Audience Member
I loved this movie which was ignored when it first came out. Great cast with the basic plot two feuding brothers with old school versus modern with Scott Glenn caught in the middle. Great dinner scene where all the food is still alive. Some really well done action, a romantic sub-plot, and a really epic finale. If samurai in the modern sounds good, you will like this, and who doesnt loveToshiro Mifune with a sword in his hand!!
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Ridiculous, yet fun as hell culture-clash 80s action movie. Scott Glenn is awesome as always as is Mifune, who it was weird seeing in his twilight. Some cheesy but glorious one liners, and surprisingly decent action sequences.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
Audience Member
John Frankenheimer had a lot of trouble living up to The Manchurian Candidate but still managed to direct a number of very interesting and entertaining films (along with some utter clunkers) in his long career. I had always thought that Scott Glenn played supporting roles apart from being part of the ensemble cast of Silverado but here he is playing the leading man and protagonist in this film and is pretty good as Rick, an American boxer and former champion who becomes embroiled in a feud between two brothers in an ancient Japanese clan. They both want to possess two ancient family swords. One, Toru Yoshida (the great Toshiro Mifune), the good brother devotes his life to prayer and medidation and training students in the martial arts and the use of traditional Japanese weapons while the other (bad) brother, Hideo Yoshida, is a powerful businessman with ties to the Yakuza and a small professional army of security professionals guarding his fortress-like corporate HQ. Sometimes called Sword of the Ninja to fit in with the current Ninja craze in Martial Arts films, this film was more accurately inspired by the TV miniseries Shogun. So basically, it is John Frankenheimer's version of a Martial Arts film. The film's script was co-written by John Sayles. With the lovely Donna Kei Benz as Akiko Yoshida, Toru's daughter.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/24/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I just saw this for the first time recently and I was completely blown away by it. A forgotten gem in the 80's action genre, The Challenge is a glorious reminder of how much fun a movie can be despite everything going against it. Starring Scott Glenn and Toshiro Mifune, the movie is filled with bad dialogue, questionable story mechanics and laughable performances, but somehow it all works just perfectly. The score is quite good, coming from Jerry Goldsmith no less, and the action scenes are fantastic. You can tell a lot of choreography was put into the action set pieces, particularly the final showdown. I found myself clapping at the end because I was deliriously entertained by the whole thing. The trouble is that I know most people won't get it or care, but those that do like a couple of friends mine, love it like I do. It's by no means a masterpiece, but I'd love to see it get some love as it's been out of print for years and never been available before on DVD. I'm hoping that it at least gets a release through an MOD program of some kind.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
I just saw this for the first time recently and I was completely blown away by it. A forgotten gem in the 80's action genre, The Challenge is a glorious reminder of how much fun a movie can be despite everything going against it. Starring Scott Glenn and Toshiro Mifune, the movie is filled with bad dialogue, questionable story mechanics and laughable performances, but somehow it all works just perfectly. The score is quite good, coming from Jerry Goldsmith no less, and the action scenes are fantastic. You can tell a lot of choreography was put into the action set pieces, particularly the final showdown. I found myself clapping at the end because I was deliriously entertained by the whole thing. The trouble is that I know most people won't get it or care, but those that do like a couple of friends mine, love it like I do. It's by no means a masterpiece, but I'd love to see it get some love as it's been out of print for years and never been available before on DVD. I'm hoping that it at least gets a release through an MOD program of some kind.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Preposterous, from the bland title that studio execs must have chosen -- totally unrelated to the content of the movie -- to the desperate symbolism of the last shot. The Challenge is an improvement on 80s action TV only. Scott Glenn and Calvin Jung, as the two show-off Americans, have some ridiculous dialogue, and Donna Kei Benz has no non-abs-related reason to sleep with Scott Glenn, except that he is a white beer drinker and deserves a reward for race-crossing loyalty and a heart as big as all Texas. The melodrama is almost tongue-in-cheek, especially with the little Japanese kid who washes clothes hoping to be a warrior, battles low self-esteem and speaks English like he was an orphan trying to get couples to take him home. In the end, office furniture is mightier than the sword -- or at least an insidious rival to the sword with its unwieldy symbolism. But Toshiro Mifune is good to see and a few sequences are edited very well.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
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