As a child of the Yoram Globus era of Cannon Group releases, it was only a matter of time before director David Worth’s Kickboxer would land on my radar…
I was a new transfer to P.S. 62Q in that period, living in the Richmond Hill section of Queens, N.Y.. Mom would walk my sister and I would walk five blocks to school and back, and we would pass by this VHS store during those trips where the poster was on display in the window. I was into video games, superheroes, comic books and action stars at the time, obviously. Additionally though, as an aspiring pencil artist at nine, learning how to draw superheroes and action star physiques was my obsession, which made the poster even more fascinating to me. It would be a while before I would finally get to see the film on cable.
This film, plus seeing Newt Arnold’s Bloodsport on WPIX 11 whenever it came on became a ritual for me, and those films were kind of a pain in the ass to catch because they came on at 8pm, so it took some time before my parents would acquiese to letting me stay up that late… I’m getting sidetracked here, but none of this is to take away my adoration for Bloodsport – one film that played a pivotal role in shaping my juvenile attention to watch more martial arts films that were available to me growing up – all of them being American productions, mainly. That includes Kickboxer, which I’ve long debated could possibly be the best Jean-Claude Van Damme film ever made.
One core aspect of the film I love the most – aside from its action – is the setting, and how it bodes as part of our protagonist Kurt Sloan’s transformative progress. He’s got the moves, but we’re yet to really see him do any real fighting until he’s put through the ringer by Xian, a master living in a rural hut, played phenomenally by Dennis Chan. The training is torturous, gruesome, and almost infallible for anyone fathoming kicking a tree as mere exercise. Nowadays that sort of thing is commonplace as viral content for anyone to watch. As a story element, it works handsomely, and to the benefit of an audience that needed to see the prep process of training for a Goliath-level threat in the form of a vicious criminal fighter in the form of Tong Po, played by Mohammed Qissi.
The final fight is bloody and brutal, coupled with Van Damme’s sheer prowess, as well as sound-design for the hits and scrapes, and editing that was characteristic of the ubiquitois “Wham! Bam! Van Damme!” effect in the marketing from then on. Even getting the damn middle split was a trip, and I had it maybe twice in my whole life. For me, that was a high mark of my own athletic success growing.
I love that a film like Kickboxer still gets the praise it does to this day. Its posterity via physical media is just as important, considerably given the looming expiration of these titles. To that end, I think this also movie serves as a prime example of just how baseless most arguments are when it comes to remakes. Folks will screech from their soapboxes and hilltops about how rehashings of beloved IP are ruinous to their childhoods. Meanwhile, you have directors like Dimitri Logothetis carving out a niche for himself with a whole reboot trilogy in progress, and with a casting deck full-up with celebrity potency including Scott Adkins and Mark Dacascos for the next installment.
Most of you who keep up with my rants on here already know how I feel about the first two installments; Sure, I’m inclined to give Kickboxer: Armageddon a fair shake, and I’ve never not rooted for Moussi. Nonetheless, it just adds to the multiple ways in which attempts to bring back Kickboxer have come and gone in over three decades, without the original losing its shine. Not even once.
Answering the question as to “which Van Damme film is ‘the best’?,” is pretty much anyone’s guess. Every film starring the “Muscles From Brussels” has its own ‘pop!,” and retains a space in the memory banks of any action fan who doesn’t mind celebrating the martial arts star in any capacity.
In my view, however, Kickboxer is a film that not only continues to be not just the best Van Damme film. Its shelflife alone over the years, underscoring its remake value in the eyes of various producers and directors, proves it to be the best Kickboxer film of its kind – something I think would make any Van Damme fan feel good.
Lead image: Cannon Films
“The Movies That Moved Me” is a series of articles in which I reflect on (or revisit) select films and various aspects of films that made me the fan I am today, and inspire me to write as I do.