The Toughest Man in the World (1984)

In most of his films and TV shows Mr T-to his credit-has always been a good role model to youngsters. He has mostly played moralistic characters who try to encourage people to develop qualities such as loyalty, friendship, thoughtfulness and humility. The Toughest Man in the World is one of those films.Throughout the movie Mr T as Bruise Brubaker shows a young kid the error of his ways and how to do the right thing. Of course, there's plenty of action throughout. The young kid strays from the path of good on quite a few occasions but Bruise Brubaker never gives up and is always there to pick up the pieces.It's a shame they don't make movies like this any more. This is a movie that conveys a moralistic message but at the same time provides plenty of action and entertainment.Well done Mr. T.

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.