No Retreat, No Surrender (1985) - JCVD - Comedic Movie Review 

I loved this movie growing up. As an adult I see all the cheesiness and it doesn't bother me at all. This movie will always have a special place in my heart. Just like RAD!

"Tonight, He either fights for his life or he'll be running for the rest of it." You can't but love the 80's taglines! 😎

Thank you good sir, you made my day. My baby daughter is in the hospital and now i can take my mind of the worries for a sec. Thanks to your comedy. Hope to see you hit a million subs fast.

Fun Fact: This movie was the first mainstream Hollywood movie, directed by a Hong Kong director. Corey Yuen, is a legendary Hong Kong director/fight choreographer/stunt coordinator who has worked with pretty much all the big name Hong Kong action stars, specially with Jet Li. He's also worked on Lethal Weapon 4, the first 2 X-Men movies & first 2 Transporter films, as fight/stunt coordinator and is a member of the ''Seven Little Fortunes'', the Peking Opera group that includes Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung ,Yuen Biao and a bunch of other very influencial people from the Hong Kong action cinema scene. These guys were all students of the same Peking Opera master, who trained them in martial arts, acrobatics, acting and singing. There's a biopic movie in the works for them. You can clearly see the Hong Kong style fight choreography here, which is very different from the usual 80's JCVD fighting style. The movie is typical 80's cheese in all it's glory, BUT the fight choreo is still top notch.

LOL, I lost it at the backyard scene. "Is he Wilson from Home Improvement?" hahahahaha

Ending the fight with a Flash Kick on JCVD was great, now we know where he got that move in Street Fighter the movie

R.J. was enjoying slobbering on that creamy popsicle while getting the hip thrusts from Jason lol 😂😂!

This movie introduced me to JCVD & I haven’t stop with the Van Damage since. Thanks for this. Love that I can watch reviews of movies I grew up with. 👍👏😂

As a black man I can explain the shower cap. Lol so back in the 80/90s we wore Jheri curls and shower caps kept them moist over night or during the day to prevent them from drying out and losing more hair.

When the Jason character Van Dammed Van Damme with that drop into the splits I almost lost it. I wonder if he is the only guy to have ever done that in a JCVD movie.

Thank you for this gem. It’s like The Karate Kid and Rocky 4 had a baby… and that baby was a masterclass in acting.

“A jar of Nutella” made me spit my coffee out laughing 😂. I can’t believe I watched all of these sad movies as a kid.

In Germany, this movie was called "Karate Tiger", so the similarities to the "Karate Kid" were pretty obvious back then. I always loved this movie for all its 80s cheese. The guy who played Jason was a champion in kickboxing and taekwondo (which comes from Korea), not Karate, so mistaking Bruce Lee for a Japanese person probably fits the style of the movie. It's one of the mysteries of the 80s: We always tell kids to be smart and responsible and not to attack other people, but in the end the central conflict is always resolved by kicking the sh*t out of the bad guy. BTW: you are really bringing back a lot of memories. Thanks! Keep it coming...

When I first found this channel i thought it would have a million or more subscribers, this channel is so good.

@2:49 that was the FUNNIEST cut away I've seen in a while. So glad I subscribed to your channel and binge watched more than I should over the last 4 nights. Wife not happy. Lol

