Reviews (55)

"HOLLY COW' AS HARRY CARRY WOULD SAY, VAN DAMN ROCKS!!!!!!!
In the beginning of this movie I thought that I was in for another rock em sock em fight it out to the death karate movie, but wow the fight scenes were almost bloodily accurate. The minute the action starts to lull BANG! POW! ZAM! VAN DAMME! I saw that I wasn't dealing with the usual sort. TONG PO who plays the vile degenerate in a role most suited for vermin, played the deranged oriental crazy man to a T. He really scared me! So as the story goes Van Damme is to avenge the tragic accident that Tong Po inflicts on his brother, and to do this he must find someone to teach him the ancient art of Kickboxing before he surely winds up losing all sorts of control. Before he knows it Ian helps him. He forces Van Damme to do the splits and owe my god Van Damme kicks Tong Po's butt with on swift Kick to the mutton chops. Shiver me Timbers if it ain't climatic. Sure to bring the family many cheers and good times in the future. If your looking for an american underdog movie that the whole family can enjoy, kickboxer has got the goods. HIYA!

*Filmed in THAILAND: The Best Martial Arts Movie EVER! W@W*
Before I watched this movie, I didn't know what Thai-Boxing was, and I thought that "kung-fu Bruce Lee" was the toughest man who ever lived. What a joke that is. Hong Kong's top 5 kung-fu masters once fought Thai-Boxer's in a now legendary event, and were all knocked-out, in less than 6 ½ minutes combined.
Thai Boxing is the national sport of Thailand, is fought in the ring and is the worlds most brutal & spectacular martial art.
In case you're wondering what the differences are between (American) kickboxing and Thai-Boxing (Muay Thai), they are as follows - kickboxing is just feet & fists, whereas Thai-Boxing also includes elbows & knees. Now you start to see why it is so notorious.

This is a movie about an American Kick-Boxing champ who goes to Thailand to fight their Thai-Boxing champ. Not surprisingly, the American gets battered, and paralysed, and through revenge, the victim's brother - Van Damme, learns 'Muay Thai' (Thai-Boxing) and fights the guy who paralysed his brother.

Though this scenario is a bit fictional the movie itself is beautifully realistic and authentic. It is about 99% filmed on location in Thailand and the viewer is treated to priceless scenes of inside the Bangkok Ratchadamneon national Thai-Boxing stadium, real Thai Thai-Boxers training at a camp, and spiritual scenes inside the Buddhist temples of Bangkok, featuring the massive gold-plated Reclining Buddha
(watch the movie and you'll know what I'm talking about).

We see Van Damme being taught Thai-Boxing by a Thai, and we watch him progress from being a sloppy fighter to a razor-sharp one. There are scenes where Van Damme, in training, uses his shins to kicks a palm tree, and where Van Damme and his opponent wrap their fists in cloths with broken glass stuck to the knuckles. You may laugh at this, but a little research will tell you that this is how the 'underground' fights are fought, and if you know how tough these Thais are then kicking trees doesn't seem so unrealistic.

As far as I know, no movie comes close to this one, in terms of authenticity at least. It is both educational and highly entertaining - there are loads of high quality fight scenes, and Van Damme is a good fighter (if only a theatrical one). There is nice cinematography too, and as soon as the movie starts you know it has that 'classic' feel about it.
A movie in a class of its own. Brilliant. Buy it!

The Classic, The Best
This has to be the best Van Damne movie with Bloodsport and Hard Target, get this movie its Van Damne's best, 4.8/5

Best Scene Ever!
This movie is unbelieveable! The reason it is unbelieveable? One scene, and one scene only. The dancing scene in the middle of the movie. It goes like this...Van Damme and his wily master go to a dive bar. His master makes him drink a mystery liquor. Van Damme, being the dork that he is in this movie (he is wearing a body suit/tank top at the bar that has clamps that connect at the shoulder, this keeps the shirt from falling off and makes Van Damme look like a dink), gets hammered. He is then forced to dance... With a shreek "AYYYEE", his master cues the music and movie history is made! Van Damme shakes his hips and does his splits, attracting all the babes...and Tong Po's gang! But who cares about those hooligans, Van Damme is getting his groove back better than Stella ever thought possible! The gang attacks him, and he pummels those lousy goons. "You got Served!" has nothing on Van Damme! He would serve those suckahs like he does Tong Po at the end! Nut-Sue Cow (White Warrior in Thai) to you all! What this movie teaches us is that Van Damme's ballet lessons did not actually teach him to "cut a rug", and that his brother is Latino? Buy this movie for this scene, trust me.

