No Holds Barred

Trailer—No Holds Barred

Although I'm a huge World Wrestling Federation, Hulk Hogan, wrestling in general & these kind of movie fan (Stallone, Arnold, Van Damme), as an adult I find this movie unacceptable. It really is a pretty bad flick, no acting at all, used to love it when i was 6-7 and maybe I could recommend it to a 6y old, but times are different now and I'm not sure even they would like it. Hulk Hogan is bad, as always, Tiny Lister the same, but Joan Severence eclipsed them all, her 'acting' is something really special. Director Wright is a TV- director and it shows all the way. It is a movie made for a special purpose (wrestling feud), def. fulfilled it's original task and should stay in the late 80's.

No matter how low your expectations are going into this absurd late 80s Hulk Hogan vehicle, it's quite likely to limbo right under them. Hogan is the "star", but he actually gets very little screen time, disappearing for large chunks of the film while the focus is on the villain of the piece played with a "Hey, it's a paycheck" glee by Kurt Fuller. When he is on screen, Hogan struggles playing a character that is more or less the same one he'd played for nearly a decade in the WWF. None of this would've mattered much had the film at least given us some entertaining wrestling moments and perhaps a few good montages set to cheesy rock music, but it can't even seem to do that right. 'No Holds Barred' is awful even by the standards of low budget late-80s wrestling movies, of which it may be the only one.

Evil television network president Brell (fiercely overplayed by Kurt Fuller) uses brutish means in order to force popular, but virtuous champion wrestler Rip Thomas (Hulk Hogan growling and grimacing with lip-smacking aplomb) to participate in a no holds barred brawl with ruthless and formidable behemoth Zeus (a furiously hammy portrayal by Tiny Lister). Gloriously ludicrous right from the first frame, with lots of tin-eared dialogue, broadly drawn characters, sultry brunette knockout Joan Severance providing the smoking hot love interest, plenty of choice WTF? moments (a scared limo driver does number two in his pants!), a head-banging hair metal theme song, David Paymer sniveling it up as obsequious lackey Unger, an absurd story, enough sweat to float a boat, outrageous action set pieces, savage fights, and even a cameo from Jesse Ventura as himself, this hilariously horrendous hunk of cinematic cheese rates as a delectably dreadful hoot and a half.

Back in 89 Hulk finally got his first starring role and you can tell he had a lot of fun with it. He plays Rip, the WWF champion with a heart of gold. But when Rip doesn't switch networks, the greedy promoter Brell gets down and dirty, and eventually finds the massive Zeus to lure Hogan into their trap. Overall, a fun movie to watch, especially if your a big Hulkster fan like myself.

it's silly,but pretty entertaining. i first saw this movie in 1990 i think. it's really the only hulk hogan movie worth watching more than once. it's the best pro wrestling movie ever. it's not as fun as pro wrestling itself,but still fun. i give no holds barred **1/2 out of ****

it was late one halloween night I had fallen asleep with my TV on and I woke up like 2 in the morning, opened my eyes and this movie was playing. I was a little groggy, but was then awake and couldnt get back to sleep and figured might as well watch this. the thing that surprised me, is, this movie is standard fair as far as fish out of water fighting against incredible odds to win something movies go, but I just LOVED the look of this movie. it was filmed very beaituflly, with some very surreal scenes. such as that rough bar hulk went to and got intoa fight, the look of the bar with the lights shining thru the walls and the colorful look of it really caught my eye. from then on, the strange thing was, while I wasnt incredibly taken with the plot, I thought the film itself, as far as the scenes was really....well........sharp and cool.