White man shows his superiority over Thai people by beating them with their own martial arts. Thai fighter is made to be a cartoon villain with contrived writing.
I guess this was made 8 years ago....I dont know what that means....but you know someONE can't look oriental... They could look more Asian I suppose....or someone could want someone to look less that way. Actually, you know I ll do the research and go back adn make sure you weren't quoteing someone. Looks like you sure weren't. Anywho, you can google stuff or whatever and figure out what words mean. That rug can be more oriental, but people...not so much good try! I ve seen a lot of your videos now, and to be honest whenever you say something that isn't movie related you come off a huge douche! Cheers.
Wax on, wax off.. He even taught me martial arts whilst I was cleaning his car. It was no good in an actual fight I had though, I kept dropping the cloth.
My father-in-law is a small Asian man, and he taught me to keep an eye on him at all times, so he doesn't inadvertently destroy something around my house.
Nice review! I think Kickboxer and Bloodsport are not perfect movies (by far), but there is 1 thing that makes them great: both films got soul, unlike the sequels...
I used to watch Kickboxer so much that I turned down the volume and recited all the words as the movie played on. Still one of my favorite JCVD films. I cannot get enough of these cheese movies. As a kid they inspired me to always go train some more.
Another great review. Hands down the best movie reviews on RU-vid. I grew up on Van Damme and Kickboxer and Bloodsport are a staple of my childhood and movies I watch several times a year.
15:36 im pretty sure Kurt was “losing the fight” on purpose because he was prohibited from fighting at his full potential and was instructed to lose to Tong Po or his brother would be killed. Once his brother was freed, it didn’t “renew his confidence” but allowed him to not hold back since the thugs no longer had any leverage over him...
After a night of partying and drinking I decided to put this movie on and my god it was so relaxing although I've never visited Asia I love everything about the culture. I was constantly thinking how it must've been for a fellow Belgian like JCVD to have been there in those jungles and cities to make these movies. Such a big nostalgia filled night for me reminding me of the time I watched this with my dad as a kid.
Great review but only one point to make. Kurts brother doesnt show up for moral support. Tong po's people were keeping him for insurance so kurt would lose. When kurt sees that hes safe he no longer has to hold back. Doesn't explain why Tong Po becomes a bitch who doesnt fight back.
Noob Saibot we’ll it was already established that Kurt could beat Tong Po no problem hence the reason why they kidnapped his brother, I don’t think Tong Po was that good it was just that he was strong and brutal in his fighting which his brother probably wasn’t expecting and he was way overconfident as well
@@JoelsCreed141 yea if you watch Tong Po’s fighting...he isn’t THAT good. He wasn’t trash by anymeans but certainly wasn’t unfuckwitable. He was just extremely strong and intimidating. Skill/technique wise he was lacking. Eric lacked the durability to withstand his attacks. Kurt had the technique to beat him and gained greater durability due to Xian’s training.
This is a favourite for me and my friends to watch with a few beers. You really were inspired by the same films in your youth it seems. It's a great pleasure to follow your channel and I'm never disappointed. Thanks Again Oliver.
Kurt didn't just suddenly turn it around because his brother was there to cheer him on. At the beginning of the fight he was threatened by Freddy Lee telling him that if he made it a competitive fight they would kill Eric whom they kidnapped. His brother showing up meant the threat was no more and Kurt could now fight Tong Po to his full potential which he did and won.
Saw Kickboxer when I was 11-12, and loved it. I remember going crazy as the soundtrack brought those training scenes and the Final Fight to life. Its got some overall brilliant,atmospheric music. Any time Im on holiday somewhere exotic,or even in some eastern-exotic looking building, that soundtrack pops into my head. Gotta love Stan Bush's "Fight for Love" aswell!! That hilarious dance scene is even better at its end,when Zian reveals to Kurt that the lads attacked him in the first place,because Zian went round tellin' them that "They no good fighter,and that their mother have sex with mules!!!"" That deleted scene you showed was actually in the version I rented a lot on video at the time,and wondered why it wasnt in any other version I saw since. Excellent,excellent examination on the movie,man. Its great to look back at things like this from certain times of youth,and like it still,for what it was and is, without "growing out of it", as friends of mine have!!!