Does it get any better?
"kick the tree"

I rate this as Van Damme's best movie. Out of all the movies he has done, I think only 8 or so are good.

This movie has a decent story, ok acting and a great performance by a young Van Damme.

Cover is nice, no special features though.

Again, Van Damme is terrific in this action flick, on top of his game.

If you like a good action movie, especially a martial arts one, Kickboxer belongs in your collection. ... Read more

Description

Top cops team up in a deadly battle with a drug-dealing maniac out on arampage. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

It's All About Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung
With any other actors this would have been your typical 'Dirty Harry - Death Wish' Hong Kong Cinema. But Chow Yun Fat and Ti Lung make the story come alive. As sort of a role reversal Chow Yun Fat's character (Dick) is not the hotshot play by his own rules uncontrollable cop. The beauty in watching Chow Yun Fat is that he can play a part where he is almost a kiss-a** as easily as he can play Clint Eastwood in Hard Boiled.

The plot is pretty standard fare - a drug lord (Ted) that Dick's close friend (Ken) put away 10 years ago is released and he has Ken's partner killed and is bent on revenge against Ken. It's not much of a stretch to figure out how it plays out since Ken is the hot headed cop and Dick falls for Ted's girlfriend. The outfits she wears are a crack up and I found it hilarious listening to the Hong Kong version of You Can Take Your Hat Off. A little rip off from 9 1/2 weeks.

Anyway Ti Lung plays Ken so tightly wound but keeps it from going over the top. I was amazed at how well Chow Yun Fat plays the 'company man' cop. I found the role reversal of the characters to be one of the highlights of the movie. The violence is constrained - UNTIL the hit on Ken's family, then all hell broke loose. I did not catch the dummy child falling (Ken's son) but when his wife gets shot up - well her dying WAS over the top.

The finale was not for the squeemish, but unlike a lot of other Hong Kong movie's the amount of bad guys needed to be killed was reasonble (like maybe just 15). The ending is great with a unique and classic justice being served. I did expect to hear "Knocking on Heavan's Door" to be playing in the background, as the pair (Chow and Ti) looked exactly like Mel and Danny in the end of Lethal Weapon 2. Although actually I think this movie came out first. Wouldn't be the first time a scene was borrowed from a Chow Yun Fat movie.

In sum a great performance by Chow Yun Fat and TI Lung. Rent it or buy it you won't be disappointed.

mid-eighties cheese action film
This film is so eighties! but i love it anyway, the same way i like Predator, Lethal Weapon and The Running Man. The eighties were all about cheesy action. But this film has something all the others don't....Chow Yun Fat!

Yun-Fat plays Dick Lee, a hk police negotiator. Always under his control Is Ti Lung, as a veteran hot-head cop with a personal grudge against the criminals he cathes. All hell breaks loose when a criminal (named Ted -HA!) Ti Lung put away gets out of prison, and slaughters Lungs family. Thrown into the mix, Yun Fat is romancing Ted's disenchanted girlfriend.

What i like about this film is it would have been instantly forgettable if is wasn't for the two leads, they both ooze charisma. Yun-Fat's character is obviously modeled after Don Johnson on Miami vice (white suits, pink and blue lighting of Miami nightclubs). Ted's girlfriend wears hideous white sunglasses and a matching polka dot dress looking like an extra in a Wham video.

The film is also pretty gritty and violent, the Ted character is very believable, especially when he is trying to romance his g/f as he burns himself with a cigarette. The slaughter of Lungs family at machinegun point is extremely brutal, and shown in loving detail. But as one assasin takes a header off of a roof with Lungs child in hand, i couldn't help but laugh. The dummy child is horrible!

