VAN DAMME: A RETROSPECTIVE (25 Career Highlights Good & Bad) PART 3

JCVD hanging with the russians and taking in the fights...

13) Death Warrant

JCVD goes undercover as a prisoner to investigate some disturbing murders going on in Harrison State Prison. This is basically classic Van Damme. Some great martial arts, cheesy one liners, and outrageous early 90s outfits. It doesn't live up to some of the other classics, but it belongs in the category. JCVD is probably the worst undercover cop of all time, doing everything wrong left and right, but blame it on the script. We get one of the best villains though in The Sandman, played by B-movie creep Patrick Kilpatrick ("The Stand", "The X-Files")

12) Replicant

Like everyone else, I wasn't expecting much from this film. But I still remember sitting by the TV waiting for the debut of this straight to DVD picture on USA network. And like everyone else, I was surprised at how decent this film was. Not only was this the first time we got to see some genuine emotion from JCVD (much better than "Nowhere to Run"), we have a film that had the story come first, and the action second. Not very often did we get this in a Van Damme picture. Always classic Michael Rooker adds some flavor to this film and veteran action director Ringo Lam puts some extra pizazz into this science fiction themed action drama.

11) Maximum Risk

Also directed by Ringo Lam, "Maximum Risk" will always be the sleeper hit by JCVD. It was right at the beginning of his downfall and pretty much forgotten in the grand picture of his career. A little more serious than his other movies at the time, "Maximum Risk" is basically just a well done action thriller. People were disappointed because Ringo Lam brought some serious steam to America and this was considered a let down, but even in critic's minds this was above average for a Van Damme film. Throw in "Species" hotty Natasha Henstridge and some bath house violence and you get a great Van Damme vehicle.

10) Double Impact

From a critical standpoint, "Maximum Risk" and "Replicant" are probably better movies than "Double Impact", but what we have here from this twin Van Damme picture is pure entertainment. Like "Replicant" we have Van Damme in a dual role where he may not show as amazing acting chops in this movie, but he provides some of the best action and comedic moments of his career (whether they are intentional or not I don't know). We get some cameos from "Bloodsport" co-stars to add a little something extra for Van Damme fans to nerd out about.

9) Lionheart

This was a personal favorite of mine growing up, but as an adult it is easier to pick up on the flaws. Still "Lionheart" has a special place in my heart. There is just something really cool about a foreigner coming to America and being forced to fight in an underground street fighting circuit. Ignoring the emotional cheesy family sideplot, JCVD provides some of the best fights against some of the most unique characters in cool settings of his career. For some extra fun they threw in some cool roles by Brian Thompson ("The X-Files", "Terminator" need I say more?), a bad ass bitch and fake Sharon Stone, and the guy who also beats up Van Damme in "The Quest" and "The Order".

8) Timecop

"Timecop" will probably be known as the most financially successful film of Van Damme's career, but it certainly isn't his best. From a plot stand point, it has more holes than a golf course, but what we get is a lot of fun. Van Damme travels through time beating up bad guys and trying to get over the death of his beloved wife Mia Sara ("Legend", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off") and also my 1980's crush. Van Damme does the splits to avoid electrically charged water in his kitchen and he also reps the mullet which shall be seen again on this list. "Timecop" goes in the summer blockbuster category. Some cool action and science fiction special effects, but not the most challenging plot and unpredictable story telling. Still, I love this movie and will always think about Cartman buying 4 copies of "Timecop" on dvd at Walmart for $9.95. Such a deal.

The final part coming soon....

VAN DAMME: A RETROSPECTIVE (25 Career Highlights Good & Bad) PART 2

Hey! How could you hate this guy? Continuing from part 1, part 2 is more of the OK era of Van Damme. You know, the kind of movies you watch at 3 am on USA but can't quite bring yourself to buying unless you want every JCVD movie in existence.

