cityonfire.com | No Retreat, No Surrender

	No Retreat, No Surrender "...the script is something that might have come out of the head of a 4 or 5 year old..." - S!DM No Retreat, No Surrender (1985) AKA: Karate Tiger Director: Corey Yuen Producer: Ng See-Yuen Writer: Ng See-Yuen, Keith W. Strandberg, Corey Yuen Cast: Kurt McKinney, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Timothy D. Baker, Pete Cunningham, John Andes, Dale Jacoby Running Time: 85 min. Plot: Jason Stillwell, a Bruce Lee fan, is beaten numerous times and trains from the ghost of Lee. Jason then must use his newly acquired skills to save Seattle from a crime syndicate, whose top martial artist is the deadly Ivan. Reviews YATE'S REVIEW: All I have to say about this movie is do not watch it if have consumed any alcohol, and even more so, marijuana. You will laugh yourself to death. I wasn't even on anything and I nearly pissed my pants laughing. I'm not sure what rating to give this...as an action film, as a Corey Yuen film...it sucks. As a retarded so bad it's funny type movie...it's one of the best. Naw, it gets even better. Russian. YATE'S RATING: 2/10 (as an action movie), 9.5/10 (as a comedy) JAMES H'S REVIEW: We've all been there. We've all been at the video store at 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday night, looking up and down the aisles for movies that have all been rented hours ago. We've all stopped and paused at the ÔN' section and seen "No Retreat, No Surrender" staring at us from the shelf in its faded cover. We've all picked it up and wondered how good Van Damme's fights are and how the ghost of Bruce Lee teaches a loser kid martial arts. There really isn't much else to the story. If you've seen the "Karate Kid" movies (and I know you have!), then you've seen this. "No Retreat, No Surrender" is the only movie I have seen that insults the great name of Bruce Lee even more than "Game of Death". I could not believe the writers came up with the idea of Bruce Lee's ghost teaching this kid. It's a sad, sad display. As far as a Van Damme movie (he's also barely in it), it ranks right down there with "Cyborg". JAMES H'S RATING: 1.5/10 ALVIN GEORGE'S REVIEW: I have to admit that I've never been a big fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme films. (I haven't even seen Nowhere to Run, the one that also has Rosanna Arquette.) However, Van Damme is the only thing worth watching in this film. As a whole, this movie is a piece of shit on celluoid! It's not even saved by the fact that it's set in Seattle during the mid-1980s. For one thing, other than Van Damme, there are no big stars in this movie. It would've been a bit hipper if someone like Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Carl Weathers, or Judge Reinhold were to have appeared. There are only two good scenes. The one where Van Damme fucks up the leg of the hero's dad in the father's dojo, and the one where the hero finally faces Van Damme in a karate match. The former scene is at the beginning, and the latter is at the end. Everything in between is crap, partially because Van Damme isn't in any other scenes. The acting and plot developments are lame. I got this movie at a secondhand store, and I got it only because it was Van Damme's American debut, plus it was an '80s film. Boy, did I get my just desert. Besides Van Damme, practically the only thing I got out of the flick was that they did have nylon warm-up suits in 1985. The hero's best pal does were a polyester Adidas suit in one scene, however. This film is not related to the second and third No Retreat, No Surrender films (though Corey Yuen also directed the second one). In any case, here's a list of things I'd rather do than sit through this piece of crap again: 1. Watch every single Dirty Harry movie all over again. 2. Watch Dos Mujeres, Un Camino (that Mexican soap opera Erik Estrada starred in). 3. Watch the 1976 version of King Kong (the one with Jessica Lange) all over again. 4. Watch that '80s TV detective show Remington Steele, the one Pierce Brosnan appeared in before becoming 007. (I used to have a serious crush on his costar, Stephanie Zimbalist.) 5. Watch one of those women-in-danger TV movies the Lifetime cable network shows all the time, especially the ones featuring the women who used to be on Charlie's Angels (e.g. Nightmare in the Daylight, the one that Jaclyn Smith appeared in with Christopher Reeve before the latter broke his neck in that riding accident). 6. Watch Superman 4: The Quest for Peace (the one with Mariel Hemingway, Nuclear Man, and all those lame special effects) all over again. 7. Watch The Awful Truth, that show Michael Moore (of Roger and Me fame) hosts on the Bravo cable network. 8. Work on a homework assignment. 9. Watch some of Bruce Willis's bad movies (like Hudson Hawk, Bonfire of the Vanities, and Sunset). 10. Need I say more? ALVIN GEORGE'S RATING: 2/10 S!DM'S REVIEW: Corey Yuen Kwai and Ng See Yuen teamed up once upon a time, in an American production called No Retreat No Surrender. In short, the script is something that might have come out of the head of a 4 or 5 year old, but the writer did his best I'm sure and went on to work on parts 2 and 3, so I guess he did all right. He was upset about changes that Roy Horan (the producer of the sequel) made to the script of one of the sequels, so I guess he had some sense! Anyway, the script is horrible and I won't go into that aspect of the movie, but I will go into the fight scenes...particularly the last fight. In the "bad" corner have Jean Claude Van Damme in the role that launched his career. In the "good" corner, we have three well-meaning good guys, including Peter "Sugarfoot" Cunningham, who exist solely to get trashed by Van Damme (who plays a Russian). Corey Yuen does his best to make this scene look HK-styled, and for the most part he succeeds. The main problem is that the sound effects aren't very effective, and in short they are horrible. The competitors are wearing light foam foot-padding, but the sound effects are more suited to heavy combat boots! Another problem is that some of the kicks and punches aren't in effect "selling-the-shot," in other words, you can see that they are not landing. And the fact that nobody is wearing a shirt to hide this is another problem. But aside from that, Van Damme is great and beats all three people up in highly stylized battles. He knocks Peter out with a cool flying kick, trashes the other guy, and chokes out the final opponent with a chain, while the audience looks on nonchalantly and rather unplussed. At that point, the Hero (it might as well be his name), who was sitting as a spectator, jumps to his feat and "heroically" jumps in the ring to exchange some hilariously BAD dialogue with Van Damme: Van Damme (in a mock Russian accent): You are good! Hero (in red jumpsuit): I get better. Russian. Then, Van Damme, apparently offended by being called a Russian even though he is playing a Russian, starts to beat up the hero. The hero beats him back, then wins, and people jump in the ring (which looks to be situated in some old small gym) and carry our "Hero" into the air. Van Damme is on the floor outside the ring pouting. S!DM'S RATING: 5/10

