Kickboxer – Blu Ray Review

The Film:

Usually an actor will have one or two iconic films that helped his/her status or career. Van Damme is a bit of an anomaly, having a couple of films that boosted his career and star status in the late eights and early nineties. Kickboxer is one of them, a key early film in his career that eventually shot him to super-stardom. Following the martial arts genre formula to a T, Kickobxer is still quite a lot of fun, 20 years later. Having one hit under his belt already, Bloodsport, Jean-Claude Van Damme mimics that success here. The film has all of those genre cliches: a revenge motive, the underdog heroics, the tournament style fighting, and of course, the training montage. It’s the film that also set in stone, the Van Damme conventions we all became to love.

More than any other martial arts film star, Van Damme had personality, a key distinction from his counterparts at the time. Where Steven Seagal was cold and calculating, Chuck Norris was just, um, Chuck Norris, Van Damme always played the underdog, the guy nobody took seriously but in the end succeeded, and that is a universal theme Americans love (I know JCVD was a huge international star too). That’s probably was the reason he became a bigger star than his counterparts; he was likable, funny, but he never says die, a term many people rally around.

Kickboxer isn’t really inventive, outside of being an early film example of the Muay Thai fighting style, now made incredibly famous by Tony Jaa. Van Damme plays the kid brother who witnesses his champion older brother lose a fight to the deadly Tong Po, who cripples him. Recognizing his brother’s fighting style was no match for the Muay Thai, Van Damme seeks out to learn this style to exact revenge. While far from original, it works for many of the reasons I have mentioned earlier. The fighting scenes are fun, but it’s the film’s other stuff that make it a worthwhile watch. The typical training scenes are fun, Van Damme is probably more personable here than in any other film, especially the groovy drunk dancing he does in the bar, while fighting some guys his mentor irks off. Also, Tong Po (Michel Qissi) is one mean bad guy, maybe one of Van Damme’s most ruthless enemies. Having the head shaped like a viper, he not only cripples his brother, but rapes Van Damme’s brother’s girlfriend, and gloats about it!

Kickboxer is also the first of many films that continued as a franchise after Van Damme. Odd, but hey, Van Damme was a huge name during the ’90s, making any would-be franchise and producer a buck. Here, though, with this film, Van Damme was getting established and proved to be his second big film, soaring him to the top. 20 years later, even with the 80′s tunes playing on the soundtrack, it’s still fun, perhaps the only reason it was made to begin with. If anyone doesn’t remember that awesome glass-and-glue laced kickboxing match at the end of the film, you just didn’t know cool 80′s Van Damme action was.

The Blu Ray:

Audio/Video: For the first time ever on U.S. Home video is the widescreen presentation of Kickboxer. The print isn’t perfect, far from it sadly, as it has plenty of print anomalies-scratches here and there, spots, but the high-def creates a nice sheen over it. The details are high and scenes in the jungle look vibrant. One wishes just a smidge more care went into it, though, as some will be disappointed, since it’s making its 1^st appearance in widescreen. The DTS audio rocks though for a 20 year old action film. Surrounds are light on action, but the bass was a pleasant surprise to hear.

Sadly, no extras outside of trailers for non-Van Damme films.

Conclusion: Kickboxer is a Van Damme classic; a lot of fun, with heart and soul, a career defining film. The Lionsgate Blu Ray is ho-hum, sadly.

The Film: Rating:

The Blu Ray: Rating: