Lionheart

One of my favorite outings from Jean Claude Van Damme, I’ve seen this flick so many times but this time around I did realize a few things:

The story was by Jean Claude Van Damme, which in all fairness does not mean much. As an actor it’s not implausible that Van Damme comes up with idea for a film that would make him look favorable as a martial arts super star, but it does not hurt that the movie is about a man basically entering the world of Marshal science tournament fighting. The same story a Blood sport, kickboxing and The Quest, so it’s not a big stretch of an action hero coming up with the story for an action movie.

Also want to give credit to Sheldon Lettich who directed this film like he did Blood sport and Double Impact which also stars Van Damme, of which the muscle from Brussels also gets credit for the story. In fact, it would not surprise me if Double Impact started out about two twin brothers separated at birth and rediscovering each other in a martial arts tournament, before Lettich was like “I have a better idea”.

Also recently heard a rumor that Lettich did a lot of work in preparing these movies but was just find giving Van Damme credit for some minor work for union purposes. Not that he did not deserve the credit, but I have convinced myself that Van Damme indeed wanted to make Double Impact a sequel in spirt to Bloodsport like Kickboxer is, until Lettich was like let’s do something different.

Possibly the most disappointing recollection of this film is that I did not know or forgot Bill Blanks was in it. The reason for either situation was the fact that Billy Blanks was no more than a Fall guy in this flick. He plays an unnamed soldier early on in the film who gets his butt handed to him by Van Damme, which obviously was going to happen facing off against the movie’s movie star, but the weak tussle these two-marshal artist had was only proof of how Hollywood slept on Blanks’ skills. In all fairness, I guess Billy Blanks was kinda starting his career and no one was thinking, but still it was definitely a miss opportunity for Van Damme vs. Blanks.

Lionheart is a pretty well-rounded movie, which is possibly why it’s one of my favorites. Van Damme is not winning any awards for his acting credits (although I do give mad respect to the men who can make a fight look good on cinema, it’s a harder task than many give it credit for), but the story (that Jean Claude came up with) is pretty solid. A man astrain from his brother discovers he died and will sacrifice big to make amends with the only family he has left: a sister-in-law struggling to keep a roof over his niece’s head.

It’s the type of Kool Aid you can poor into any jar but making it sweet is the sugar that is martial arts action. Lionheart’s failed cash cow is the fact that they totally could have made a fighting game based on all the characters Lionheart had to face in the Street fighting circuit. Though Lionheart was released in America a mouth before Street Fighter II would become one of the most important games in the history of games, the producers could still have milked the cow by flooding the arcades with yet another clone (in fairness, Jean Claude Van Damme’s involvement with another Street fighter II clone at the time (known now as Mortal Kombat) would have possible stopped that idea anyway).

He’s name is Lionheart. Cause the movie is all Heart