Kickboxer Vengeance

The 80´s and the 90´s was a fun time for B action movies. Everything from ninja films, martial arts films to cheesy fun action films. The best part of these time periods, was that the film studios choosed to cast the right people for this genre. You had Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren, Billy Blanks, Don " The Dragon " Wilson, Jean-Claude Van Damme and many others. The scripts may have been terrible, but these films survived because of the characters, and the well made action scenes, considering the low budget most film had. No matter what actor you enjoyed watching, you could always be sure that you would find one film to enjoy, of all the releases that came out back in those days. Let´s talk about one actor in particular. Jean-Claude Van Damme, the legendary martial arts action superstar, made his name with Bloodsport. At the time, he became very popular, with his unique way of fighting skills. Van Damme continued his career with a film called Kickboxer. This film also became a box office success, and it proved how well Van Damme could combine action and drama. Kickboxer also had a nice concept, within the revenge genre. I especially enjoyed the performance of Michel Qissi as Tong Po, he was such a bad ass character and perfect for this type of film. Kickboxer got 3 more sequels, but none of them had Van Damme on board again, as Kurt Sloane. So these so called sequels were not any good, and did not bring anything special to the franchise. Van Damme continued his movie career instead, releasing many action films over the years, and also picked up Universal Soldier again in 2009, with a third film called Universal Soldier Regeneration. This film was much better than the awful 1999 film Universal Soldier - The Return. And just a few years after the nice comeback, Universal Soldier got an even better sequel with Universal Soldier Day Of Reckoning. This is one of those action films i highly recommend, that you should all own on blu ray ( includes an uncut version ). Let´s get back to Kickboxer. After i heard the news about a remake of Kickboxer. I found out that Van Damme would be in this remake, but not back in the lead role. This time he would be a trainer instead. Alain Moussi was chosen in the lead role, mostly known as stunt double in films like X-Men Days Of Future Past, Warcraft and Suicide Squad. This combination did sound fun, considering i did not expect to see Alain Moussi do a film like this. With a classic concept, and a classic story in their hands, does this Kickboxer remake manage to be respectful, or does it fail like other similar films have proven before ?

Kurt Sloane ( Alain Moussi ) is a professional trainer in muay thai fighting, for his brother Eric Sloane ( Darren Shahlavi ). Eric is a world champion, and he wants his brother Kurt to see him fight in Thailand, against the very respected fighter Tong Po ( David Bautista ). The fight is arranged, and Eric is ready to prove his skills. But the fight ends in tragedy, Tong Po kills Eric brutally, and Kurt have lost his only brother. Kurt decides to revenge his brother´s death, and try to locate Master Durand ( Jean-Claude Van Damme ), who helped Eric train for this fight. Master Durand will agree to train Kurt, but only if he follow his rules, and prepare himself for really rough training. But is Kurt strong enough, or is he doomed from the beginning to fail ?

When you do a remake of a classic action 80´s film, you better know you are doing it right. Kickboxer from 1989 may not be the best film Jean-Claude Van Damme made in his career, but it is a classic, and deservers respect. And this is where i found myself seeing problems with this remake. The main characters are nowhere near as good as the original film was. The lead role by Alain Moussi is no where near the acting level of Van Damme. He may fight well, and manage to do some nice fighting scenes, but that´s basically it. Van Damme is of course here, as the trainer Master Durand. He is the best part of this film, and holy shit he is in great shape. Just look at his kicks still today, he should be offered much more action films on his quality level. And he also knows how to act much better, than these young actors, so you know his scenes will be better with him included. The evil Tong Po, played by David Bautista, does at least give his character some power, and looks massive in the fight scenes. So he is also one of the few highlights. The story pretty much follow the same concept as the original film. Nothing wrong with that, but the original film managed to tell a story, that was put together nicely. This remake jumps in different directions, and sometimes you don´t really know what is going on. The training scenes between Alain Moussi and Van Damme, give some of the feeling of the original film. But apart from this, Kickboxer Vengeance is more of a simple martial arts action film, and not a worthy remake. Director John Stockwell is perhaps mostly known for his acting, being in films such as Stephen King´s film Christine, and Top Gun. But he have directed a lot of films, and actually managed to make a pretty good horror film called Turistas, released in 2006. I can understand why he wanted to direct this Kickboxer remake, since he have been in the film industry since the early 80´s, and must have a passion for classics. And he does manage to do some nice kicking scenes, especially with Van Damme. But the story does not feel structured, like the original film was. This is more about fighting, and i love the idea of this. But when the cast does not manage to make this work, except from Van Damme and Bautista, we have a big problem. If you are going to make an action film, with great looking fighting scenes, you better have the right cast for this. Remember how really good Skin Trade was with Tony Jaa and Dolph Lundgren ? Now that´s what we want, a combination with professionals. Kickboxer Vengeance is not completely bad, we do get well made fighting scenes, and nice to see Van Damme show his nice moves. But that´s it, when we should have had much more to be pleased about. I read that another film is on the way called Kickboxer Retaliation, let´s hope that they get it right next time. Until then, watch the original film instead.

Rating: DD