Released: September 2016
Director: John Stockwell
Not Rated
Run Time: 90 Minutes
Fight Choreographer: Larnell Stovall
Cast:
Alain Moussi: Kurt Sloane
Dave Bautista: Tong Po
Jean-Claude Van Damme: Master Durand
Darren Shahlavi: Eric Sloane
Gina Carano: Marcia
George St-Pierre: Kavi
T.J. Storm: Storm
I’ve gone on record talking about remakes and whether or not they’re good or harmless. Most of the time, they aren’t as good as the film that they’re based on. It’s simple numbers. On the rare occasion, however, we do see a remake that not only rivals the original film, but blows it away completely. There are a number of movies that do such a thing: 3:10 to Yuma was a vastly superior western to the original film, and the horror flick The Hills Have Eyes got a very stellar re-make in 2006, which I personally consider to be the better of the two films. Now, we are starting to see remakes of Van Damme movies, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if the movie being remade wasn’t that great to begin with. I present to you: Kickboxer: Vengeance. This film is based on the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie of the same name which was released back in 1989. While the overall plot remains the same, there are a few significant changes to the story-line which ups the ante quite a bit.
The film follows martial artist Kurt Sloane as he and his brother Eric fly to Thailand to face one of the most notorious underground fight champions in the world: Tong Po. In the middle of the fight with Tong Po, Eric is killed. Vowing to avenge his brother’s murder, Kurt seeks out his brother’s trainer, Master Durand to train him in Muay Thai. That is pretty much the extent of the story. The big difference between this film and the original, is that Eric Sloane is killed, instead of being paralyzed. That gives Kurt more emotional leverage and motivation to take on the monstrous Tong Po. It’s a simple story, but for a movie that’s titled Kickboxer, it’ll do.
Kickboxer: Vengeance also marks the first time that Jean-Claude Van Damme returns to one of his signature movies in style. Instead of being a fighter, Van Damme takes on the role of a mentor, and that gives him some more room to act. That doesn’t mean he’s a slouch in the physical department, though. Van Damme is in really amazing shape for his age, and he can still move with the best of them. It’s really awesome seeing Van Damme back in one of the franchises that made him a star. Dave Bautista is cast as the villainous Tong Po in one of his most intimidating roles yet. I have to tell ya, Bautista surprises the hell out of me. He’s picked some really interesting roles over the past couple of years including 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. He’s not the greatest actor, but he knows what he can do, and he does it very well. His astounding physique allows him to be nearly unstoppable as Tong Po. If I had to put Bautista’s Tong Po up against the original actor, Michel Qissi as the same character, I’d bet on Bautista any day of the week. This guy is a hurricane of brutality. The moment you first see him step onto the screen, you know you’ve got a hell of a bad guy.
That brings me to what appears to be the weakest actor in the film: Alain Moussi. Don’t get me wrong, this guy is a phenomenal martial artist and stunt-man, and he performs his fight scenes spectacularly, but Moussi doesn’t really give the character any kind of personality. There’s no real emotional connection that this guy has to the others. He plays the main character, but he’s completely overshadowed by everyone else. Gina Carano is wasted as a scummy underground fight promoter. I would have loved to see her get into a scuffle with somebody, as Carano is a world champion MMA fighter. However, she’s just relegated to the background, sadly.
Larnell Stovall serves as the film’s fight choreographer. Stovall is known for staging the fights in films like Falcon Rising, Mortal Kombat Legacy, and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. His unique take on fights essentially removes wires from the equation entirely. All the fights that this guy does are grounded in a certain reality. The fights are closely shot, brutal and sometimes have an acrobatic flair to them. He’s one of the go-to-guys for direct-to-video fight movies. Larnell Stovall is right up there with Donnie Yen and Yuen Woo-Ping as one of my favorite fight choreographers. He just has a very unique sensibility when it comes to these kinds of movies. The fights in Kickboxer: Vengeance are mostly good. The real show-stopper is clearly the final fight between Tong Po and Kurt Sloan. But that doesn’t mean that Van Damme sits out, as he gets some action of his own, and he’s great. The final fight has three stages: The first is strictly bare-handed. The second has them cover their fists in glass, just like the original movie, and the final round sees them using the double swords that you see used by Muay Thai warriors. The fight is legitimately bad-ass, despite it being mostly one-sided in Tong Po’s favor.
The film is well-paced. The fights come quickly, and the training montage with Kurt is pretty interesting. Some of the issues that I had with the film are mostly to do with Alain Moussi being cast as Kurt Sloan. He doesn’t have the personality or charisma to carry a movie. He really doesn’t. I just hope he improves when the next Kickboxer movie comes around, because they’ve got two more lined up, and each of them apparently star Van Damme as well. There are improvements that can be made, but the overall film really isn’t that bad. In fact, I found it to be quite enjoyable. It’s definitely worth seeing for Jean-Claude Van Damme, though. He kinda steals the show.
Before I conclude this review, I want to make a special mention about actor Darren Shahlavi. Mr. Shahlavi died in January of 2015 due to a heart-attack. He was 42 years old: Far too young to be taken out of the game, especially since he had so much more to offer. Kickboxer: Vengeance was his last film. Darren Shahlavi was a great martial artist in his own right. So, watching Kickboxer: Vengeance was kind of heartbreaking as well as exciting.
With all that being said, the overall film is surprisingly decent, and I had a better time with the new film than I did with the original Kickboxer. My final score for Kickboxer: Vengeance is an 8/10. It’s definitely worth renting if you’re a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme. Be sure to check it out and hopefully, you’ll find it as entertaining as I did, but again, the passing of Darren Shahlavi brings a bit of a melancholy feel to the whole affair. It’s not intended, clearly, but it happened. My thoughts go out to the family of Mr. Shahlavi.
Darren Shahlavi
August 5, 1972-January 15, 2015