No Retreat, No Surrender

"...the script is something that might have come out of the head of a 4 or 5 year old..."

- S!DM

No Retreat, No Surrender (1985)

AKA: Karate Tiger

Director: Corey Yuen

Producer: Ng See-Yuen

Writer: Ng See-Yuen, Keith W. Strandberg, Corey Yuen

Cast: Kurt McKinney, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Timothy D. Baker, Pete Cunningham, John Andes, Dale Jacoby

Running Time: 85 min.

Plot: Jason Stillwell, a Bruce Lee fan, is beaten numerous times and trains from the ghost of Lee. Jason then must use his newly acquired skills to save Seattle from a crime syndicate, whose top martial artist is the deadly Ivan.

Reviews

YATE'S REVIEW: All I have to say about this movie is do not watch it if have consumed any alcohol, and even more so, marijuana. You will laugh yourself to death. I wasn't even on anything and I nearly pissed my pants laughing. I'm not sure what rating to give this...as an action film, as a Corey Yuen film...it sucks. As a retarded so bad it's funny type movie...it's one of the best. Naw, it gets even better. Russian.

YATE'S RATING: 2/10 (as an action movie), 9.5/10 (as a comedy)

JAMES H'S REVIEW: We've all been there. We've all been at the video store at 9:00 p.m. on a Saturday night, looking up and down the aisles for movies that have all been rented hours ago. We've all stopped and paused at the ÔN' section and seen "No Retreat, No Surrender" staring at us from the shelf in its faded cover. We've all picked it up and wondered how good Van Damme's fights are and how the ghost of Bruce Lee teaches a loser kid martial arts.

There really isn't much else to the story. If you've seen the "Karate Kid" movies (and I know you have!), then you've seen this. "No Retreat, No Surrender" is the only movie I have seen that insults the great name of Bruce Lee even more than "Game of Death". I could not believe the writers came up with the idea of Bruce Lee's ghost teaching this kid. It's a sad, sad display. As far as a Van Damme movie (he's also barely in it), it ranks right down there with "Cyborg".

