Review of neon_wolf from Denmark

Axe camaradas!

This is a charming movie with a stupid storyline like those seen in most martial arts movies. But hey, the point is to see the hero beat the bad guys with some sweet moves, right? And this movie delivers just that. So why bother analysing it any deeper?

Mark Dacascos plays a young capoeirista (a guy who practises capoeira) who gets some misfit students onto the right side of the law by teaching them capoeira. Of course this leads to some showdowns between him and various criminal elements. And that's it, really. But capoeira is a beautiful sport to watch, and the movie is a good teaser for the real thing.

But Dacascos isn't really a capoeirista, and the movie misinterprets some of the basic elements of the sport. If you become interested in learning more after watching the movie, look up the nearest capoeira club in the phonebook and try it for yourself. I guarantee it will be an experience well worth your while! I speak from personal experience.

Review of a viewer from Oregon

Better watch this in slow motion!

This movie was by far one of the best martial arts films ever. Even in the first few minutes of the movie I could feel the urge to go out and try these moves for myself. The music is awesom! You may need to slow your VCR down so you can take in all the action in the fighting sequences. This movie introduced me to Capoeira and I am now a student under Mestre Almira. Axe!

Review of f_liem@hotmail.com from Bangkok, Thailand

Taming the "beasts"... more than only Martial Arts

First of all I'd like to comment that this movie of Dacascos has incredible Fighting scenes again. The Fighting style Capoeira is just "super dooper incredible". As I've already mentioned in Drive I like his""flying screw driver" move. But there's another aspect that I liked regarding this movie: Only the Strong is more than just a simple Martial Arts movie. It has some kinda message , too. It teaches us that Martial Arts are more than being powerful and defeating your opponent. For,if you think that Martial Arts is just for trying to be the best fighter you could easliy end up as a brutal killer. Back to the movie, I like Dacascos's methods to get the students around, giving them hope , confidence, respect and most important of all "something that they can strive for". I don't say that this method is the best way to convince tough guys, and I don't say that it is that easy as it looks like in the movie. But it would be one possibility to get violent kids around. And I as former Taekwondo student back in Germany (Germany is my home country, I'm here for Internationl school) demand to show more movies like that or even to try a methods like that in reality.(That's why the title "Taming the beasts") A very awesome Martial Arts movie!!!!!