The finale to this film pulls out all the stops, extremely violent, includes Ti Lung being hit with a fireaxe and Chow yun Fat eating more bullets than he did in a better tomorrow. Beware of the end titles, a paragraph comes up at the end giving some sort of epilogue to the film, however it is not subtitled. If anyone has any info on this, please mail me. All in all- good heroic bloodshed fare.

Entertaining
This is a film in which the roles of the famous duo - Chow and Ti Lung from "A Better Tomorrow" - seem to be reversed. This time, Chow portrays a cop with the mature and sound mind, while Ti Lung seems to be the one who makes the trouble. Ti Lung's temperamental nature leads him into trouble with the enemy who ends up killing his family. It is up to the duo to avenge for the family, and blood-bath follows. The plot is mediocre and I thought killing the entire family seemed too cruel. Chow is still great in here, but it is too bad the story and the director did not fully exploit his great acting potential. Furthermore, I think the audience would rather see Chow as the temperamental cop and Ti Lung as the calm one. But it is still a good movie to see for die hard Chow fans. ... Read more

Description

Extreme Fighter Ryu Tenmei(Simon Yam) has made it to the finals of the Free Fighting Championship. Trained by the skilled martal arts master Masahiro Kai(Yasuaki Kurata),the dangerous Chang Lee(Bolo Yeung), But Ryu finds too late that he is no match for the merciless killer Lee. After witnessing Ryu's death in the ring, Kai fight his own battle aganist depression and alcoholism. Somehow, he must find the courage to avenge Ryu... and defeat Chang Lee! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I THINK THIS RIPPED OFF BLOODSPORT
THOUGH THIS STEALS IDEAS FROM BLOODSPORT, THIS MOVIE SEEMS TO BE PRETTY GOOD ANYWAY. A TRAINER COMES BACK OUT OF RETIREMENT TO FIGHT A RUTHLESS FIGHTER [BOLO YEUNG] WHO KILLED A YOUNG FIGHTER HE TRAINED. THIS VIOLENT MARTIAL ARTS FEST HAS PLENTY OF GOOD FIGHT SCENES, BUT THE THING THAT SEEMS TO HURT THIS MOVIE IS ITS SHODDY FILMING. MARTIAL ARTS FANS SHOULD BE SATISFIED WITH THIS NONETHELESS.

this movie kicks ...!
bloodsport totally ripped this asian movie off! even going so far as to hire bolo to play the same charachter! that aside both are worth watching. ... ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I THINK THIS RIPPED OFF BLOODSPORT
THOUGH THIS STEALS IDEAS FROM BLOODSPORT, THIS MOVIE SEEMS TO BE PRETTY GOOD ANYWAY. A TRAINER COMES BACK OUT OF RETIREMENT TO FIGHT A RUTHLESS FIGHTER [BOLO YEUNG] WHO KILLED A YOUNG FIGHTER HE TRAINED. THIS VIOLENT MARTIAL ARTS FEST HAS PLENTY OF GOOD FIGHT SCENES, BUT THE THING THAT SEEMS TO HURT THIS MOVIE IS ITS SHODDY FILMING. MARTIAL ARTS FANS SHOULD BE SATISFIED WITH THIS NONETHELESS.

this movie kicks ...!
bloodsport totally ripped this asian movie off! even going so far as to hire bolo to play the same charachter! that aside both are worth watching. ... ... Read more

Reviews (55)

"HOLLY COW' AS HARRY CARRY WOULD SAY, VAN DAMN ROCKS!!!!!!!
In the beginning of this movie I thought that I was in for another rock em sock em fight it out to the death karate movie, but wow the fight scenes were almost bloodily accurate. The minute the action starts to lull BANG! POW! ZAM! VAN DAMME! I saw that I wasn't dealing with the usual sort. TONG PO who plays the vile degenerate in a role most suited for vermin, played the deranged oriental crazy man to a T. He really scared me! So as the story goes Van Damme is to avenge the tragic accident that Tong Po inflicts on his brother, and to do this he must find someone to teach him the ancient art of Kickboxing before he surely winds up losing all sorts of control. Before he knows it Ian helps him. He forces Van Damme to do the splits and owe my god Van Damme kicks Tong Po's butt with on swift Kick to the mutton chops. Shiver me Timbers if it ain't climatic. Sure to bring the family many cheers and good times in the future. If your looking for an american underdog movie that the whole family can enjoy, kickboxer has got the goods. HIYA!

