hogan's rival. Joan Severance is gorgeous and deserves to be in a better movie. Despite Hogan's massive popularity in the wrestling world at the time, the film bombed despite massive promotion by WWF/WWE, and now is considered a bad cult classic. Don't bother unless you're a fan of bad movies.

it's silly,but pretty entertaining. i first saw this movie in 1990 i think. it's really the only hulk hogan movie worth watching more than once. it's the best pro wrestling movie ever. it's not as fun as pro wrestling itself,but still fun. i give no holds barred **1/2 out of

****

it was late one halloween night I had fallen asleep with my TV on and I woke up like 2 in the morning, opened my eyes and this movie was playing. I was a little groggy, but was then awake and couldnt get back to sleep and figured might as well watch this. the thing that surprised me, is, this movie is standard fair as far as fish out of water fighting against incredible odds to win something movies go, but I just LOVED the look of this movie. it was filmed very beaituflly, with some very surreal scenes. such as that rough bar hulk went to and got intoa fight, the look of the bar with the lights shining thru the walls and the colorful look of it really caught my eye. from then on, the strange thing was, while I wasnt incredibly taken with the plot, I thought the film itself, as far as the scenes was really....well........sharp and cool.