Dragon

DRAGON EYES-2012-In the urban hell of a place called St. Jude, African-American and Hispanic gangs fight each other over drugs. Enter Hong (MMA fighter Cung Le also one of the producers), mysterious master martial artist haunted by his past. When he was in jail he was mentored by Tiano (Jean Claude Van Damme). After he starts trouble with the gangs he comes to the attention of MIster V. (Peter Weller, kind of stealing the show) the corrupt, cigar smoking dandy of a chief of police. Hong tries to clean up the neighborhood and give hope to its residents. He impresses Mr. V. and for a while works as his thug. But Hong has other plans. Including bringing down V. despite nearly being beaten to death (by another MMA fighter Dan Henderson).  Tiano appears in flashbacks relating his philosophy and in a flashback inside a flashback kills his own son.

The violent story is ok and Le isn't bad (but if he's to be judged by Van Damme's acting talents that's not saying much...) but the real drawbacks are John Hyams' pretentious direction, CGI enhanced fighting and a bring down ending. Van Damme's real son Kristopher Van Varenberg also appears as a corrupt police sergeant. A couple of other real fighters also appear. The director made two "Universal Soldier" entries both with Van Damme. Filmed in Louisana.

Thanks for reading!

That Van Damme Kickboxer!

KICKBOXER-1989-This was Jean Claude Van Damme’s fifth starring role. It’s kind of like THE KARATE KID but more violent (and Ralph Macchio is a better actor).

Van Damme is the corner man for his kickboxing champ brother (Dennis Alexio), who’s pretty much an egotistical asshole. They go to Thailand to fight Muay Thai champ Tong Po (Dennis Qissi) who winds up crippling Alexio. Brother Van Damme wants revenge and trains with Xian Chow (Dennis Chen) to get it. Along the way he meets Chow’s niece (Rochelle Ashana) who provides some love interest and Haskell Anderson plays an ex-patriot American who helps out. Of course Van Damme winds up kicking Po’s butt. There were 4 sequels!

This movie is ok. One of JCVD’s best as many of the action movies that followed were disappointing. Now days his movies go directly to video/DVD. Alexio was actually a kickboxing champ nicknamed “The Terminator” but his acting is terminal. Qissi was in three other Van Damme vehicles.

"What experience and history teach is that people and governments never learned anything from history"-GWF Hegel

Thanks for reading!