Great for its time, but losing luster after 20 years.

Rating: 8/10 (25 January 2009)

Van Damme stars as a kick-boxer who follows his brother, who's a champion. When they go to Asia to find new competition, they stumble across a strange form of the martial arts and competition in the ring leaves his brother paralyzed, whereas Van Damme swears vengeance on the man who put him in a wheel chair. The only problem is that he's not good enough to fulfill his vow and there's only one man who stands the chance of training him properly.
This film was very good for it's time, but I've heard that it's lost its luster over the years. A lot of people don't think much of Van Damme anymore, but this film was made at a time when all the kungfu theater movies were dying out in the US and Chuck Norris just wasn't getting the job done. Enter Van Damme, a decent looking kid, a feeble, awkward ability to act, and what do you get? This! I remember first watching this movie on HBO when it originally came out, and I was residing in a household with several roommates and this movie was on the tube every time it came up, and yours truly was right there, watching it with everyone else. I feel Van Damme has lost some of his luster over the years, either due to bad roles or just a personal choice to sit out, but the man put out some decent movies in the 80's and 90's and this was definitely one of them! As far as the sequels, though, skip it, unless you find yourself wanting to fill your time with nothing in particular, which is what the sequels, basically, amount to.
8 out of 10 stars.