Kickboxer

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2009)

This time Jean Claude Van Damme's formidable adversary is a bad dude with a pony tail named Tong Po. He's Taiwan's heavyweight champion and is feared/praised by fight fans as the best. Tong Po makes mincemeat out of American Kickboxing Champion, Eric Sloane(Dennis Alexio), leaving him a paralyzed cripple in a wheelchair, and his brother, Kurt(JCVD)wants revenge. Kurt seeks the assistance of expert master of the martial arts, Xian Chow(the charming Dennis Chan), hoping he will train him to be a great fighter, with the appropriate skills to combat Tong Po. Xian, utilizing Kurt's determination and dedication, molds and develops him into a superior martial artist, but can he withstand the attack of Tong Po? Tong Po's agent, Freddy Li(Ka Ting Lee), uses treacherous antics(..like kidnapping Eric, having Xian's trusty canine stabbed by a dagger, and the rape of Kurt's girlfriend, Mylee(Rochelle Ashana)at the hands of Tong Po)in an attempt to thwart Kurt's chances of defeating his foe due to a lack of focus and concentration, factors needed to properly fight. Freddy Li has made a big bet on Tong Po and informs Kurt that if he is to see his brother alive again he'll throw the bout, but do so while being pummeled by Tong Po. Through the collective efforts of his friends, including Xian and a retired Vietnam vet, Winston(Haskell V Anderson III), perhaps Kurt will be able to fulfill his desire for revenge, while successfully proving that he can be a fighter of superior skill.
I feel like many fans of movies regarding kick-boxing will find this a tad disappointing for "Kickboxer" features precious few fight sequences of real worth. We see Kong Po annihilate Eric in a bout(..before this, Eric himself defeats an American opponent with relative ease, and being a renowned fighter in the USA has grown his ego to epic proportions)establishing the meat of the film's revenge story, but the bulk of "Kickboxer" has Kurt training with Xian in preparation for Tong Po.
We see Kurt and Mylee's blossoming love, along with Freddy Li's shenanigans. The training regimen(..including their work in the fantastic Stone City, an ancient Buddhist temple ruins and around Xian's modest home where he uses natural objects as tools to train Kurt)envelopes a good 50 minutes of the movie. We do see a humorous scene where Xian wishes to challenge Kurt by taking him to a bar, getting him liquored up, and having Freddy Li's young fighters engage him in combat..to the chagrin of Li, Kurt obliterates them in short order, afterward showing that he can barely walk upright!
As is often the case with these movies featuring Van Damme(or part of this burgeoning genre of this time when martial arts was starting to take off with western audiences), Tong Po is a muscled and mean force to be reckoned with, an intimidating enemy the hero must overcome through the use of his evolved techniques and physical development.
Oftenin these flicks, we see how Xian, the trainer, is able to fashion Kurt mind, body, and soul into a superior fighter. The finale, I think, is sufficiently thrilling as Kurt, at first, must allow Tong Po an advantage, while also remaining distracted due to his brother's whereabouts and discovering Mylee was raped by his opponent. And, just as usual(..we wouldn't expect anything otherwise, would we?)Van Damme gains the upper hand when those encumbrances are lifted and he can take control.
"Kickboxer" is a chance to see Van Damme in full form, landing every type of kick and punch in his arsenal..in slow motion or repeated two or three times to relive the blows as they deplete Tong Po until he's a broken, beaten, and bloody mass, without fight left in him. The martial arts Kurt is learning from Xian is Muay-Thai. I don't think Van Damme has ever looked better than he does here. As normal, JCVD performs the splits numerous times(..this time, there's a scene where his legs are pulled apart by Xian by ropes with sound effects featuring bone cracking).