Jean Claude Van Damme broke through as a martial arts star in "Bloodsport" (1988). His successful follow-up film was "Kickboxer" (1989), which spawned a franchise that is now on its seventh film. The original series lasted until "Redemption: Kickboxer 5" (1995). Van Damme only played lead character Kurt Sloane in the first and the fourth installment.
When the series was rebooted last 2016 with "Kickboxer: Vengeance", black-belter martial artist and stuntman Alain Moussi had taken over the role of Kurt Sloane, with Van Damme playing his elderly trainer Master Durand. This present film "Kickboxer: Retaliation" is a sequel that picked up about a year and a half after the events of the previous film.
Kurt Sloane was kidnapped and incarcerated in Thailand by Thomas Tang Moore, a promoter of illegal fight tournaments. Moore wanted him to fight the gigantic bioengineered champion Mongkut for a purse of $1M. Kurt refused to fight, so Moore had Kurt's wife Liu (Sara Malakul) kidnapped as well to force him to fight. Kurt did not have a choice.
The skeletal plot is just a flimsy excuse to showcase scene after scene of fighting in different martial arts styles. Most of them had the bone-crunching violence fans of fight films look for. The acting of all the actors, even the leads and the veterans, were either hammy or wretched. The cinematography and effects used in certain fight scenes looked cheap and bad, especially that one set on the roof of a speeding train when the fighters had to fall off, or that hall of mirrors scene with the two bikini-clad lady fighters with tattoos that glowed in the dark.
One big drawback here was that, unlike the charismatic Van Damme, the current lead actor Alain Moussi was not exactly graceful-looking fighter on the big screen. His moves (except maybe his kick and flip jumps in the final fight) looked awkward and tentative, so that it was not convincing even when he had the upper hand in his matches. His opponents, which include Mike Tyson (as scrapper Briggs) and Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (as man-mountain Mongkut), looked more formidable in their fights. Dour and humorless, Moussi does not exactly make you want to root for him.
If the names of 80s stars Jean Claude Van Damme and Christopher Lambert drew you in to watch the film, you'd be disappointed because they had very little screen time. The character of Van Damme was even blinded here, so he did not have a fight scene of significant length at all. 60-year old Lambert played Moore. Perhaps to remind us of his biggest role as Connor McLeod in "Highlander" (1986), Lambert had a brief sword fight scene with Van Damme.
Despite these bad points, we should recognize that this film was only made for fight fans to whet their adrenaline rush, and nothing much more. For that, it was not a total loss. But honestly, those fights could have been choreographed and executed better. 3/10.
I like what you shared in the article, thank you for that, it has given me more experience. I would like to share with you some interesting things, if you have free time and want to find a tool for fun read it now.can t stop thinking about you quotes Read and ponder the good quotes of life below, you will surely draw in life's own deep lessonschuyện hay về tình yêuOr you can go and search for the most fun games to play likegame nối hoa. Surely what I'm introducing to you will not disappoint you. Or you can relax by playing free games without downloading or losing any fees. These games are free but will bring you many interesting things like games cool math games wheely . Please click and experience. Having fun.
ReplyDeleteImpressive fight choreography, and an action movie that doesn't take itself too seriously. Enjoy the top notch martial arts! The lead actor is the real deal.
ReplyDelete