No Surrender Cinema: To Be the Best
Beneath the bright lights of Las Vegas, a dark cloud looms over the International Kickboxing Championships. Members of the US Team have to cope with family turmoil, contend with the Thai team in and out of the ring, and fend off a mobster’s attempt to fix the fights. Could this troublesome combination of circumstances spell certain doom for these fighters, or will our heroes rise up like a mighty, roundhouse kicking phoenix? In this month’s edition of No Surrender Cinema, we take a look at one of PM Entertainment’s most popular entries into the action genre, as Martin Kove and Michael Worth show us what it takes To Be The Best!
On the surface, To Be the Best sounds like someone took the scripts for Best of the Best parts 1 & 2, threw them into a blender, and poured this movie out. The US team dealing with their personal struggles en route to a showdown with their evil Asian counterparts was done in the first BOTB, while part 2 took the series in a grittier direction by having members of the team get caught up in the world of underground fighting (which took place in the Vegas underground, no less). Even the name of the movie is sure to draw confusion from the lesser educated action fans. While these are all pretty strong similarities, to call To Be the Best a copycat karate flick would be doing it a huge disservice. This is one of PM’s best films, and should be seen as such.
To Be the Best starts off by establishing the underground fighting plot point first, as Eric Kulhane (Michael Worth) is making his money by participating in illegal fights in Las Vegas. Despite this less than honorable occupation, Eric turns down a mobster’s offer to take a dive, and soon finds himself dangling from a helicopter. What was supposed to be a scare tactic leads to a careless pilot crashing the helicopter into one of the casinos, and Eric cuts himself free from the rope just as the helicopter falls to the ground and illuminates Las Vegas by turning into a giant fireball.
With Eric having avoided certain death, we then head over to Los Angeles to see what his older brother is up to. Sam Kulhane (Phillip Troy) is also partaking in illegal fighting, but on a lesser level. Sam’s fighting for petty cash among a crowd filled with with extra’s from every 90’s rap video, and it’s not long before the boys in blue are on the scene. Rather than peacefully disperse, the lowlifes that put together the fights decide assaulting an officer is a better idea, and it’s not long before every cop in the city is called in for backup, with Sam caught up in the chase. The older Kulhane brother makes his getaway, but not before we see a cop car catch fire, and a detectives car barrel roll onto a baseball field. Between all this car crashing and the helicopter from earlier, To Be the Best was looking like a video store version of The Fast and the Furious!
Some readers might be disappointed to learn that Vin Diesel doesn’t show up in To Be the Best, but Martin Kove does, as Rick Kulhane, the father of our two fighters. The elder Kulhane is as far removed from the Karate Kid’s evil Sensei John Kreese as can be here, casually dressed in a leather Raiders jacket and chewing out both of his sons the minute they show up at the gym. There’s visible tension between everyone in the Kulhane clan, and it’s not long until we learn why. Rick was a champion kickboxer who lost his smile after going down in a fight he was asked to fix, but didn’t. Sam once took $100K for the easy payday, but lost everything, including his personal sense of honor. Eric is the only one who has seemingly come out of it clean (except for those pesky Vegas scraps), but his personal life isn’t without turmoil either, as his girlfriend Cheryl’s (Brittney Powell) father hates him, and Cheryl isn’t a fan of Eric’s penchant for always finding his way into a fight.
