Review of No Holds Barred

No Holds Barred was just one of those movies that's 'so bad, it's good'. Directed by Thomas J. Wright, and produce by the World Wrestling Federation (now WWE). The movie was trying to capitalize on Hulk Hogan's popularity in wrestling. The movie is also trying to boost the wrestler's acting career, years after his last appearance on the big screen in 1982's Rocky III. Since Hulk Hogan's acting chops are not the best, the movie has Hulk Hogan stars as Rip Thomas, a very popular pro-wrestler. Basically, Hogan is playing himself in this film. The only different is that, he has a younger brother, Randy, (Mark Pellegrino) in this. The two brothers are very close and Randy's presence in the audience motivates him enough to win his matches. When Rip turns down money to join the rival network; the network chairman, Brell (Kurt Fuller) wants revenge. He decide to look for somebody to challenge Rip to a match that he can promote. He finds Zeus (Tiny Lister Jr.), an ex-con. After using Zeus to beat up, Randy. Rip promises his brother that he'll defeat Zeus and win the match for him. The movie has some really unrealistic action scenes. The pro-wrestling matches are not really wrestling based matches, but more like real street brawls. The movie even add oddly a robbery sub-plot that has little to do with the main plot, just to make Hulk Hogan look good. Honestly, are we supposed to take Rip seriously when he's throwing pies at the bad guys!? This movie has gone out of its way to make the antagonists as despicable as humanly possible with them beating women up, and treating children like crap. Tiny Lister Jr. in my opinion, doesn't look menacing. The goofy unibrow, the side 'z' haircut, add to the blind eye and that voice makes him look retarded and hammy. Honestly, he look more menacing as Deebo in 1995's Friday. He can barely do action scenes in the film. Another thing, honestly, why would a billionaire chairman risk going to jail, by hosting and promoting illegal 'battle of the tough-men' fighting? Brell is such a one-dimension bad guy that is willing to send a gang of thugs and rapist to make Rip's life, a living hell, just because Rip didn't sign with him! It doesn't make any sense in a reality sense! Why, risk getting catch for 'attempt murder' on something so dumb? I guess, it makes sense in a pro-wrestling sense. Kurt Fuller is so over the top. It's get worst, when the screenwriters give him annoying lines that always have the word 'Jock-ass' in it. He says it throughout the film. While the character of Brell is made up. His character does borderline have similarities to the real life rival of WWF at the time, Media Mongol, Ted Turner. Ted Turner and his Turner Broadcasting Network purchased WWF's rival promotion, World Championship Wrestling in Nov. 1988 and try to promote it, as a 'real man' wrestling. Often showing over the top violence, similar to what Brell was showing in his programming. WCW was mostly less kid friendly than Hulkamania WWF. I have to give Hulk Hogan, some credit in this movie. While, his acting isn't the best. His snarling and grunting are cartoonish, but he try really hard to make emotional in some scenes. He indeed cry, when Randy got hurt. He also made, the funnier scenes, really hilarious with his delivery. I can't help laughing my head off, at the whole 'dookie' scene. I had a few chuckles during the whole one room hotel scene with Samantha Moore (Joan Severance). Joan Severance was really hot, but her character was a bit too bitchy for me. The movie does go a bit dark at times. I find it odd, for the film to go from rape attempt to comically bike chase in less than a minute. The movie goes all 1980's montage in the middle with Zeus engages in a brutal training routine for the match, while Rip is more focused on Randy's rehabilitation. The ending is just odd. I have never watch a wrestling match that lavish before. Unless, it's 2008's the Wrestler, at the Oscars. The movie did OK, at the box office, but WWF felt that they can make more money. So in 1989, No Holds Barred: The Match/The Movie, was shown on pay-per-view. The program consisted of the film in its entirety, followed by a match pre-recorded at a Wrestling Challenge taping. It is currently not yet available on the WWE Network. To promote the PPV, Tiny Lister came to WWE, as the Zeus character to challenge Hogan to a series of matches. (1989 SummerSlam and 1989's Survivor Series) The Hogan-Beefcake vs. Savage-Zeus tag team rivalry resumed after the Survivor Series, was the lead-up to "No Holds Barred: The Movie-The Match.". Rumors had it, that if No Holds Barred had been a success, the main event for 1990's WrestleMania VI would have been Hulk Hogan vs. Zeus. Thank God, the PPV wasn't a huge hit and Zeus was sent packing from pro-wrestling. Instead, Vince McMahon went with the idea of having Hogan Vs the Ultimate Warrior and the rest was wrestling history. Hulk's movie career didn't quite take off as hoped as a result of No Holds Barred and years later, he indeed sign up for Ted Turner's WCW. The movie was then put VCR tapes, sold and then shelf. It wasn't until 2012, when the movie finally saw a DVD release. The 2012 DVD is crappy. It has no special features. Get the 2014's Blu-Ray for that. For wrestling fans, look for cameos of Howard Finkel, Stan Hansen, Gene Okerlund, and Jesse "The Body' Ventura in the film. Also look for Games of Thrones's Peter Dinklage's first on-screen role. Overall: It's a lot of fun watching it, but I can't say, this is a great movie.