Revisitation Rights - Only the Strong

This will be a semi-ongoing blog series in which I revisit films from my past. These are the flicks that I watched over and over far before I became the film snob I am today. I'm curious whether these films will stand not only the test of time but my own personal scrutiny.Or if the magic of them resides only in my own nostalgia.

Today's secret ingredient is................

MARK DACASCOS!!!!!!!!!

That's right, I rewatched 1993's Mark Dacascos vehicle called "Only the Strong" about a young Green Beret named Louis Stevens that returns home to Miami after a four year long tour in Latin America. He heads back to his old high school to find that it's been taken over by street gangs. Fortunately, Louis has mad Capoeira skills... Capoeira is a Brazilian style of martial arts/dance and its also some sort of a game.... It's most similar American counterparts are known as B-Boying or Stompin' da Yard... only sometimes you kick people in the face... And I think you're supposed to be really really extra sweaty while you do it. I guess it's also very fortunate for Louis that all of the street gangs seem to use this style of dance party to settle all of their disputes as well.... You know, instead of guns and stuff.

So in case you didn't know, Mark Dacascos made a career as actor in many martial arts films before he was known as the crazy eyed host of "Iron Chef" or the twinkle toed beefcake of "Dancing with the Stars." He's worked on many films but this one is one of his very few starring roles. And, as far as I'm aware, this is the only role that he does any Capoeira.

I could probably make fun of this movie and just tell that it was a 'so bad its good' fun fighting flick. The plot is completely ridiculous. It's sort of a lovechild of "Dangerous Minds" and "Gymkata". And just look at
the tagline on the poster... "The strength ultimate power martial rhythm art."... Huh??? Did I mention the sweat... There's a lot of it...

But I digress, I actually really enjoyed it this time around. The stuff that's bad is pretty bad, but there is still quite a bit that you can take away on a positive note. The fighting style is a real joy to watch and this is only film that uses it to my knowledge. It seems like a highly inefficient style that lends itself much more to flair than self defence. But, I guess that would make it the perfect candidate for cinema. I also took special note of the stunt work in this film. This picked up a lot of the pieces where some of the fight choreography lacked. You could feel the weight of the slams and falls the various henchmen

I watched this movie on Netflix Watch Instantly with my 12 year old in "Super HD". He dug it in the same way that I did when I was around his age. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to introduce it to him. This film had a profound influence on my upbringing as a young man... After all, its the reason that I used Eddy Gordo every time I played Tekken Tag Tournament... and I kicked ass at that game...

Enjoy.