Kickboxer Review

MPAA Rating: R
Released: 1989

Jean-Claude Van Damme was the king of American martial arts B-movies during the later 80's and early 90's. Having staked his claim to fame with Bloodsport, Van Damme followed up with another martial arts extravaganza one year later with Kickboxer, the story of an America that takes up the art of Muay Thai so he can seek out revenge against the beast who paralyzed his older brother.

Eric Sloane (Dennis Alexio) is the undefeated U.S. heavyweight kickboxing champion and after easily disposing of another competitor in the ring he's presented with a challenge from a news reporter: set up a bout with a fighter from Thailand, where the art of kickboxing is truly embraced. The arrogant champion readily agrees to such a confrontation, because after all, he's "kicking ass wherever I go."

While preparing for the pending fight Kurt passes by Tong Po's (Michel Qissi) locker room, where he observes Eric's challenger preparing for the fight by kicking one of the room's columns hard enough to shake the very foundation. He also notices from one of the preliminary competitions taking place that the Thailand's style of kickboxing (Muay Thai) is nothing like the American form. With urgency he tries to convince his brother to forfeit the match since he's not prepared to deal with the foreign fighter:

Kurt: Eric, don't do it. I saw the look in his eyes; this guy's crazy. He's f**king crazy.
Eric: Good, the crowd will love it.
Kurt: You don't understand…
Eric: No, you don't understand, kid. I'm the best, and this is just another chance for me to prove it. So watch and learn – it's all in the legs.
Kurt: Legs. Legs! This guy was kicking one of these with his f**king legs and the plaster was falling down! … Eric, please, don't do this one. I got a bad feeling about this one. Trust me, don't fight this guy, trust me.

Of course Eric's overconfidence blinds him to the possibility that perhaps he is indeed over his head, so he goes on with the fight and is summarily beaten like a red-headed stepchild. So badly, in fact, that Kurt tries to throw in the towel to save his brother, but the evil Tong Po simply kicks the towel back outside the ring and delivers a vicious elbow to the spine of his prone competitor, paralyzing him for life.

Kurt is consumed with the thirst for revenge, and with the reluctant assistance of a fellow American, Winston Taylor (Haskell Anderson III), he locates an old man that may be willing to train him in the art of Muay Thai. Xian Chow (Dennis Chan) agrees to train the American in the ancient arts, for he has a bone to pick with Tong Po and his manager, Freddy Li (Steve Lee), who happens to be a dangerous crime lord.

The obligatory martial arts training scenes then begin, and for the most part they are pretty interesting to watch thanks largely to the eccentricity of Xian. Coconuts are dropped on Kurt's stomach from high distances, a steak is attached to his leg in order to make him learn to run faster (a hungry dog is released), he's taught to fight underwater – these are the types of training exercises that Kurt is put through.

When it appears Kurt may be ready to challenge Tong Po, Xian invites him to a rough bar where the twosome proceeds to drink many shots of hard liquor. Then all hell breaks loose as half the bar decides to knock Kurt's head off, but of course our drunken hero easily defends himself and beats his foes back.

Kurt: Why did you leave? And why they were so pissed at me?
Xian: Because I tell them you say they no good fighters and that their mother have sex with mules.
Kurt: You what!?
Xian: Oohhh, make them very angry. Fight hard. Good training!

With that final training exercise out of the way, Freddy Li offers the match against his fighter that Kurt seeks… with a twist. Tong Po and Kurt are to fight the old way, which means having their hands wrapped with hemp and resin, then dipped in broken glass.

Kurt accepts the conditions, but he soon learns that Freddy Li will do anything to ensure the victory of his fighter…

The acting is a mixed bag in this film, which is to be expected with movies of this type. Jean-Claude Van Damme does a pretty poor job in the "dramatic" scenes, but luckily he more than makes up for it in the training and fighting scenes. Say what you will about his acting skills, the guy knows how to produce exciting action scenes.

Dennis Chan was absolutely fantastic as the quirky and often humorous Xian Chow. Outside of the Kickboxer series he hasn't done much beyond Asian films, which is too bad since he would have a lot to offer with the right roles. Haskell Anderson III didn't play a huge role in the film, but he too brought some entertaining acting to the table.

Steve Lee handled his role solidly enough – Freddy Li did indeed seem like a sleazy criminal. Rochelle Ashana, who played Kurt's love interest, was a mixed bag. Some scenes she performed acceptably, but other times she would grate on the nerves (such as when she cheers Kurt on during the final fight – something about the way she did it annoyed me).

Michel Qissi isn't much of an actor, but luckily his character really didn't have to say much. Tong Po was in the film to look menacing and beat the tar out of his opponents, and Qissi certainly had those attributes down straight.

And then we get to the bad: Dennis Alexio. It's a good thing this guy is a professional kickboxer by trade, because his acting in this film was downright atrocious. (It was also the last film he acted in, as of the time of this writing.)

Kickboxer doesn't possess the sheer variety of fighting styles that made Bloodsport so enjoyable and diverse, nor is Tong Po nearly as compelling a foe as Chong Li (Bolo Yeung) was, but this film still possesses some fun training scenes and well-choreographed fights that should please all fans of the genre.

The bottom line is Kickboxer is not a great film, but it's solid entertainment for fans of action / fighting flicks that want to pass away a couple hours of spare time.

Movie rating: 7 stars

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