19) Knock Off

The late 90s were an odd time for our man Van Damme. His popularity was decreasing and he was barely holding on in theaters. Still, he was paired with some bigger stars unlike his more successful early films. Right after Rodman, we got "Deuce Bigalow" himself Rob Schneider who at least was a seasoned actor and comedian. Still, his "annoyingness" didn't help the overall quality of this picture. What we have here is a movie with some decent Hong Kong style action but an overall unmemorable movie.

18) Second In Command

For a straight to DVD movie, this isn't bad. The problem is JCVD has actually produces some high quality rental bin movies and this one just gets lost in the shuffle. The story itself isn't anything original, but it at least has some intrigue. This movie involves a lot of corruption and politics involved in a small eastern european country, but you can't help but think this could translate to America. The main problem here is that it has big ideas and probably could have benefitted from a big budget. The low grade CGI doesn't help when you are trying to take a terrorist situation seriously. Still, this was a step in the right direction in my opinion.

17) Sudden Death

There are moments of "Sudden Death" I truly like. The problem is Van Damme had already hit his peak in the 90s and he started to produce generic action flicks that didn't have the spark of his early films. He had just come off his big budget blockbusters and was now coming to a turning point in his career. This is obviously the beginning of the downfall, but all in all it isn't a horrible action flick. This is one of those movies you buy on VHS for 99 cents and get a quality viewing or two out of it for nostalgia's sake.

16) The Quest

Let's just come out and say it, "The Quest" is a huge "Bloodsport" rip off. We have the same basic plot line, but it tries to be an epic adventure story and the fight scenes take place in a different asian country. It even involves some of the same people that created the first film. I remember my dad taking me to see this in theaters back in 1996 and I couldn't have been more stoked. I remember the film dragging at points, but I remember some beautiful landscape images and some pretty solid fight scenes. The 2 main problems here are that this film tries to be too big for it's own good and if you had the choice between watching this and "Bloodsport"; my guess is 99.9% of the world would watch "Bloodsport". The movie takes too long in getting started with the meat and potatoes, which is the fight tournament. We have a lot of side plots involving travel and Van Damme taking care of street kids while dressing as a clown to rob the rich. Still there are some quality set designs, costumes, and actors involved in this picture. James Remar as an old school boxer is very memorable.

15) Legionnaire

For a straight to DVD release, this film has a pretty good look and style. The main problem with "Legionnaire" is that it doesn't know what kind of picture it wants to be. Is this an epic war story? Is this a 1920's romance? Is this an action flick starring JCVD? I like what some of this film tries to do, but it also suffers from some of "The Quest" syndrome in the sense that it tries to be an epic period piece. "Legionnaire" just doesn't have the time and budget to be that. We don't really understand the history of the war and we basically have JCVD being thrown into it because he works for a corrupt boxer. Still, I like the ending, some of the performances, and it was an early showing of Van Damme going outside the martial arts action picture box.

14) Nowhere To Run

Ah, the "emotional" Van Damme movie. I remember the marketing for this film was Jean Claude with a heart. Sadly, this just makes it a little more boring than his faster paced action movies, because lets be real, this was still JUST an action picture. The plot is pretty cliche when you think about it. The brooding hero Van Damme falls for the single mother who is trying to protect her home from evil developers backed by a corrupt sheriff. This was one of those movies you watched when your parents went to sleep because there were brief moments of nudity, but as far as violence goes it isn't as extreme as the other late 80s/early 90s JCVD pictures. This was smack dab in the middle of Van Damme popularity, but I feel it doesn't hold up to his other movies at the time.

VAN DAMME: A RETROSPECTIVE (25 Career Highlights Good & Bad) PART 1

Hi everybody! I'm back! I know I know, its been way too long and you people have been craving the knowledge of the B-Movie king. I've been extremely busy as of late and haven't had a lot of personal time to myself. I know this is hard for you to believe, I mean this blog is run by a movie nerd with no life, but it is true. But be happy that I am back, in the midst of starting school and being even busier. Leave it to a procrastinator to find time to do something not important when much of my time needs to be dedicated to the important. Anyway, let's start with a solid feature I've been working on. Anyone that knows me personally knows I am a huge Van Damme fan. What can I say? I am a movie snob and elitist, but I was raised on the guy kicking heads and doing the splits so I will always have a soft spot in my heart. There was a time when this man could do no wrong for me, but as I slowly approach old age, JCVD's career has started to show some kinks in my mind. That being said, he's shown a side in recent years I didn't think he had in him. So lets take a look at the career highlights, good and horrible, of the man himself: Jean Claude Van Damme...

