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I would say kickboxer. but it has been a great amount of time since seeing either one.
Which movie kicks more ass?
I would say kickboxer. but it has been a great amount of time since seeing either one.
Kickboxer by a mile. For starters it gets points for honesty. It's just like containers they sell salt in at the store. One word on the label: SALT (Ingredients: salt). You know what you're getting, they don't try to sugarcoat any of it. (Though you can bet your ass I would buy sugarcoated salt in a ing heartbeat, likely my last one.) It puts the viewer in the right frame of mind coming into the movie in order to fully embrace and enjoy the asskickings that take place in the movie. Unlike Lionheart, where I spent the first 45 minutes waiting for him to develop a heart condition requiring a transplant only to have a mix up at the hospital result in him getting a donor organ from a lion and then start eating his opponents after he does the splits and ball punches them into submission. I eventually realized that wasn't going to happen, and I spent the rest of the movie howling in fury and cursing God himself for that. If it were just "Beating Up Dudes For a Rich White Lady" I probably would have loved it.
Kickboxer also lacked any pretense that Van Damme could actually act. In watching it not that long ago it seemed like the director figured any take where JCVD got his lines right and pronounced semi-coherently was good enough, and told the rest of the actors on the set to make sure they didn't upstage the star. Lionheart had that goofy with the kid and blah blah blah family. Kickboxer had a little of that bull but a whole lot less. Lionheart redid Over the Top with someone who is somehow less intelligible than Stallone.
As for the actual asskicking in the film, it's Kickboxer. It has to be. Lionheart leans too heavily on fights in gimmicky locations. They're surrounded by cars! They're fighting in a drained pool! They're fighting in a ing racquetball court! If you're going to throw a bunch of unorthodox fight locations in the mix then you have to dive in 100% like Jackie Chan and essentially make the setting a third character in the fight. Lionheart feels more like their location scout waited until the last minute and they had to film entirely in places they had to sneak into. Kickboxer keeps it simple and just does it better. They fight in a ring! They fight in a bar! They fight in a slightly different, more dangerous looking ring! And did Lionheart even have a training montage? If they did it obviously wasn't very memorable. If it didn't then it is an affront to all living things.
I will say this much for Lionheart, that Attila dude had some sweet ass muttonchops. Blows what's his name's baldy ponytail look out of the water, that's for damn sure.
SFIE, I think you're underrating Lionheart a bit (of course it's cheesy), but I agree that Kickboxer is better. Tung-Po was a menacing villain for a pony-tailed . I'd rate kickboxer above Bloodsport (personal preference), but below Double Impact--his magnum opus
Kickboxer is better IMO. Like SFIE says, it gets right to the action. In the first 10 minutes you get to see JVCD's brother who looks nothing like him and has an American accent get his back broken. JCVD is in his prime and he fights in the old style—with broken glass on his hands in a pit. The training is also sick with him kicking trees, fighting drunk Thai people and doing the splits with ropes.
Lionheart does have have some sick fights that capture that early 90's Street Fighter II feel. Kicking that dude through the racquet ball glass was a great moment in Van Damme's career.
Both great films. Kickboxer wins though.
I don't mean to make it sound like I'm hating on Lionheart. It's one of those movies that I find myself watching whenever I channel surf across it, much like the rest of Van Damme's works. For some crazy reason it's really easy to pick up the plot of these things even if you've missed the first 20-30 minutes.
However by comparison I think Kickboxer is atop the list, narrowly edging out Bloodsport, while Lionheart probably wouldn't crack the top 5.
Sudden Death disagrees.
Sure, it's got less Van Damme by half, but it's got Powers Boothe, a Zamboni, and a fight scene with a mascot.
The thing about JCVD is all his stuff is always new and fresh for the time period. Like this upcoming flickAlso, if we are throwing in other movies I have to lean towards Universal Soldier as a cool film.
Good call on Universal Soldier...the beginning of that movie when Dolph Lundgren has the "I'm all ears" moment is cinema gold.
Hard to choose with Van Damme movies, I grew up with all of them and love em all up to about Sudden Death and Maximum Risk. Love Nowhere to Run, Death Warrant and Cyborg too. Double Impact and Universal Soldier were both badass as well.
Bloodsport will always be #1 to me as a martial arts film. It was so grand and his first starring role, and with this role he really wowed people, so as much as I absolutely love Kickboxer.. Bloodsport will always win out for me.
Between Kickboxer and Lionheart I probably love them equally, if anything Lionheart might edge it out by a hair, that's just my opinion. I really loved the relationship between Lyon and Joshua. The talk/argument they both had before the last fight, Joshua betting against him and Lyon having an epic fight with Attila and then forgiving Joshua...that's what makes it edge out Kickboxer for me. Van Damme could act lol.
As far as Van Damme's best film and just bad assery kick ass "superstar" action, Timecop has to be it for me, and just behind it Sudden Death. Timecop is one of my favorite films ever. Not flawless, but Van Damme truly arrived with that film as a superstar, it was the most well received and critically acclaimed and most successful films to date for Van Damme, and I have to agree with that, fine ass Mia Sara was an added bonus. It has always confused me why he and Peter Hyams never reunited, they had two straight badass films together.
Here are the end fights just for the heck of it
But I'm sorry, NOTHING beats Bloodsport. He fought blind, and it's based on true events.
Last edited by SA210; 10-01-2012 at 06:25 PM.
No Retreat No Surrender is a damn fine film in itself and pretty underrated. Although he doesn't have the starring role, it might be my favorite Van Damme movie.
all of you in the ass with a rattlesnake eating a flaming 2 by 4
Hard Target!
John Woo plus Van Damme plus mullet equals glory
That being said...There almost isn't such a thing as a bad Van Damme movie
Yes Hard Target
favorite JCVD film (haven't seen them all) is Hard Target followed by Time Cop. Ron silver chewed scenery with hte best and I love his line in TimeCop
lol, rip Ron.
anyone ever see the director's cut of Hard Target? i downloaded a bootleg copy off of youtube, but i've never watched it all the way through. It's supposed to be far more bloody and badass.
I used to bang this Thai who called me "nuk su kao".
For pure form, Bloodsport. It was edited right. He showed his form and it had Forrest Whittaker. Cannot go wrong with that combination.
"Who cares if Bruce Lee was his shidoshi?"
Good take.
"He was kicking the pillar with his ing leg, and de plaster was falling down!"
What is that latest he made (I think it's the latest) where he's an assassin and he lives in this run down hole that has a secret penthouse style flat hidden inside? I thought he was good in that, ty writing but his acting is improving with age. Without the invincible after training with Muk Do script, he could be a decent actor.
Springsteen, moron
Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever clap while you are dancing. EVER!
This post alone helped a million white guys get pussy at the clubs. You're welcome!
The real and correct answer is Bloodsport.
You bleed like My Lee...My Lee good f#$k
The double-punch to the chest/gut at 3:40 is so ing badass
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