Underdog Kids

My kids, (son 10, daughter 9) absolutely loved this movie! They cheered, they laughed and yes they even teared up at times. I don't care what the technical reviews are... Our whole family enjoyed it for exactly what it is...a feel good family movie without sexual innuendo or foul language.

Imagine my delight when I found out that taekwondo maestro Phillip Rhee was returning to movies after a 17-year hiatus. The fact that it was for a family film only lightly dampened my enthusiasm, but that thudding noise you heard earlier today was the sound of my crest falling when I saw just how stinky of a picture this turned out to be. UNDERDOG KIDS is clearly Rhee's passion project, and while I like the idea of a positive coming-of-age karate flick, it does far too many things wrong to endear anyone but very tolerant viewers.

The story: An ex-MMA champ (Rhee) coaches troubled inner-city youths en-route to a tournament which will pit them against the nefarious Beverly Hills Junior National Team.

Other reviewers have called it before me, and I concur that this a pretty obvious melding of THE KARATE KID and Rhee's own BEST OF THE BEST. I don't mind the mix, but the filmmakers have disappointingly decided to go the sappiest and most juvenile route with it that they could have. Whatever the movie has to offer in the way of inspirational life lessons has been dipped in schmaltz and covered in cheese, because one of the few things that can halt the pitiful sob stories of the kids and the hammy character-building of Captain Rhee is the asinine comedy, the highlight of which involves the designated fat kid of the group winning a match by farting in an opponent's face.

To their credit, almost all of the featured children have some serious moves, and if placed in the hands of more ambitious directors, they could probably make one heck of an action movie. Most of the fights here aren't bad, but aside from the overuse of slow motion and occasionally choppy editing, the tone of the movie ensures that the importance of these scenes never rises above that of a bunch of kids fighting each other – not even with the gravity of THE HUNGER GAMES. Richard Norton, Don Wilson, Dan Inosanto, Benny Urquidez, and Jun Chong pop up briefly, but not only do they not fight, they don't even have any dialogue. Phillip Rhee himself only has one match, and I am 90% sure that he's been considerably stunt-doubled.

I'm all for martial arts in the family medium, even when it goes against my expectations, but even if there are some kids over the age of eight who are up to sitting through this, I don't think their parents will be. As both a filmmaker and veteran of the golden era of low-budget karate movies, Phillip Rhee represents one of our best chances of seeing the style of yesteryear revived in the new millennium, but if UNDERDOG KIDS is a taste of what Rhee is interested in doing with his experience, I will be less interested in any future features he directs. Skip it.

Not a bad movie. Cute kid movie. Reminded me of a Karate version of The Bad News Bears.

I took my 11 year old to see a private screening and he really enjoyed it. Kids either like something or they don't. Although they are not "critical" of editing, acting, color, sound .... they are brutally honest.

Was it the best editing, no. Best acting, no. But it was a cute little movie that we need more of. No cursing, no inappropriate scenes like some kids movies.

Although it was not the best movie I have it seen, I have definitely seen worst. Great little indie movie ... support it!

The martial arts choreography and stunts were good (and that's pretty much it).

The story, the script and the characters felt so sub-par that it ruined the movie for me. It was so badly written, awkward, poor acting including the main actor, the martial arts master Phillip Rhee who both wrote and directed this movie, apparently not having any producers, co-producers etc. helping him with everything that is wrong with this movie.

But as I said, if you can wade through what is almost a parody that might be called "Mighty Karate Ducks" you will see some really nice choreography and stunts. It's clear Phillip Rhee had a casting that focused on martial arts skill and not acting. His acting was weak too.

Not worth the rent. If you have a serious craving for some martial arts and you've seen everything that is out there then you can at least check this one out an skip the nonsense between the martial arts sequences.

Gosh the movie is so damn slow for a karate supposedly action movie .. and the production and the montage is so old and cranky like you can notice the switching between scenes is flipping like an MS Power Point slides or maybe a movie maker ,, even the soundtracks are unbalanced and so scattered all over the place :P The story is predictable and not genuine and the plot is not really new and the script is so loose !! As for the Acting it is so freaking bad i believe that was the how it was when the first human invented acting !! the visuals and the cinematography are another bad story that is so noticeable especially in the final fights .. it is a 2015 movie on the style of bad even older version of the original karate kid ... Even the one with Jaden Smith is in so many levels much better than this.

As for the cast ,, as i said earlier,, they're so bad at acting or maybe it was a montage problem !! if Phillip Rhee is trying to make a Jackie Chan experience out of this well i think he failed , and as for the kids my goodness i hope what i saw is just their "Learning Mode" .

Overall,, it wouldn't say it was a mistake that i watched the movie , because i got the chance to see what the other underworld of movie industry is trying to do ,, so i wouldn't recommend it to anyone. and the 2/10 was for trying to do a movie of sort !!