Eric Roberts stars as Alex Grady, a former champion in martial arts who has since been forced into retirement due to injuries, as he and others attempt to prove themselves as … well, I was going to quote the title but nevermind. The film progresses as each of the members are chosen and must undergo the arduous training of sit-ups and James Earl Jones barking at them to challenge the victorious South Koreans in a martial arts tournament. In the process, we see their home lives, their struggles and challenges, and their relative victory as they combat their personal demons.
Now, in the above sentence, I say they but I really mean Roberts and co-star/producer Phillip Rhee. Even though the team is five strong, only Roberts and Rhee are really given anything to do other than take place in a montage or get sweaty in a ring fighting. For a film which has directly on the poster “A team is not a team if you don’t give a damn about one another,” this movie really jettisoned the team to focus on the two leads. Now, this is not a bad thing per se as they were the only members of the team with a real backstory or any real reason to care for them. Although Chris Penn’s character has a fairly large but very understated character arc as he goes from being a selfish ass to being a caring member of society, the other two are worthless and were rightly cut out for the sequel.
Acting wise, this movie was nothing special. But considering it had a theatrical release and had some fairly renowned stars, it was a bit of a let down. Roberts has been in the shadow of his uglier sister for quite some time and it seems like only now has he began to break out from dreck like Sci-Fi (or SyFy) originals or the like as he was quite atrocious and over the top in this. Rhee (according to the Bible: IMDB) has not been in anything else since the end of the Best of the Best franchise and I really cannot say we are missing too much. Even the normally good James Earl Jones (Exorcist II notwithstanding) is merely a caricature of other hardass sports coaches who do nothing but yell and dictate until the inevitable change of heart in the final reel. The rest are barely worth mentioning besides Chris Penn who did a passable, but still laughable job with the random Texan from Miami. Sad to say, I think Kane Hodder out acted them all.
I will say it was quite engrossing to watch the five misfits transform into a team through their personal differences and begin to respect one another. One minute we are in a gym in LA for tryouts and the next we are in yet another gym as the team begins to bond, work out, train, and do all sorts of stuff like that. It is in the middle that we get the beef of the movie as we learn Alex is holding onto this opportunity as salvation of sorts out of the blue-collar life he leads now and Tommy (Rhee’s character) is fighting the man who killed his brother in the same league years before. This is where the leads show off their acting chops … or completely overdo it in my opinion. But it is still nice to have some sense of characterization other than a fighter driven to win.
The ending though is where the movie really comes together. An hour of buildup leads to some pretty good fight scenes between the Americans and their Asian counterparts battling for supremacy. This gives us a break from the mediocre acting (save for a classic Eric Roberts moment) to focus on people kicking ass. While it is unfortunate that the South Koreans ending up winning, we all win as the victors shuffle over to their challengers to commend them for their good effort and showmanship. As I said, if you’ve ever seen any underdog sports movie before, then you can merely substitute karate for football or the Mighty Ducks and you have a good idea of what this movie is about. Just add James Earl Jones.
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