This movie isn’t terrible boring, but the acting is incredibly poor & cheesy, from the dialog to the combat scenes it’s like a bunch of kids put it all together.
The basic concept is an interesting one but the acting and screen combat resemble what you’d expect from Power Rangers.
Jonathan Brandis plays a physically unfit boy struggling with asthma and constantly daydreaming about assisting Chuck Norris in wild battle scenes. Jonathan’s performance is so-so.
Chuck Norris plays the boy’s hero in his dreams, but also appears as his team mate in real life when the boy enters a karate tournament and needs an additional team mate. Chuck’s performance is so-so – I’m not his biggest fan and this is far from his best movie also.
Makoto ‘Mako’ Iwamatsu (from The Big Brawl, 1980) plays the old man from a Chinese restaurant who trains the boy to be a great martial artist. Make does a good job here I think. His role is a bit like Mr Miyagi from The Karate Kid. He’s the real star of this movie I think, although he’s officially the third main character at best – fourth according to the closing credits which ranks the boy’s dad much higher than I would.
Beau Bridges plays the boy’s dad and he gives a non memorable performance in my opinion. His role is really non descript here anyway.
Julia Nickson-Soul plays the boy’s teacher who is also the niece of the old man who trains him up, and the almost-girlfriend of the boy’s father. She does a decent job, I think.
Joe Piscopo plays the eccentrically angry teacher of the boy’s billy; the rival of Chuck Norris; and the leader of the main team who the heroes’ team is competing against. He does alright although his acting is super cheesy, like a cartoon supervillain brought to life.
Danica McKellar plays the boy’s crush and eventual girlfriend. Her performance is mediocre.
John Buchanan plays the main bully who challenges the movie’s main character to compete in the tournament. He gives a fair account of himself, a bit like his teacher did.
That’s all the significant characters in this movie.
I rate it Watchable, and even that’s a stretch considering it got quite boring in the middle, but it warmed up and became watchable again in the second half as the kid’s training became more serious and he accepted his bully’s challenge to compete in a tournament. This movie has shades of The Karate Kid on so many levels, but the cheesy acting and cheap cinematography here does not compare what we get from that classic.