Blu-Ray Review: No Holds Barred

By Brad Henderson

When I was little I saw the cover for No Holds Barred countless times but never watched it because I really wasn’t into wrestling. When I was in my early teens I got a little into wrestling for a year or so, but then just got bored with it all. So as you can see, I’ve never been into wrestling and just don’t understand its following.

In 2002, WWF became WWE and decided to make movies, too. This is not something to be excited about. Putting wrestlers in movies is nothing new but it wasn’t as popular back then as it is today. I honestly didn’t have a clue about all the films they have made until I watched the No Holds Barred Blu-Ray, which includes all the trailers of their latest films. The wrestling ones look terrible and from what I’ve read of the reviews, they are not very good. Big surprise.

You may ask yourself “What does this have to do with No Holds Barred?” Everything, that’s what. Seeing the trailers for these films makes me realize they’re doing the exact same thing that they did with No Holds Barred, and that is senseless freaking comedy.

Did you know there is a part where someone shits himself and Hulk Hogan asks what the smell is and the character replies “DOOOOOOKKIIIEEEE!!!!” I don’t know what I was expecting with No Holds Barred, maybe something like Rocky or Over The Top but instead I got Hulk Hogan as the star and Kurt Fuller as the bad guy. Kurt. Fuller. As. The. Bad. Guy.

This film is obviously intended for an already existing audience that was probably eight or so when they saw it in the theatre. They want to revisit it now because of nostalgia, but if you are new to this film I don’t know what to tell you. I honestly don’t get stuff like this, but I really don’t want to anyway, and will probably stay away from it in the future. If they haven’t progressed from this point (and it doesn’t look like they have) I will stay away from anything the WWE makes.

I need to clarify, however, that my feelings don’t apply to the non-wrestling films they produce because that would include No One Lives, and that movie is all sorts of fun.

No Holds Barred was released on Blu-Ray on March 18 from Image Entertainment.