American Black Belt Championships

There are a couple of pretty interesting sights in this competition filmed in the Thunderdome on UCSB campus in Santa Barbara, CA: Bill Muzzy, looking more than a little dazed, breaking his 600th straight pine board with his bare hands to set a new Guinness world record and 8-year-old Josh Durban's incredibly acrobatic display wielding a staff larger than himself. The other 115 minutes, on the other hand, are a little on the big-time-martial-arts-enthusiasts-only side. Featuring "fighting, forms, weapons, and breaking," the program, which includes commentators such as action B-movie queen Cynthia Rothrock and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, is a little short on hand-to-hand fighting. Only three actual bouts are shown and during these the contenders kick more air than butt. Aside from the brief bouts (which are not only relatively unexciting, but feature replays of replays of the few actual moments when meaningful contact is made), the program offers a series of martial arts black belts strutting their stuff in demonstrating forms, with and without weapons. Those with larger martial arts collections might want to consider, but for most this would not be a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)