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quaid82
Reviews
Lionheart (1990)
silent but deadly
We know Van Damme can kick ass but was he able to act? I Quaid82 think that Lionheart proves to be Van Damme's first real acting job.Van Damme always had a way of mixing his emotion with his action scenes.Most of his most memorable movies are the ones where he not only kicked ass but did a decent acting job.I like this one because of the obvious but also looking back,it had a heart.Sheldon lettich is great for JC, he also directed Van Damme's other hit Double impact and The Order which is, so far his best direct to video release.Sheldon loves to use slow motion and back then it was accepted more in these kind of fight sequences.I Think that the supporting cast was great,Brian Thompson is good and the scene where the bad guy gets of the plane with his cat is too funny.The fight scenes are classic JC and the fact that it took place in the U.S only continued to solidify him as an action ICON.
Cyborg (1989)
Van Damme action classic(watch out for the nail)
I liked this movie simply for its imaginative action scenes.hardcore JC fans will eat up the non stop action which only runs at about 82 minutes.It has this terminator/Mad Max kinda feeling to it.Yes there was a lot of rip offs(nailing in the desert)but all are tolerable with a mix of Van Damme and slow motion.The chase and final sequence are great and filled with cool stuff. The speech in the opening sequence was used in the song "Judgement day" by method man,so i know i'm not the only one that scene this.This one opened the door for JC and sci-fi,later he would star in 2 of his best movies Univesal soldier and Timecop(which was critically acclaimed as his best role.)A guilty Van pleasure. Van Damme 7.5/10 Van story 3/10 Van Damage priceless
Knock Off (1998)
Even a fan can tolerate so much.
This movie had good moments but the cheesy acting and Schneider made this one worse than Double team.Yes Double team was bad but at least there was better action scenes.The problem with it was the script,even Paul Sorvino sounded b-list.I dislike the fact that the studio's kept on giving JC movies to Hong Kong directors.It's o.k, if you catch it on the tube, but don't take valuable DVD time for this one.There were some cool moves,it kinda had a Rush hour vibe but that ended in the first 20 minutes.As a loyal JC fan i can tolerate this movie but i wonder some times what was the average viewer was thinking when they saw this one? this one ended his long run in theaters,i thought that this was going to revive the JC legacy but it ended up demoting him to direct to video. It's true folks you don't know the good times when there happening.
Double Impact (1991)
in the top 5
Double impact was not only a good van Damme movie,it was good in general.It displayed, i think for the first time that van Damme (be sides Arnie)was the best action star at the time.It might be his best but thats arguable.This movie works because we are use to that corny sense of humor that he has but to have the counter to be himself is priceless.this was his first American hit,it opened the door for all of his earlier movies that i had not seen,i was an instant van Damme fan and probably the last of my generation.I can call this a classic action movie because the day of the action hero is dead.Chuck Norris sucks,Stallone sucks,Seagel sucks,Snipes was the last.