Great review Oliver! I've been watching your reviews almost every week. I grew up on bloodsport and kickboxer (I'm 40 now) so I loved VD... My favorite is lionheart. Even to this day, when I bro have to chance to imitate VD dance moves, we always have a good laugh!,
There were at least two versions of this movie. The version my old man got me on VHS back then was a heavily cut version. I didn't realise until 1996 when they aired the movie on Ch5 one night. The end fight was completely different. It was ott and I can see why they cut it for VHS
Fantastic review Oliver Harper I learn something new with every review. I could literally sit and watch your channel all day :-) Merry Christmas! Looking forward to gremlins as well.
Great review! Keep em coming! I love the hilarious dance scene, the homoerotic scenes with his bro and tong po makes an excellent villain! Have you ever thought of doing a retrospective on blood sport series and blaxploitation films?
Great review ! I always loved this movie, along with Lionheart and Bloodsport. My buddy and I would watch these movies when we were kids and just loved them. I never really noticed before but the soundtrack is awesome,, with the faux Asian sounds and 80s synth, its a total classic.
Watching this in 2022 I first saw this when I was a kid in the theaters. I just want to say thank you for making this review because both your love for the movie and the art that it presented as well as your analysis was spot on. I'm actually going to buy that soundtrack right now on Amazon, lol.
There’s one small thing you failed to mention, Kurt’s brother was kidnapped and threatened with death if he didn’t throw the fight, Eric didn’t show up for support, he got rescued by Xian and they took him to the ring to let Kurt know that he was free which allowed him to beat the crap out of Tong Po.
Well done. That was brilliant thank you. Will you ever do a pod cast of running commentary for it? It's a shame that many of van dam films hardly have any extra features. In the past have tried looking for stuff related to blood sport and kickboxer and found, not a lot. So I'm glad to see you doing this.
Just wanted to say I'm loving your channel and I'm doing the Patreon thing. So my 2 cents on Van Damme: you don't really address it, but Van Damme's ring fight movies were really popular in Asia and led to a late 80s/early 90s ring fight resurgence that laid dormant since the 70s. I've seen too many HK movies so titles blur together, but in a lot of lower end B and C-list movies ring fights/kickboxing was either a subplot or a centerpiece, with titles like DEATH CAGE with Robin Shou, DREAMING THE REALITY with Yukari Oshima, and TEARS OF THE KICKBOXER starring I-can't-remember. to name a few You could also throw in the stabs by Ng See Yuen's Seasonal Films productions to do more Western-friendly kickboxing movies like Loren Avedon in KING OF THE KICKBOXERS, the NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER series, and the hilariously bad SUPERFIGHTS which all attempted to combine HK-style fight direction with direct sound recording so the viewer could savor every terrible line reading in the original English. Good times...
Awesome review on one of my favourite films. A remake has been reported to have JCVD as the trainer and it is meant to star WWE wrestler Batista and MMA fighter Georges St Pierre as well.
Too late, that's already out, and yes, JCVD is the trainer, Batista is in it as the antagonist and Alain Mousi(who played Nash is Street Fighter Resurrection) is the protagonist and this movie is a soft Reboot.
As a kid I remember hating this movie, especially when compared to 'Bloodsport' which I thought was far superior. But as I got older this 80's cheese has gained a new appreciation from me. It's the type of entertainment that you can shut your brain off for a while and just have a good time. Thanks for the review.
AHHH! I KNEW I'd seen that hospital scene. The first time I saw this, that scene was in it, but then suddenly it wasn't. And when I told people about it, they said there was no such scene. I thought it was some kind of Mandela effect shit, but that's deffo the scene. I remember the "...kick the doors off a '59 Caddy" bit
Grew up watching this movie. Awesome. I just watched it two days ago as I introduced this movie to my 5-years old son! BTW, I named him Jean-Claude (true story) bc I am a big fan ✌🏻 Great video, Oliver.
Great Review mate, and yes I loved this film as a kid too, but looking back on it nowdays I can't help but chuckle, as for the cheesy stan bush songs I must confess i love them, at least they are catchy and Bush's ability as a musician shines through. Btw: the "Deleted" hospital visit scene was included on the version i watched, It was on the palace home video version.
