Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 23, 1993 TAG: 9310260119
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAY CARR THE BOSTON GLOBE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Its Miami good guys efficiently get on with things, resolving the ever-vexing who's-running-this-neighborhood-anyway question by pulping the bad guys in just under 96 minutes. And it's got a catchy beat. These are no ordinary martial arts that returning Special Forces vet Mark Dacascos teaches a hand-picked Dirty Dozen from his old graffiti-covered high school. While stationed in Brazil (it's never explained exactly what U.S. Special Forces were doing there) he masters capoeira (pronounced cop-way-ruh), a fusion of dance and combat originated by Brazil's African slaves, incorporating chants and drumming.
The wonder is that martial arts movies haven't pounced on capoeira until now. It's very photogenic with its dance rhythms, gymnastic flips and kinetic agility. Think of it as kung fu with percussive rhythms, kick-boxing pushing off a ritual base, bone-crunching you can dance to. Dacascos turns around a handful of high school troublemakers by taking over an abandoned firehouse, using it as a training site, and initiating them into the ways of capoeira. Naturally, the drug dealers who run the school and the neighborhood aren't about to let this pass.
This movie isn't going to do much for reading test scores, not the way the faculty eagerly hands the place over to the flying feet brigade, but it's an upbeat alternative for action fans who get no kick from kick-boxing, karate or kung fu.
\ Only the Strong: Showing at the Terrace Theatre. Rated PG-13 for gang violence. 96 mins.
by CNB