Best of the Best 4: Without Warning

Phillip Rhee stars as Tommy Lee, the same martial artist who must rescue his daughter from Russian (?) spies who want him to give them back the disc that he's gotten a hold of in exchange for his daughter safe and sound, much kung fu ensues. I actually enjoyed this the best, to be fair I sort of liked the first one, but this one had all the silliness and action that I've come to expect from the typical kung fu/actioner. This loses the racist elements of the abominable third entry and gives us more martial arts, stupid plot threads and a hot love interest for our hero. Phillip Rhee, while no gifted thespian, is surprisingly likable and seems far more exciting in the fight sequences than he was in parts 1-3. Indeed, his fight sequences are intensely choreographed and Rhee proves to be an excellent director as martial arts sequences go. Also the cast includes Ernie Hudson, Tobin Bell (Jigsaw from Saw) and Art La Fleur. Also there is torture that involves a pitching machine, bad guys who screw up a traffic light, to cause an accident and tons of kickboxing. Indeed the film is an excuse to give us Phillip Rhee at his ass-kicking best and frankly, who on earth can hate such a flick?

* *1/2 Out Of 4-(Pretty Good)

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 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.

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

I thought this was the worst of the four Best of the Best Movies. Although Phillip Rhee in my opinion does a good job in all, I thought the acting was for the most part subpar in this film and didn't think the plot was all that great. Some decent fight scenes.