Congrats Oliver for another terrific review of an 80's classic. At least in Chile many of the Cannon Films (distributed or co finance) movies were show in "A" Theaters which let them receive the same treatment of other features produced by major Hollywood studios (such as Paramount, Universal or WB). And it was a so awesome the publicity (in TV, radio and newspaper) that sometimes you couldn't get a ticket because they were all sold out. In today standards with so specific limits between "A" class movies and the direct to video ones, all these "B" films made a significant contribution in what was fun, and how could it be improve to reach a wider audience. And is no accidente that many of today's top directors pay tribute or copy (with a notorious upgrade) some action pieces taken directly from classics like "Kickboxer" and "Bloodsport".
When I worked as a projectionist my manager used to run a Cannon Cinema and he said all the Cannon releases would get the biggest screen while the other releases by other studios such as Warners and Fox would be shoved in the small auditoriums despite those films being miles better! lol.
Rewatched this recently and i never enjoyed it as much as Bloodsport but was pleasantly surprised how good it was after all these years and i really enjoyed it. I think its less cheesy than Bloodsport which i also rewatched but not quite as good.
Hello Oliver. The deals between the distributors and the owners of the cinemas are very similar between one country and another. For example, Cannon (and the many of the movies that they distribute) have a deal with the second biggest movie cinemas in Chile (Socine) and they have a very curious marketing campaign. First they opened the movie in the big screen and near the first month of exhibition they release in VHS, and four months later you could watch it at the national channel which was seen in nearly the 98% of my country. While they were doing this thing, WB and Disney have a deal with a very small distributor (CCN) and Fox - Tristar films were were shown by the biggest movie holding we have in Chile, Conate. The funny side of this was the scenario for UIP (that have the rights over Paramount and Universal)... it was distributed by the same company that release the Cannon ones and they receive the "limited release" theaters and you have to wait between 8 months and a year to get them in VHS... that were release by a company called Video Chile and that was owned by Conate which also distribute Warner and Disney titles. So, at least for a whole generation here in Chile Cannon Films seem to be at same level as the biggest Hollywood blockbuster although you knew that this was a bit strange.
Grew up on Van Damme & Schwarzenegger so this is my shit right here lol. I have to say I always did & always will prefer Bloodsport to Kickboxer but I cannot count the amount of times I have seen this film. I remember seeing Kickboxer 2 in my younger years & can't remember a thing about it apart from Van Damme being replaced by his 'brother' lol, I have seen the other sequels in W.H Smith of all places in the early 00's in their bargain buckets but never bothered with any of them as they looked shit just from the covers. If You, Rich & Duncan ever do another special with an intro skit I want this movie spoofed with you Ollie doing the Van Damme dance hahaha.
Even the cheesiest 80s movies were still better structured, love how they properly set up every character in this film examples 1) The master shows the student why hes the master in the very first scene by almost kicking him in the face 6 times before he would have landed, 2) you hear loud thumping menacing noises that reveal the guy practicing by doing something that would break any or our legs, there was a lot of thought behind this film. Great review !
One of my favourite martial art films and one of the best Van Damme films... the yare doing a remake with Van Damme as the mentor.... but nothing can beat the original with Van Damme at his physical peak.
Good review. My favourite van damme film as well as Bloodsport. Great soundtracks. Just to let you know I still have the UK video and it is the original version before cannon cut it and redubbed it for US distribution it has 6mins extra footage including the hospital scene and original voice of denis alexio,but suffered BBFC cuts of 1min 18secs to violence. I had sky movies recorded one on tape before getting rid of it and buying the video. That was the full length version and no BBFC cuts.Wish I still had it as it was the only one with both extra footage and the uncut violence running 103mins
Kickboxer was my go to movie when I was a kid... all that ninja stuff going on the early 90s had me going crazy over it not to mention universal soldier was another good for me
I think the reason he has the objects dropped on his stomach from high distance is to be able to withstand the brutal blows to the midsection that he takes from Tong Po in the final fight… because he’s able to withstand those blows that would otherwise decimate most opponents, he’s able to save the energy for when he’s able to make the big comeback and win.
