No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The first must-see film of the year.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The acting in this movie is really good.

If it hadn't been for Rifftrax, I would never have seen this steaming pile.Sexist, racist, obnoxious in it's portrayal of humans as walking stereotypes, and a story a five year old might have put together with about as much continuity and depth.It's sad to think people saw this mess as anything but a bad parody.I realize 80's tech doesn't compare to what we have now but it still looks and sounds like it was filmed and recorded using a potato.What 'story' there is, consists of the plot from any generic, low-budget, Kung-fu movie.The 'filler' between the laughably choreographed fights consists of training montages, an attempt at a music video, some terrible characters being terrible, and lots of pointless, awful dialogue.If you watch this movie without Rifftrax, you are wasting time that you will never get back. Don't do it. It's not worth it.

NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER is one of those films that came out in the wake of THE KARATE KID in an attempt to emulate the style and success of that blockbuster. Some of them took the same general theme as the kid's classic and turned it into a successful adult movie, like Van Damme's own KICKBOXER. This particular effort is aimed halfway between kids and adults as it goes for the teenage market, no doubt to cash in on the success of various John Hughes movies.The hero, played by Kurt McKinney – who never starred in a kung fu film again despite his impressive abilities here – sees his father get his leg smashed by a martial arts master. Instead of vowing vengeance, as you might, he just sets about trying to emulate his idol Bruce Lee in plenty of long, drawn-out scene of him training in his garage. Eventually, Bruce Lee's ghost shows up (yep, I'm not joking here) and teaches McKinney some real skills, just in time for him to fight the guy who crippled his father in the first place.First off, this is a film that can't be taken seriously. In fact it's one of the CHEESIEST films I've ever witnessed. This is a film that's so '80s, you can only really enjoy it if you lived through that decade. Everywhere there are '80s influences, from the mullet haircuts to the appalling fashions (the ripped t-shirt look is obviously in). For the most part, I found it hilarious. J. W. Fails, who plays the comic relief black guy, is very funny in his over-the-top role and the Michael Jackson influence is everywhere, with moon walking going on and people dressing up as the singer in nightclub scenes. There's also a strong influence from the whole BREAKDANCE thing and often the film stops to let some guys show off their funky moves. Great! Another reason you can't take the movie seriously is the acting. It's REALLY bad; over the top and completely mannered, like the guys are barely suppressing themselves from laughing while reciting their dialogue. Nobody here is a good actor, and nobody really went on to be famous – apart from Van Damme, and he only gets a couple of lines as it is. The bit where Bruce Lee's ghost appears will just have you burst out laughing, as he doesn't really look like Bruce Lee at all (and I already noticed that when I watched Kim Tai Chong playing Bruce in Game of Death and its sequel).The film doesn't have as much action in it as I'd hoped, but that doesn't matter as I was laughing so hard. There are a few bouts, mainly involving McKinney getting beaten on and humiliated by some bullies (annoyingly, he doesn't get to kick their asses later on). Then the final twenty minutes is just one huge punch-up as Van Damme takes centre stage in a boxing ring and proceeds to beat up a succession of tough opponents. The finale sees our hero tackling the Muscles from Brussels with a predictable outcome, although you'd never really believe he has it in him, despite some cool training sequences earlier on. Van Damme is in his prime here and looks tough as heck, and scary with it. He rarely plays bad guys but he IS good at them, and watching him whup ass here is good fun.The main reason the film is a success is down to director Corey Yuen, who is a guy who DEFINITELY knows how to choreograph a fight scene. This is a US/Hong Kong collaboration and while the backdrop is definitely US, the fights are out of a Hong Kong flick. Yuen focuses on long takes and avoids unnecessary editing; he also has his actors perform some excellent moves that are shown in slow motion, just like in his Chinese flicks. I think Yuen surpasses Yuen Woo Ping and is second to none when it comes to delivering high intensity, great looking martial arts. He's this film's real saviour and without him it would have been a bomb. Two unconnected sequels followed.

Not much to be said for this typical 80s action flick, except for the the jaw-dropping fight at the end. A young man and his dad, a Lo Angeles dojo owner, move to Seattle after some New York mob types injure the dad and take over his dojo. In Seattle (where they apparently have palm trees), the kid, who knows a little karate, takes a beating from some local karate bullies and ends up training with the ghost f Bruce Lee, whom the kid worships. Yep. That's what I said. The ghost of Bruce Lee. This leads to a final confrontation with one of the New York hoods who hurt his dad. Van Damme is that hood, and he is only in the film for about five or 10 minutes. Basically a ripoff of The Karate Kid. Skip all but the last seven or eight minutes of the film. Your jaw is guaranteed to drop, if you're a martial arts fan. The legendary Corey Yuen directed this no-budget B movie.

Surely I'm not the only person who has been surprised to hear a reference to "Sensei Lee"? I can't understand why Chinese writers of this film would sell poor Bruce Lee off to the Japanese like that! For anyone reading of review of this film that doesn't know something about martial arts (and I guess there wouldn't be too many! lol) - Karate is from Japan, where students call the karate teacher a sensei - but Kung Fu is Chinese (as was Bruce Lee and his fighting style of Jeet Kun Do), where students call the Kung Fu teacher a sifu. I just think it's a little insulting to the great Bruce Lee to have him referred to as a sensei and not a sifu.