The Top Five Jean-Claude Van Damme Movies

The Muscles from Brussels... whattaman!

Hey, let’s be honest for a second… JCVD isn’t all that bad. Sure, he’s made more than his fair share of clunkers, but on the 80s Action Movie Hero Scale, I place him right behind Sly & Arnie. I always thought Steven Seagal was overrated and Chuck Norris movies were just plain awful.

Van Damme never really had a big budget Hollywood action movie on the level of a TERMINATOR or RAMBO or ROCKY to really breakthrough with. UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is probably his most well-known mainstream movie (though TIMECOP is his highest grossing movie) but it didn’t cement his status as a major player. He kinda got a second shot to be a Hollywood force with STREET FIGHTER, but it was terrible and bombed. Darned if he didn’t keep putting out movie after movie, spin kick after spin kick and butt shot after butt shot all in the name of trying to join the Planet Hollywood club though.

Eventually, all of these failed movies led him into the land of direct-to-video: a place for has-beens and never-will-bes. So, Van Damme never really “went away”, his movies just got smaller and he’s actually acting in them these days. Check out WAKE OF DEATH and the very good IN HELL to see what Jean-Claude is capable of doing as an actor. The guy has gotten better with age, even if his movies haven’t (which are still standard direct-to-video action movies for the most part).

Let’s take a look at what I believe to be his five best movies.

#5

Timecop (1994, Universal Pictures)

Believe it or not, this is Van Damme’s top grossing  movie, hitting $45 million at the U.S. box office and raking in over $100 million worldwide. It’s based on comic book from Dark Horse Comics that I’m not really familiar with, but the movie was fun, slick sci-fi action. It’s actually one of his better reviewed movies and well worth checking out.

The Gist:

In the year 2004, time travel is possible and JCVD works for the Time Enforcement Commission as Agent Max Walker. The TEC makes sure no one goes back in time to do anything screwy, but at the same time, Walker’s wife was killed in 1994 and while chasing the bad guys to that year, he’s tempted to prevent his wife’s death.

Legacy:

We ended up with a Timecop television show that aired for 9 episodes on ABC in 1995 and a direct-to-video sequel in 2003 called TIMECOP 2: THE BERLIN DECISION, starring d-t-v action vets Jason Scott Lee and Thomas Ian Griffith. Both the TV show and the sequel had no direct relation to the movie other than being based on the Time Enforcement Commission and their officers.

#4

Kickboxer (1989, Cannon Films)

This is a classic martial arts movie and I say that not even really liking martial arts films (so maybe that means my opinion doesn’t really count)! Is it cheesy? Yes, but aren’t ALL martial arts films? The 80s were a fantastic time for all forms of martial arts with tons of low-budget movies (AMERICAN NINJA, ENTER THE NINJA, BEST OF THE BEST, THE LAST DRAGON, etc) getting released throughout the decade. Granted, many of them were based on karate & ninjas only, but this little gem dared to be different and give us KICKBOXING (as if you couldn’t tell by the title).

Clean cut, underdog vs. evil, unbeatable kickboxing drug lord = good times.

The Gist:

It’s a good ol’ fashioned story of revenge when U.S. kickboxing champ Eric Sloan, brother of Van Damme’s character Kurt Sloan, gets in over his head during a kickboxing match against the evil and vicious Thailand kickboxing champ Tong Po and ends up paralyzed. Van Damme trains, Van Damme fights for family honor!

Legacy:

Oh boy. This movie was followed by FOUR, count’em, FOUR sequels (Part 2 had an extremely limited theatrical release, the rest went direct to video)! And they aren’t even guilty pleasures like this one, they’re just plain bad.

KICKBOXER 2: THE ROAD BACK (1991)
KICKBOXER 3: THE ART OF WAR (1992)
KICKBOXER 4: THE AGGRESSOR (1994)
KICKBOXER 5: THE REDEMPTION (1995)

The KICKBOXER series is notable for giving Step By Step‘s Sasha Mitchell something other to do than beat up his wife and play crazy sidekick “Codeman” to that snotty, whiny JT. The story is that Sasha’s character is ANOTHER Sloan brother, David, and he’s out for revenge too… For the murder of Eric & Kurt, which happened apparently immediately after the events of the original movie as Tong Po had them gunned down. Van Damme does not appear in any these sequels.