*Filmed in THAILAND: The Best Martial Arts Movie EVER! W@W*
Before I watched this movie, I didn't know what Thai-Boxing was, and I thought that "kung-fu Bruce Lee" was the toughest man who ever lived. What a joke that is. Hong Kong's top 5 kung-fu masters once fought Thai-Boxer's in a now legendary event, and were all knocked-out, in less than 6 ½ minutes combined.
Thai Boxing is the national sport of Thailand, is fought in the ring and is the worlds most brutal & spectacular martial art.
In case you're wondering what the differences are between (American) kickboxing and Thai-Boxing (Muay Thai), they are as follows - kickboxing is just feet & fists, whereas Thai-Boxing also includes elbows & knees. Now you start to see why it is so notorious.

This is a movie about an American Kick-Boxing champ who goes to Thailand to fight their Thai-Boxing champ. Not surprisingly, the American gets battered, and paralysed, and through revenge, the victim's brother - Van Damme, learns 'Muay Thai' (Thai-Boxing) and fights the guy who paralysed his brother.

Though this scenario is a bit fictional the movie itself is beautifully realistic and authentic. It is about 99% filmed on location in Thailand and the viewer is treated to priceless scenes of inside the Bangkok Ratchadamneon national Thai-Boxing stadium, real Thai Thai-Boxers training at a camp, and spiritual scenes inside the Buddhist temples of Bangkok, featuring the massive gold-plated Reclining Buddha
(watch the movie and you'll know what I'm talking about).

We see Van Damme being taught Thai-Boxing by a Thai, and we watch him progress from being a sloppy fighter to a razor-sharp one. There are scenes where Van Damme, in training, uses his shins to kicks a palm tree, and where Van Damme and his opponent wrap their fists in cloths with broken glass stuck to the knuckles. You may laugh at this, but a little research will tell you that this is how the 'underground' fights are fought, and if you know how tough these Thais are then kicking trees doesn't seem so unrealistic.

As far as I know, no movie comes close to this one, in terms of authenticity at least. It is both educational and highly entertaining - there are loads of high quality fight scenes, and Van Damme is a good fighter (if only a theatrical one). There is nice cinematography too, and as soon as the movie starts you know it has that 'classic' feel about it.
A movie in a class of its own. Brilliant. Buy it!

The Classic, The Best
This has to be the best Van Damne movie with Bloodsport and Hard Target, get this movie its Van Damne's best, 4.8/5

Best Scene Ever!
This movie is unbelieveable! The reason it is unbelieveable? One scene, and one scene only. The dancing scene in the middle of the movie. It goes like this...Van Damme and his wily master go to a dive bar. His master makes him drink a mystery liquor. Van Damme, being the dork that he is in this movie (he is wearing a body suit/tank top at the bar that has clamps that connect at the shoulder, this keeps the shirt from falling off and makes Van Damme look like a dink), gets hammered. He is then forced to dance... With a shreek "AYYYEE", his master cues the music and movie history is made! Van Damme shakes his hips and does his splits, attracting all the babes...and Tong Po's gang! But who cares about those hooligans, Van Damme is getting his groove back better than Stella ever thought possible! The gang attacks him, and he pummels those lousy goons. "You got Served!" has nothing on Van Damme! He would serve those suckahs like he does Tong Po at the end! Nut-Sue Cow (White Warrior in Thai) to you all! What this movie teaches us is that Van Damme's ballet lessons did not actually teach him to "cut a rug", and that his brother is Latino? Buy this movie for this scene, trust me.

Does it get any better?
"kick the tree"

I rate this as Van Damme's best movie. Out of all the movies he has done, I think only 8 or so are good.

This movie has a decent story, ok acting and a great performance by a young Van Damme.

Cover is nice, no special features though.

Again, Van Damme is terrific in this action flick, on top of his game.

