The Toughest Man in the World (1984)

the audience applauded

People are voting emotionally.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

As a supplier to the production, the UNIVERSAL GYM weight machine, I saw a behind the scenes Mr. T that was nothing like the character.I agree that movie was very inspirational. My gripe is the way Mr. T treated the kids who were hanging around the Chicago Park District building. All they wanted was some recognition a hi-5, a continuous down the line hand slap, maybe just point to them and say HI. There was nothing from him. When moving from the set to his trailer the hood would come up, his head down and moving quickly telling the kids to get out of his way. It was very sad to see the disappointment on their faces. My own five year old son who was with me on the set couldn't get any recognition. If it wasn't for Mr. Dave Cass, the stunt coordinator, none of the kids, some of whom waited in the drizzling rain for a glimpse of the star from "The A Team' wouldn't have anything. I saw him take some press pictures of Mr. T with the auto-signed autograph and pass them out till they were all gone, he talked to those who had questions and generally made them feel appreciated which is what they wanted from their 'hero'.So the movie rates a 7 for what it is, the star rates a 0 from what I witnessed.Dave Boehl

Nightclub bouncer Bruise runs a youth centre for kids in a run-down city block. When funding is revoked the centre faces closure and Bruise combines with young thief Billy to put together a plan to raise the money. With time running out Bruise prepares to enter the "Toughest Man in the World" competition with a prize of $100,000. Can he raise the money and save the underprivileged children?Whenever the film opened with the theme song (rapped by Mr T) I thought "this is going to be bad" and indeed I was quite right. The story is quite lame, basically to save the centre they try grants, a carnival and several other ways to raise money - unsurprisingly they all fail only to have Bruise resort to entering the contest. However, as the title reveals, the competition is the focus of the film and the other plans feel like they were put in just to fill the first hour of the film. It's all quite predictable, however if you are a 2 year old I won't spoil it by telling you if he wins the contest or not.The plot is weak and the action is laughable - all the fights are pure WCW. Mr T lumbers round as baddies line up to be thrown or clotheslined. I didn't expect anything else but did it have to be so staged looking? The script also becomes tiresome because Mr T wants to be seen as a role model - his character must take a stand on everything. In the course of 90 minutes Mr T essentially preaches against drugs, child poverty, thugs, Government bureaucracy, smoking, violence and eschews the importance of literacy, going to school, hard work and honesty etc. Any flaws his character had are used to show how he learnt from past mistakes. It feels like some scenes are set up to have Mr T preach to the camera - at some points it's like he's not even interacting with the other actors, rather he's just preaching directly to the audience.Mr T is not a great lead (he can't act, rap, do comedy or fight convincingly) but he's not without a certain charm (although it's buried quite deep here). Navin Jr is unbelievable as Billy and looks like a classically trained child actor playing a poor ghetto criminal. Some of the support deliver their lines with such pantomime cheese that it's laughable - the official in the council offices is the worst. Some interest was raised by the site of mob-film regular Frank Vincent in a 5 second cameo but it wanes again pretty quickly.Overall a poor TV movie set up to continue the star power of Mr T. Even for his fans there isn't much to enjoy here.

Just see how many cloth caps you can spot in the movie! The music and breakdancing sequence at the beginning really takes you back in time. The nightclub dancer is truly a star - those moves - she should have been in Flash Dance. Weight lifters have serious man boobs. Possibly best of all is Mr. T's hair cut. There's even an Al Pacino lookalike (1 hour into the film)- "little showbiz twist I've got buzzin' around in my head" - Al never quite delivered a line like that in his long career. Billy Green has the funkiest walk I have ever seen! Nice shorts that Mr. T wears on the 10 km run, my only worry is that they look a little small for his well built physique. I wonder if there were any 'popping out' incidents during filming (mind you, these could be saved for extra material when the film is released on DVD). Has to be seen to be believed.

Hokey tv-movie has Mr. T sticking up for some inner-city kids. His name might be "Bruise" but the action is fairly tepid. It's worth seeing just for the rap Monsieur T does over the opening credits. The video was available on Cabin Fever, in case you're trying to locate it.