Once Rick finalizes the fighters he wants in the Championships, it’s time for Cobra Kai: Vegas Vacation, as the fighters chosen to represent the Stars and Stripes arrive in Vegas looking to leave as champions. Despite being an international tournament, the only other team focused on is the Thai team, led by Hong Do (Steven Vincent Leigh). Cocky and charismatic, Hong immediately calls out Eric, creating animosity between the Thai and US squads. The tension boils over in a bowling alley of all places, in a fun sequence that sees Eric nearly cripple Hong before the tournament begins. Eric’s lack of willpower when it comes to fighting angers Cheryl, so Eric apologizes by immediately asking her to marry him, promising that he’s done with fighting unless it’s regulated and in the ring. Our hero and his girl go to get married the next day (hey, it’s Vegas), but the ceremony is crashed by an angry Thai team, who bring a news crew and insult Eric to draw his ire. This turns the wedding chapel into a war zone, with both teams getting into it once again, and Cheryl turning into a runaway bride. She runs right into Jack Rodgers (Alex Cord), an old friend of her father, and Mr. Rodgers invites Cheryl to be his neighbor…wait, wrong guy. This Mr. Rodgers invites Cheryl to his complimentary suite, and promises that she can stay until she gets her head right and decides if she wants to be with Eric anymore. As it turns out, Rodgers has ulterior motives, because he’s got money riding on the tournament, and decides that Eric should follow in daddy and big brother’s footsteps and take a fall. This is some pretty heavy stuff for our hero; he’s trying his best to live up to his family name (before it was marred by scandal at least), he’s trying to win his woman back and get her out of trouble, he’s being blackmailed by the mob, and despite their peace treaty, he still has to square off with Hong Do. Oh, and he’s got to figure out who else on the team has already agreed to take a fall for some of Rodgers’ money.
If there’s one complaint I have about To Be the Best, it’s the rapid fire pace at which the various plots wrap up. The first few minutes did well to establish the Kulhane family dynamic and Eric and Cheryl’s relationship, but the team gets to Vegas it’s “blink and you’ll miss it” territory. The issue with the Thai team is squashed with a handshake before Eric and Hong Do even meet in the ring. Sam falls head over heels for the Thai team’s handler and winds up with her after what feels like one day of courting her. Cheryl is all too quick to accept Rodgers’ help and turns into an uber bitch when Eric approaches her with the information that he’s not what he seems. None of the other teams are focused on save for short action sequences that move the tournament plot along, and even the other members of the two main teams are nothing more than fodder with no character development, save for the US Team’s Duke (Vince Murdocco) and Thai’s Han Lo (Ron Yuan). The added subplot of Rodgers’ mole on the US Team is probably the weakest of the developments, because it’s obvious from the get go who it is, despite the film using it to build tension between Eric and Sam. It’s also pretty much swept under the rug after the initial discovery, because the climax comes down to Rodgers’ stabbing Rick and preparing to drop Cheryl from the top of the casino before Eric (who must have had déjà vu at this point) shows up to save the day. Another minor quibble of mine is that for its R Rating, To Be the Best is fairly tame by action movie standards. There’s minimal bloodshed, not a lot of foul language, and even the sex scenes show nothing more than some side body shots. It didn’t affect my enjoyment of the film, but for a kickboxing film featuring a street fight subplot, you’d think there would be a least a few more bloody noses sprinkled in.
Cast wise, PM really loaded the lineup for To Be the Best. Michael Worth is the highlight as “me against the world” Eric, and will easily have the audience rooting for him. Phillip Troy is likable in the more complex role of the black sheep of the family trying to come back from the bad side. Martin Kove doesn’t do much more than bark orders and wish that things had turned out better for he and his boys, but he gets a few seconds to shine at the end when Rodgers and his goons come running. I wouldn’t call his presence wasted, but I do wish I saw more of Rick Kulhane in action. Brittney Powell is an attractive actress who showed up in several of my favorite things ever (namely Airborne, episodes of California Dreams, Saved By The Bell: The College Years AND The New Class, and previous No Surrender Cinema subject Fled), but the use of her as a pawn in Rodgers game and not just action movie eye candy is a plus. Steven Vincent Leigh comes off like an arrogant jock with his portrayal of Hong Do, which was just enough to make him villainous without taking away from Alex Cord’s portrayal of Jack Rodgers. Rodgers rotates between charming and conniving, and even when he’s being all “aw shucks” you just know there’s something about him that you shouldn’t trust. It’s also always fun seeing Vince Murdocco, although he seems to be typecast as the fighter best known for making bad decisions (see also: Kickboxer 2: The Road Back and Ring of Fire).
To Be the Best is available on out of print DVD, meaning you’ll have to hit up eBay or Amazon to seek out a copy. Otherwise, you can currently find it streaming in full on YouTube. In the long list of karate flicks that I cherish, this one ranks high on the list. To Be the Best is certainly one of the best from the 90’s, and although the action may not be as intense as its peers, the fun fights and charismatic cast more than make up for that.
