Kickboxer: Retaliation (2018)

Director: Dimitri Logothetis
Notable Cast: Alain Moussi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Hafbor Bjornsson, Christopher Lambert, Sara Malakul Lane, Mike Tyson, Ronaldinho Gaucho, Wanderlei Silva, Fabricio Werdum

When the Kickboxer remake, titled Kickboxer: Vengeance, was getting a release in the US, it was already announced that the sequel was in production and that it would actually be part of a trilogy. These days it's hard enough to get a low budget action film funded, even with mainstream names like Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dave Bautista, let alone an entire trilogy, so there were a lot of expectations that came in tow with the first film. Of course, Vengeance was a decent little actioner with enough charm to pull off its sillier scripting, but it was hardly a film that reinvented the wheel. Fun and entertaining, but hardly more than that. It’s sequel, Kickboxer: Retaliation and the focus of this review, is an even stranger beast. While its predecessor struggled with finding the balance between being a serious film and the cheesiness of being an entertaining modern B-action flick, Retaliation has none of these issues. Instead, it embraces its outlandish concepts with an obvious tongue-in-cheek approach that works to make it far more entertaining as it abandons most of its more serious moments. This can be problematic as Retaliation attempts to craft a much larger world and story, but when you’re having this much fun with how outrageous a film is...can it really be considered all that bad?

Legionnaire (1998)

Director: Peter MacDonald

Notable Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Steven Berkoff, Nicholas Farrell, Jim Carter, Ana Sofrenovic, Daniel Caltagirone, Joseph Long

Time can certainly play tricks on a person. I remember watching Legionnaire when it first came out and thinking it was good, but too dramatic and not fun like most of the other Jean-Claude Van Damme films that had arrived before that. As time went on, I had convinced myself that it was a terrible film simply by way of thinking that there is no way JCVD could possibly have made a decent dramatic film in that time frame. Now that I have revisited Legionnaire, I must admit that it really is one of the better films he has ever made. Flawed, sure, in a lot of ways, but one that aspires to be something much larger and heavier than anything he had made up to that point.

Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016)

Director: John Stockwell

Notable Cast: Alain Moussi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dave Bautista, Sara Malakul Lane, Gina Carano, Georges St. Pierre, Darren Shahlavi

As the remake and reboot train keeps chugging along, it’s going to continually reap the benefits of nostalgia for a lot of properties. For those of us that love the originals, we can only hope that they honor and recreate the same heart while giving us something decently fresh while doing so. Such is the case with the latest nostalgia-trip-reimagined Kickboxer: Vengeance. Don’t let the fancy new subtitle fool you, this is not a sequel to overlooked action franchise of yesteryear. Vengeance is a remake of the original Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle that set him on a road for stardom. In many ways, it’s one of those remakes that works because it understands why the original worked and retains that while bringing something different to the table at the same time. I’d be lying if I said that Kickboxer: Vengeance is a great film, at least in classical critiquing standards, but it’s also a film that inherently knows what it is and delivers on such promises. Perhaps it was my generally negative attitude going into the film, but Vengeance came out as something pleasantly surprising as a modern action flick.

Black Eagle (1988)

Director: Eric Karson
Notable Cast: Sho Kosugi, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Doran Clark, Bruce French, Vladimir Skomarovsky, William Bassett, Kane Kosugi, Shane Kosugi

Normally I would keep this opening bitch for the bonus rant section but I have to make a special case for this film. The DVD cover art I have has a lone picture of Jean-Claude Van Damme with a tattoo of a black eagle on his chest. From this we can assume that Van Damme is the main star and that his code name is "Black Eagle" due to his tattoo. First of all Jean-Claude Van Damme is NOT the main star and he does NOT have a black eagle tattoo. Oh yes, he is in the movie but he only gets second billing. This is actually a 1988 theatrical film starring none other than ninja legend himself Sho Kosugi though he is not credited on my DVD cover. Sho is the main character with the code name the title is referring to.

Despite what some versions of the cover art wants you to believe, this is actually a Sho Kosugi action film with Jean Claude Van Damme only playing the villain's main henchman. By the time this film came out in 1988 Sho Kosugi's popularity was starting to decline in the action film market and Van Damme's was only just beginning, hence why the some DVD companies did this cloak and dagger DVD cover into fooling potential purchasers. This cover art actually worked against me when I first heard of it. If they used the original poster artwork and showed me it was actually a Sho Kosugi film I would have been much more apt to buy it at first as I am not that huge of a fan of Van Damme, especially his direct-to-video garbage which my DVD cover makes it look like.

Now that I got it straightened out with you that this is a Kosugi film and NOT a Van Damme film, I'm going to throw another curve ball your way. Kosugi doesn't play his trademark ninja character here that he was known for throughout the 80's. Kosugi not playing a ninja? How can this be? He actually plays a spy/assassin here. The plot is actually very similar to a James Bond film. An American plane crash-lands in the Mediterranean and Kosugi is brought in to track down a top secret laser tracking device. It must not have been too top secret as the Russians quickly move in to capture it first. Typical spy action occurs as Russians kidnap Kosugi's family and it ends up a showdown between Kosugi and Van Damme.

The film really plays off like a poor man's James Bond film. It's like James Bond, extra light with no sugar or caffeine. Sure there's even a sequence when our main spy meets our main villain and henchman over a card game while wearing tuxedos but all the action and chase sequences are very bland and by-the-numbers. The plot also isn't that exciting and director Eric Karson takes his sweet time getting the picture to move along. Still my biggest complaint is that Kosugi always seems to get the filmmakers to cast his children in his movies (Kane and Shane). They are horrible actors and it just annoys me when stars force filmmakers to use their family members.

Though not unwatchable it is just very forgettable action film and isn't near as fun or over-the-top as Kosugi's early 80's action films for the Cannon Group. The film also doesn't seem to hold up well for Van Damme fans either as he barely says any lines. I actually felt after watching the film that Van Damme would have been better in the spy role and Kosugi in the main henchman role. I always felt Kosugi made a much better villain, especially with those small vengeful eyes. Still it was interesting to see two of the 80's biggest action stars go head-to-head for a short time despite the film being completely forgettable.

Written By Eric Reifschneider

MVD REWIND VERSION:

As Eric points out in his original review for the film, Black Eagle is an odd duck. For a film that features the iconic Sho Kosugi and a young Jean-Claude Van Damme, it weirdly avoids playing into its own strengths and attempts to repurpose its B-action premise as a Bond film on a budget. There is a lot of potential for the film, but it often comes off as a mixed effort that stumbles around in trying to create spectacle and espionage intrigue without spending too much money.
 
This is also what makes this latest MVD Rewind Blu Ray release of the film such a find for cult cinephiles. While Black Eagle might be an overall awkward film, this release is dedicated to just that - embracing it for its cult status as a VHS video store classic. Not only does this release have two cuts of the film, both of which are remastered for this release, but it also digs into some of the whys and whats that make Black Eagle a cult classic. A 20-minute interview with Sho Kosugi and his son Shane showcases the unique (and very energetic and charming, might I add) perspective they have on cinema and their time on the film, while a fun series of interviews focused on JCVD also makes for great material that action fans will want to see. For the latter, it’s notes about how the director was just randomly adding in scenes to give JCVD more to do that explains some of the strange narrative bumps that the film has in the end product.

Even for a film like Black Eagle, which has its following, it’s a release like this latest one for the MVD Rewind collection that reminds us there’s a story behind the story being played onscreen and it’s, at times, more fascinating. For collectors of action cinema, this is definitely a must have - even if the film is hardly the best for either of the iconic stars in it.

Written By Matt Reifschneider