JAMES H'S RATING: 1.5/10

ALVIN GEORGE'S REVIEW: I have to admit that I've never been a big fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme films. (I haven't even seen Nowhere to Run, the one that also has Rosanna Arquette.) However, Van Damme is the only thing worth watching in this film. As a whole, this movie is a piece of shit on celluoid! It's not even saved by the fact that it's set in Seattle during the mid-1980s. For one thing, other than Van Damme, there are no big stars in this movie. It would've been a bit hipper if someone like Rob Lowe, Andrew McCarthy, Carl Weathers, or Judge Reinhold were to have appeared. There are only two good scenes. The one where Van Damme fucks up the leg of the hero's dad in the father's dojo, and the one where the hero finally faces Van Damme in a karate match. The former scene is at the beginning, and the latter is at the end. Everything in between is crap, partially because Van Damme isn't in any other scenes. The acting and plot developments are lame. I got this movie at a secondhand store, and I got it only because it was Van Damme's American debut, plus it was an '80s film. Boy, did I get my just desert. Besides Van Damme, practically the only thing I got out of the flick was that they did have nylon warm-up suits in 1985. The hero's best pal does were a polyester Adidas suit in one scene, however. This film is not related to the second and third No Retreat, No Surrender films (though Corey Yuen also directed the second one). In any case, here's a list of things I'd rather do than sit through this piece of crap again:

1. Watch every single Dirty Harry movie all over again.

2. Watch Dos Mujeres, Un Camino (that Mexican soap opera Erik Estrada starred in).

3. Watch the 1976 version of King Kong (the one with Jessica Lange) all over again.

4. Watch that '80s TV detective show Remington Steele, the one Pierce Brosnan appeared in before becoming 007. (I used to have a serious crush on his costar, Stephanie Zimbalist.)

5. Watch one of those women-in-danger TV movies the Lifetime cable network shows all the time, especially the ones featuring the women who used to be on Charlie's Angels (e.g. Nightmare in the Daylight, the one that Jaclyn Smith appeared in with Christopher Reeve before the latter broke his neck in that riding accident).

6. Watch Superman 4: The Quest for Peace (the one with Mariel Hemingway, Nuclear Man, and all those lame special effects) all over again.

7. Watch The Awful Truth, that show Michael Moore (of Roger and Me fame) hosts on the Bravo cable network.

8. Work on a homework assignment.

9. Watch some of Bruce Willis's bad movies (like Hudson Hawk, Bonfire of the Vanities, and Sunset).

10. Need I say more?

ALVIN GEORGE'S RATING: 2/10

S!DM'S REVIEW: Corey Yuen Kwai and Ng See Yuen teamed up once upon a time, in an American production called No Retreat No Surrender. In short, the script is something that might have come out of the head of a 4 or 5 year old, but the writer did his best I'm sure and went on to work on parts 2 and 3, so I guess he did all right. He was upset about changes that Roy Horan (the producer of the sequel) made to the script of one of the sequels, so I guess he had some sense! Anyway, the script is horrible and I won't go into that aspect of the movie, but I will go into the fight scenes...particularly the last fight.

In the "bad" corner have Jean Claude Van Damme in the role that launched his career. In the "good" corner, we have three well-meaning good guys, including Peter "Sugarfoot" Cunningham, who exist solely to get trashed by Van Damme (who plays a Russian). Corey Yuen does his best to make this scene look HK-styled, and for the most part he succeeds. The main problem is that the sound effects aren't very effective, and in short they are horrible. The competitors are wearing light foam foot-padding, but the sound effects are more suited to heavy combat boots!

Another problem is that some of the kicks and punches aren't in effect "selling-the-shot," in other words, you can see that they are not landing. And the fact that nobody is wearing a shirt to hide this is another problem. But aside from that, Van Damme is great and beats all three people up in highly stylized battles. He knocks Peter out with a cool flying kick, trashes the other guy, and chokes out the final opponent with a chain, while the audience looks on nonchalantly and rather unplussed.

At that point, the Hero (it might as well be his name), who was sitting as a spectator, jumps to his feat and "heroically" jumps in the ring to exchange some hilariously BAD dialogue with Van Damme:

Van Damme (in a mock Russian accent): You are good!

Hero (in red jumpsuit): I get better. Russian.

Then, Van Damme, apparently offended by being called a Russian even though he is playing a Russian, starts to beat up the hero. The hero beats him back, then wins, and people jump in the ring (which looks to be situated in some old small gym) and carry our "Hero" into the air. Van Damme is on the floor outside the ring pouting.

S!DM'S RATING: 5/10