Always loved this movie, very 80s plot fighting for his brothers revenge/honor. Along with Bloodsport probably got more people into martial arts than ever thought, great soundtrack too.
I find it interesting that I parallel you in a sense, my first Van Damme film was Bloodsport and shortly thereafter, Cyborg. I actually don't remember ever hearing of Kickboxer back then and I only just watched it for the first time earlier this year. I enjoyed it for what it was, but it's no Bloodsport. Having said that, it can sometimes be impossible to take off these 'nostalgia goggles'. Want to close in saying, your retrospective videos are fucking awesome! None of this acting like a fake fool like too many youtubers these days, you are straight up legit.
I have a VHS copy with the hospital scene. It has the original audio all the way through. It also has a weird cut where Kurt slams that dude's head into the table in the bar, and 2 chunks are cut out of the final fight with Tong Po. In all cases, the music skips where the cut is made, so it was done after the movie was mastered...for some bizarre reason I can't fathom
The jump cuts were UK video censorship. They cut out the ear clap from the bar fight, Van Damme being pummelled by Tong Po, blood streaming from Po’s mouth, a load of kicks to Po’s head and a close up of a face kick. The cuts were really badly made and completely obvious. The DVD restores the violence cuts but the ‘toothpicks’ scene is now absent.
They done those crazy sequels with lots of films then like best of the best and american ninja, pretty crazy stuff as most if not all were straight to video.
One thing the film failed at is that Kickboxing was not invented in Thailand. Well not the art. The art itself Kickboxing was invented by the Japanese. it's a hybrid of Karate and Muay Thai. Thailand only invented the sports varient of kickboxing not the art.
You know, being that "drunken uncle" at the wedding, now I'm not so embarrassed tripping on the maid of honors dress, hitting my chin on the open bar table and knocking myself out as embarrassing as the dance scene. I feel a little better about myself now.
After so many years, so many viewings to find out Eric's voice is dubbed over that's crazy... And I always thought master zian was an old guy he must have been 30 or less based on how he looks today on imdb :) In any case they will never make movies like this again. We were lucky to see them as kids on VHS!
Master Zian was a old guy, the actor Dennis Chan was a old guy. The photo on IMDb is not him. It's been confirmed many many times. Also in regards to Eric's voice, if you grew up with the film on VHS and on TV, those versions of the film were Eric's original and much better voice. The horrible dubbed over versions of his voice are only on the DVD and Blu-Ray releases.
Haha, so, 2 things: I'm so dumb. When you mentioned JCVD's flexibility, right after mentioning that he choreographed the fight scenes and shared a writing credit with the director, I immediately assumed you were referring to his flexibility as an artist... Also, before you showed the deleted scene of Dennis Alexio's real voice I kept saying to myself "Please, let his real voice be higher." As you could imagine I was very pleased.
Dennis Alexio's real voice was a 100 times better. The dubbed over version on the DVD and Blu-Ray is awful. If you watched the film growing up on VHS and on TV, those versions of the film were Dennis Alexio's actual real voice which as I said was a lot better. The Original Full Uncut Supreme Version of Kickboxer that someone edited together here on RU-vid thankfully features Dennis Alexio's real voice too. You should check it out and compare it to the dubbed over version.
It seems there was a different release of this film which is identical apart from having different music on the final fight for some reason. The original I saw had the music used in this video, but I've seen a more recent version of the film which has different and definitely weaker music.
Dennis Chan (Xian) is a Hong Kong film actor mostly known for comedic roles so he's definitely no martial arts master. I think "Streets of Siam" is up there with "Fight to survive". I too felt like there was really no kickboxing in the film and always wondered "Why is it called Kickboxer when there really isn't any kickboxing in it? It could've been call Master Fighter or something". The reason why Van Damme fights were so fluent in "Knock Off" was because that movie had Hong Kong action choreographers, as did "Double Team" and "No Retreat No Surrender".
Awesome review. Hands down one of my favorite JCVD films, but Bloodsport was a lot better. Do you plan on doing a review of one of his other films Double Impact? That was a great film too.
