Best movie ever!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The acting levels are not high and the film looks like it was shot on a hamstring in Miami locations. Still Only The Strong has a good bit of entertainment going with it. Martial Arts film fans should be happy with it.Geoffrey Lewis quite unofficially brings in former Special Forces captain Mark Dascascos for a karate program for some of his biggest challenges at an urban Miami high school he teaches at. Among those kids is Richard Coca, cousin of the neighborhood gang leader Paco Christian Prieto.Though film isn't exactly Citizen Kane, Prieto is such a menacing presence you will remember him long after the rest of the film. Especially next to white bread hero Mark Dascascos. Prieto doesn't like anyone telling the kids there's an alternative other than gang war for them. Especially when it involves Coca. Then it becomes downright personal.Martial Arts film fans will love Only The Strong and others will be entertained.

All hail the 1990s and those wonderful low-budget STVs. In ONLY THE STRONG, a young Mark Dacascos plays a special forces veteran who returns home to find his old high school in total disarray. Plot sound familiar? In this formula actioner, Dacascos happens to know a unique style of of martial arts called capoeira, which combines gymnastics, dance and kung phooey. He selects the school's 12 worst students and teaches them capoeira in an abandoned firehouse. Problems arise when the cousin of one of the students, a vicious drug lord, interferes. The film was shot on a zero budget, but the capoeira sequences are breathtaking. Problem is, capoeira never caught on here, so at times, the whole thing looks a little silly and dated. Sort of like when XANADU came out after the rollerskating craze was already over or when the Village People starred in a disco movie after disco had been officially declared dead. Anyhow, watch this for the amazing leaps and spins and cartwheels if nothing else. Dacascos, A Hawaiian native, managed to survive this silly film and went on to a long career, including playing The Crow on TV and a kick-boxing Native American in the memorable French actioner, "Brotherhood of the Wolf."

I'm going to be frank, this is no Oscar winner by a long shot, but it serves well as a martial arts themed flick and I found it enjoyable.The easy to follow plot revolves Green Beret soldier and cappoiera expert Lois Stevens, who has returned from a stint in Brazil to his old high school in Miami, which is in a sad state as drugs, crime and chronic underachievement are rife.After Lois schools 3 menacing drug dealers in front of the whole school, he suggests teaching his martial arts discipline to 12 particularly bad students to see if this can focus them and broaden their horizons. He starts training them in the ways, and eventually they start to listen..and more importantly LEARN. The only obstacle is Silverio, the vicious leader of a notoriously tough city gang, who happens to have a cousin in Stevens' training group. But of course Lois isn't going to let some miscreant stand in his way.This film, despite its cheese factor, has a positive 'can do' tone throughout, and is enjoyable for this reason. Also enjoyable for its fight scenes, which sees a dedicated and determined Lois take on hordes of opponents with his amazing skills.

Mark Dacascos stars as Louis Stevens, a soldier turned teacher who gives the rough students at a local high school a crash course in the martial arts of Capoeira, however the head gang member, Silverio has other plans and therefore a war is waged between Stevens and Silverio. However Stevens will need all the martial arts learned because Silverio is a master of the art of Capoeira also. Only The Strong came out back in my senior year of high school and I skipped school to see this at matinée price. I loved the movie. Although looking back on this, one must admit that the story is a bit too sentimental at times and the whole thing of Capoeira changing the lives of these street kids doesn't bode much credibility however when the fight sequences are this good and the showdown between Dacascos and Paco Christian Prieto that intense, one can only enjoy the silliness at hand. It's not a great movie by any means but it is a fantastic guilty pleasure.* * out of 4-(Fair)