If you like a good action movie, especially a martial arts one, Kickboxer belongs in your collection. ... Read more

Reviews (55)

"HOLLY COW' AS HARRY CARRY WOULD SAY, VAN DAMN ROCKS!!!!!!!
In the beginning of this movie I thought that I was in for another rock em sock em fight it out to the death karate movie, but wow the fight scenes were almost bloodily accurate. The minute the action starts to lull BANG! POW! ZAM! VAN DAMME! I saw that I wasn't dealing with the usual sort. TONG PO who plays the vile degenerate in a role most suited for vermin, played the deranged oriental crazy man to a T. He really scared me! So as the story goes Van Damme is to avenge the tragic accident that Tong Po inflicts on his brother, and to do this he must find someone to teach him the ancient art of Kickboxing before he surely winds up losing all sorts of control. Before he knows it Ian helps him. He forces Van Damme to do the splits and owe my god Van Damme kicks Tong Po's butt with on swift Kick to the mutton chops. Shiver me Timbers if it ain't climatic. Sure to bring the family many cheers and good times in the future. If your looking for an american underdog movie that the whole family can enjoy, kickboxer has got the goods. HIYA!

*Filmed in THAILAND: The Best Martial Arts Movie EVER! W@W*
Before I watched this movie, I didn't know what Thai-Boxing was, and I thought that "kung-fu Bruce Lee" was the toughest man who ever lived. What a joke that is. Hong Kong's top 5 kung-fu masters once fought Thai-Boxer's in a now legendary event, and were all knocked-out, in less than 6 ½ minutes combined.
Thai Boxing is the national sport of Thailand, is fought in the ring and is the worlds most brutal & spectacular martial art.
In case you're wondering what the differences are between (American) kickboxing and Thai-Boxing (Muay Thai), they are as follows - kickboxing is just feet & fists, whereas Thai-Boxing also includes elbows & knees. Now you start to see why it is so notorious.

This is a movie about an American Kick-Boxing champ who goes to Thailand to fight their Thai-Boxing champ. Not surprisingly, the American gets battered, and paralysed, and through revenge, the victim's brother - Van Damme, learns 'Muay Thai' (Thai-Boxing) and fights the guy who paralysed his brother.

Though this scenario is a bit fictional the movie itself is beautifully realistic and authentic. It is about 99% filmed on location in Thailand and the viewer is treated to priceless scenes of inside the Bangkok Ratchadamneon national Thai-Boxing stadium, real Thai Thai-Boxers training at a camp, and spiritual scenes inside the Buddhist temples of Bangkok, featuring the massive gold-plated Reclining Buddha
(watch the movie and you'll know what I'm talking about).

We see Van Damme being taught Thai-Boxing by a Thai, and we watch him progress from being a sloppy fighter to a razor-sharp one. There are scenes where Van Damme, in training, uses his shins to kicks a palm tree, and where Van Damme and his opponent wrap their fists in cloths with broken glass stuck to the knuckles. You may laugh at this, but a little research will tell you that this is how the 'underground' fights are fought, and if you know how tough these Thais are then kicking trees doesn't seem so unrealistic.

As far as I know, no movie comes close to this one, in terms of authenticity at least. It is both educational and highly entertaining - there are loads of high quality fight scenes, and Van Damme is a good fighter (if only a theatrical one). There is nice cinematography too, and as soon as the movie starts you know it has that 'classic' feel about it.
A movie in a class of its own. Brilliant. Buy it!

The Classic, The Best
This has to be the best Van Damne movie with Bloodsport and Hard Target, get this movie its Van Damne's best, 4.8/5

Best Scene Ever!
This movie is unbelieveable! The reason it is unbelieveable? One scene, and one scene only. The dancing scene in the middle of the movie. It goes like this...Van Damme and his wily master go to a dive bar. His master makes him drink a mystery liquor. Van Damme, being the dork that he is in this movie (he is wearing a body suit/tank top at the bar that has clamps that connect at the shoulder, this keeps the shirt from falling off and makes Van Damme look like a dink), gets hammered. He is then forced to dance... With a shreek "AYYYEE", his master cues the music and movie history is made! Van Damme shakes his hips and does his splits, attracting all the babes...and Tong Po's gang! But who cares about those hooligans, Van Damme is getting his groove back better than Stella ever thought possible! The gang attacks him, and he pummels those lousy goons. "You got Served!" has nothing on Van Damme! He would serve those suckahs like he does Tong Po at the end! Nut-Sue Cow (White Warrior in Thai) to you all! What this movie teaches us is that Van Damme's ballet lessons did not actually teach him to "cut a rug", and that his brother is Latino? Buy this movie for this scene, trust me.