Part 5 starred Mark Dacascos, after seeing David Sloan (his shadow at least, not Sasha Mitchell) killed in the movie’s opening minutes. Wow, the Sloan family is cursed just like the Kennedys and Von Erichs! There were plans for a KICKBOXER 6, again starring Dacascos, but KICKBOXER 5 didn’t turn a profit. Imagine that.

#3

Bloodsport (1988, Cannon Films)

Another Van Damme fight-to-the death movie from Cannon Films, but it actually came a year before KICKBOXER and it’s another martial arts classic in my eyes. Bolo Yeung’s Chong Li was another great martial arts villain in the same vein as Michel Qissi’s Tong Po.

Though Van Damme had done a handful of movies before this one, this is what got him noticed in the United States and he really impressed people with his physical abilities.

The Gist:

Think of this as Mortal Kombat before Mortal Kombat. The movie is about an illegal underground martial artist tournament that takes place in China and is “based on the true events in the life of Frank Dux”. Some say Dux loved to spin tales about his martial arts days and that the story this movie was based on is total bull. Doesn’t really matter because what we have here is a a movie made up of great fight scenes.

Legacy:

Van Damme and the real Frank Dux actually became business partners and were looking to put together a movie extremely similar in story to this one. They called it THE KUMITE and they were hoping it would become a franchise. The Van Damme/Dux partnership had a falling out (and lawsuit) and the end result was 1996′s THE QUEST, with Dux only getting a writing credit.

As for BLOODSPORT itself, it had a handful of sequels just like KICKBOXER. All were direct-to-video and starred Daniel Bernhardt in the lead role and they were unrelated to events in the first movie.

BLOODSPORT II: THE NEXT KUMITE (1996)
BLOODSPORT III (1997)
BLOODSPORT 4: THE DARK KUMITE (1999)

#2

Death Warrant (1990, MGM Pictures)

During my days working at a video store, I was able to order tons of DVDs for myself and get a hefty discount on them too and this was one of the last JCVD I had not yet seen at that point, so I got it pretty cheap.

Fun Fact: It was written by now-popular screenwriter/director/comic book writer David S. Goyer… who also wrote KICKBOXER 2: THE ROAD BACK! Oh my! How do you go from something like that to an awesome run on DC Comics’ JSA and then onto writing THE DARK KNIGHT? Practice makes perfect, I guess.

By 1990, Van Damme was starting to pull himself out of the more low-budget fare and was attracting the interest of the major film studios.

The Gist:

This movie is somewhat of a LOCK UP clone, with Van Damme in prison having to deal with an evil warden, evil guards and prisoners out to kill him. The difference between LOCK UP and DEATH WARRANT (which was released just one year after LOCK UP) is that Van Damme is a detective gone undercover to investigate a series of murders at the prison. He also has to make sure his cover isn’t blown and runs across the Sandman, who he put behind bars awhile back.

Legacy:

Other than being Goyer’s first commercial release and putting him on the path to Hollywood and comic book stardom, none.

#1

Hard Target (1993, Universal Pictures)

I guess you could say I’ve got a soft spot for HARD TARGET! I dunno, there’s just something about this film that I thought was really fun. Perhaps Sam Raimi as executive producer had something to do with it.

This was action director legend John Woo’s first American film.

The Gist:

Hey, a movie that explains Van Damme’s accent! This one’s based in New Orleans and Van Damme plays Chance Boudreax, with a performance and look that really makes you wish those X-MEN movies were made sooner so we could’ve seen the fantasy casting of Van Damme as Gambit come true.

It’s another version of “The Most Dangerous Game” with rich guys hunting humans just for the thrill of the kill. Chance comes across a chick looking for her homeless dad who was mixed up in doing work for the leader of this mercenary ring and the pieces all start coming together and what has happened and the bad guys are out to make sure Chance and the girl never tell!

Legacy:

None. Just another in a long line of “The Most Dangerous Game” takeoffs. Countless others have already followed since, but given Van Damme movies usually get so many sequels and this one raked in $77 million+ worldwide, I’m surprised a direct-to-video sequel never arrived.

About these ads