Kickboxer

Well let my roommate pick the movie we watched again this afternoon and he chose a Van Damme film. And yes it is the same roommate that picked out Zombeavers, that God awful movie.

Kickboxer starred Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Alexio, Dennis Chan, and Haskell V. Anderson III. It came out in 1989, and was directed by Mark DiSalle and David Worth.

This movie tells the story of two brothers, one a kickboxing champion and the other a coach. Dennis Alexio played Eric Sloane, world kickboxing champion. Van Damme played Kurt Sloane, the younger brother and coach of Eric. Eric is all about showing he is the best. Kurt tries to give him some advice, but Eric refuses to listen and his pride leads to a terrible accident in the ring.

Kickboxer begins with Eric Sloane defending his world kickboxing championship belt in what seems like rather easy fashion. Eric and Kurt head to Thailand to challenge their Muay Thai champion. After training and some site-seeing, Kurt and Eric arrive at the arena and begin preparing for Eric’s match. While getting ice for his brother, Kurt sees Tong Po, the champion Eric is facing, practicing by kicking and elbowing a stone column in his dressing room. Kurt tries to convince his brother not to fight, but Eric’s hubris will not let him back down. During the fight, Eric is man-handled by Tong Po and Kurt once again tries to convince him to throw in the towel. The second round starts and Eric is brutally beaten up by Tong Po, and then the Thai champ lands a very dirty elbow. This results in Kurt and a badly injured Eric being throw out of the arena. Lost and with no way to get to hospital, the boys get lucky when an American Winston Taylor, played by Haskell V. Anderson III, comes to the rescue and picks them up. He had been watching the fight and decided to help out.

Once at the hospital, Kurt learns from the doctors that his brother has been paralyzed from the waist down. An anger and rage filled Kurt decides he wants to take down Tong Po in order to avenge his brother. Looking for someone who will train him, Taylor suggests an old friend he knows who might be interested in training Xian Chow, played by Dennis Chan. The movie story follows Xian Chow’s training of Kurt in the ways of Muay Thai. However once Kurt proves himself worthy of a match against Tong Po, his managers want to make it as impossible as they can for Kurt to win. The match he must face Tong Po is one in the old way of Muay Thai in which the competitors dip the wraps covering their hands in broken glass. Once the fight is scheduled, Tong Po’s managers do as much as they can to prevent Kurt from having a chance at winning. However once the match begins, all that’s left to do is find out if Kurt can fight. Can he beat the unbeaten brick shit-house that is Tong Po? Will he be able to avenge his brother?

The answers to those questions are not hard to figure out. Kickboxer follows the guidelines for an 80’s Van Damme movie. Someone bad does something to hurt someone that Van Damme cares about, so Van Damme trains the whole damn movie in order to exact his vengeance in an final ultimate fight. However this one I think concentrated a little too much on the training storyline aspect and ultimately the final fight is underwhelming. I wouldn’t suggest this one unless you have seen all the other good Van Damme movies; that is if you think their are any. I know it’s hard to compare 80’s action movies to those of today, but in a movie where the sole purpose is a redemption fight to avenge you brother against the man who paralyzed him, at least make the end a little more compelling. I give this one two out of five stars. There are interesting moments but overall I was disappointed in this Damme movie.

“I tell them you say they no good fighters… and that their mothers have sex with mules.” – Xian Chow

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