You've seen this chop-socky film before, but the surprising thing about it is that, despite an all-star cast, with seven Oscar nominations between them, it's just as badly acted as any Jean-Claude Van Damme film. 'Yes, but what about your shoulder? ' asks Roberts' mum (Louise Fletcher with nothing to do) when he's chosen for the American team against Korea. Well, that's his part of the plot taken care of. Rhee's brother was killed by the Korean he's fighting, so that's the usual revenge motif accounted for. The others (led by Penn) don't really matter, since we can see they're not going to figure in the final outcome. Kirkland and Jones (who comes closest, but not that close, to coping with the risible dialogue) are the coaches as Roberts goes emotionally way over the top with the help of a screenplay that pulls every cliched weepie string in the book. The fights are good, but with all these minus factors who cares?

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