25) Double Team

I guess you could say this film had a chance to succeed. Van Damme and Rourke have put on some excellent performances in their time, but no, who am I kidding? Any movie with Dennis Rodman in a lead role is about as bad of an idea as deciding to cast Shaq the lead superhero in "Steel". Not only is this movie terrible in the acting department, it isn't even really intriguing in the action department. It moves incredibly slow and by the time you are done, you wonder what even happened. This is not the kind of movie you watch high and expect to be entertained. This is just flat out bad. Rumor has it Van Damme was high himself during almost the entire filming of this movie and it shows. Sadly he's still the best thing going for "Double Team".

24) The Order

Fresh out of the theaters and recently thrown in the straight to DVD bins, JCVD popularity was at an all time low. Van Damme's last theatrical releases were not well received and his first straight to DVD release "Desert Heat" was a stinker in it's own right. "The Order" looked to rebound Van Damme and find a new market for him in the rental department. While it did do well in rental sales, the film helped defuse my Van Damme spark. What we have here is JCVD impersonating Indiana Jones in a very typical and uninteresting movie. "The Order" tries to throw in some comedy and some past Van Damme co-stars for nostalgia sakes, but in reality it just falls flat of anything close to excitement.

23) No Retreat, No Surrender

This one is a little hard for me to rate as one of his bad films. I love the title, I love his role as the asshole russian bad guy, and every time I step into the ring I think about jumping onto the ropes doing the splits Van Damme style. I love full contact martial arts and this film was one of the first to show it in a competition standpoint. Sadly, the movie is so bad it is hard to sit through. It doesn't help that Van Damme isn't the star, but it is at least noteworthy because he proves he should be. You will only be interested in this movie if you want a horribly acted and directed "Karate Kid" rip off with adults beating each other up instead of teenagers.

22) Black Eagle

"Black Eagle" had all the makings of being an essential 80's Van Damme flick. Van Damme playing a brutal russian, awesome martial arts action with veteran ninja Sho Kosugi, and a plot involving government corruption and foreign evil. Where did it go wrong? I'm not really sure what to pin the blame on, but really, it is everything. The acting, directing, filming, script, and pacing suck. Van Damme is doing the splits on some barrels, but really I can't think of anything else interesting from this film. I'm a big Sho Kosugi fan, but it was very obvious he was on his way out and Van Damme was on his way in. It's a shame really, JCVD was coming off some serious steam with "Bloodsport" and Kosugi is the iconic 80's ninja.

21) Universal Soldier: The Return

A sequel to one of the best early 90's action films? Count me in! Even as a 13 year old boy sitting in the theater with a JCVD infatuation, I was let down. This was one movie I knew I'd never try to own on VHS or DVD. Throw in a crappy Megadeth video and a cartoonish performance by pro wrestler Bill Golderg, and its no wonder that this film was an epic fail. Sad that this was Van Damme's last foray into theatrical releases for many years and I really wish they would have pumped some more marketing into other JCVD pictures.

20) Street Fighter

What young boy wasn't obsessed with the video game "Street Fighter"? Now add Van Damme and veteran Raul Julia and you had me sold. I wasn't expecting "Raging Bull" or anything, but I was expecting something. If it wasn't for the budget and colorful cast this could possibly be the worst Van Damme movie. Hell, some may even say it is, and there is no doubting it is one of the worst movies of 1994. Raul Julia is probably rolling in his grave knowing that this was his last picture, but at least we had a younger little Kylie Minogue in a little urban camo outfit...

Part 2 coming asap, I promise....