Does it get any better?
"kick the tree"

I rate this as Van Damme's best movie. Out of all the movies he has done, I think only 8 or so are good.

This movie has a decent story, ok acting and a great performance by a young Van Damme.

Cover is nice, no special features though.

Again, Van Damme is terrific in this action flick, on top of his game.

If you like a good action movie, especially a martial arts one, Kickboxer belongs in your collection. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The best thing about this is Ti Lung!
This DVD is worth buying if you are a Ti Lung fan, which I am. However although he is magnificent, the rest of the movie is not so if you are looking at it for plot development. One of the redeeming quality of this DVD is that there is an audio commentary by Ric Meyers, mostly talking about how how great Ti Lung is/was in other Shaw Brothers movies, but saying that this film seems to be put together hodge podge (which it is). I bought this DVD for no other reason than it was a movie released in the 80's when he was starring in many Shaw brothers films and was at his top form. Until we can get DVDs of his other great works - 5 Shaolin Masters, Avenging Eagle, the Sentimental Swordsman, 10 tigers of Kwangtung, The Kung Fu Instructor, we have to make do with this movie. Ti Lung always has a great presence on the screen and this movie where he plays a total bumpkin is still played by him in his courtly manner, and he still moves beautifully! The plot involves the theft of a very important manuscript and I can't remember what all Ti Lung's part was other than he is a good-hearted but inept fighter until he is taught by a woman on how to fight, and then the movie gets pieced together like a patchwork quilt with all sorts of scenes which I am not sure they are at all related. Nevertheless, it has Ti Lung who is a Wing Chun practitioner in his private life, and you can really see his skill in his precision stops and fluid stance changes. He is graceful and a skilled Chinese Fists practitioner for both fists and weaponry, and that is really nice to see. For example, in many of his Shaw Brothers fims, (but not in this one) you will see him working out a full "kata" or "stance", and you can hear members of the audience calling out the stances (that they may practice in their kungfu society) as they recognise a standard form being displayed in gorgeous perfection by him. Although there are many other practitioners who do "stances" or "fists" in their films, the modern ones artificially speed them up, or add wire work to make it more spectacular (but less real), but it is in these early 1980 films that you will see the whole forms being worked out and being performed in a very straightforward manner. This is why the Shaw Bros. films are in so much demand by practitioners. By the way "Ti" is his last name, and "Lung" (Dragon) is his first name. The Cantonese pronunciation of his name is like "Dick" Loong. The Mandarin pronunciation is more like "Di Loong". Please note, this is NOT a Shaw Bros film, so it is like a "C" grade movie. This is for die-hard Ti Lung fans. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I THINK THIS RIPPED OFF BLOODSPORT
THOUGH THIS STEALS IDEAS FROM BLOODSPORT, THIS MOVIE SEEMS TO BE PRETTY GOOD ANYWAY. A TRAINER COMES BACK OUT OF RETIREMENT TO FIGHT A RUTHLESS FIGHTER [BOLO YEUNG] WHO KILLED A YOUNG FIGHTER HE TRAINED. THIS VIOLENT MARTIAL ARTS FEST HAS PLENTY OF GOOD FIGHT SCENES, BUT THE THING THAT SEEMS TO HURT THIS MOVIE IS ITS SHODDY FILMING. MARTIAL ARTS FANS SHOULD BE SATISFIED WITH THIS NONETHELESS.

this movie kicks ...!
bloodsport totally ripped this asian movie off! even going so far as to hire bolo to play the same charachter! that aside both are worth watching. ... ... Read more