Big thanks to T’n’T for suggesting this movie. I watched this movie back in 2014 when I was putting together a playlist of all the best cheesy but awesome training montage songs from the 80s and got curious about this movie based on the song hold on to the vision. This movie is fun to watch every now and then because it has some badass moments but it has a lot of moments that are funny when the movie clearly isn’t intending to be funny. That part in the training montage where his buddy RJ is just happily sitting on his crotch listening to his Walkman while he does extreme ab crunches is so hilariously bad. It throws off that otherwise supremely badass montage so much. It genuinely haunts me because nobody in the production team was able to convince the director that it was a bad idea to include that, given that it looks vaguely sexual. I mean jeez if they insisted on that particular thing they could have had that girl he was interested in sitting on his crotch instead, that would have been badass rather than his friend just sitting there blissfully ignorant of how it might look from the outside. I’m glad that was mined for comedy gold in this review tho, that part in particular had me laughing out loud. The protagonists obsession with Bruce Lee is super weird and him being trained by Bruce Lee’s ghost always made me laugh. I didn’t even realize when watching it that it was all just in his head. It was convenient to think he really was visited by Bruce Lee but only he could see him The budget on this movie seems to be a bit on the low side which explains why it’s basically a karate kid knock off with some Rocky IV inspiration sprinkled in. I mean cmon the villain is an unstoppable Russian powerhouse whose first name is Ivan, they weren’t being subtle trying to hide their influences.

Glad my recommendation finally got made into a video. I hope that when you say JCVD, you don't say Damme and just have that clip from Friday where they say Daaaaammmmnnn!

Glad I stumbled upon your channel! The reviews are hilarious!

🤣🤣🤣 That might be your funniest review yet - hilarious! Loved it, and one of my fav 80s classics 😁

You are going to adore the sequels, they are next level lol Confused the hell out of us when we rented them out back in the day =D

I remember the theatre exploded at the scene showing the "pelvis push ups"!!! The place was full of pre-teens that went just crazy!!!

It's very meta that the kid wins by kicking JCVD with basically Guile's "Flash Kick" special move from Street Fighter, and JCVD played Guile in Street Fighter the movie! Now I need to go watch your video on that!

Quickly making my way through these videos. Always cool to see the Subs number going up each time I go on RU-vid.

Fun fact, the ring that JCVD has his fights in is a 3 rope wrestling ring, not a boxing ring which has 4 ropes that are often tied together. The idea is that pro wrestling is about allowing people easy access to get thrown in and out of the ring. Wrestling rings are also much smaller because they are about using the ropes rather than fighting in the centre of the ring.

Karate Teens: If Splits can Kill and also on the on the backwards book reading.... He's reverse engineering Kungfu to break down all the secret techniques

My friend kept telling about this movie, I believed him but also had a little doubt. JCVD playing a guy called Ivan the Russian was a hard to believe. That and his claims that the real Bruce Lee was in the movie, that part obviously wasn't true but the JCVD part was. Granted we watched the french dubbed version he has on vhs so his character may have another name in the real version. I just wanted to say that before I watched the review.

OMG!! Redeye u did it again!! I baaarely remember this flick n forgot JC van Dammit (Bobby) was in it🤣🤣❤️❤️🔥🔥🔥 MAKE MORE VIDEOS!! There is an old movie I’m tryin to find the name of, futuristic/motorcycles with gatlin guns, mullets etc in “the future” still tryin to find it, I’ll send u a kk k/name asap

Its finally time that a channel is reviewing all those movies. Not enough ppls talk about these and i dont know why since those are the pinacle of the besterpeices in the entire cinema history!. I wish you review King of the Kickboxer please!

I remember seeing this in theaters with my older brother when I was 11. We kept wondering why the image quality looked so terrible. It literally looked like it was filmed with someone's cam that they bought from Sears. We still liked the movie, but it was the first theatrical movie I'd ever seen that looked and sounded cheap as hell. I thought RLM and GBF were the only good YT channels left that pan for gold in the river of urine that is my childhood movie experience. But then I find your channel. Thank you, and thank the gods for Steven Seagal and his complete and utter lack of self-awareness. He's how I found your channel, so at least one good thing has come from Master Seagal having a career. Seriously, you are awesome, and funny as hell!

Lol, dude I use to act scenes from this movie out in my living room when I was 4 or 5. This is led me down the bad karate movies rabbit hole of the nineties. Great stuff, these videos are hilarious. Thanks man.

The black kid wore a shower cap to protect his jerry curl as he slept...That's something I wish to never make a comeback.

I just randomly found you - Watched alot of Steven Seagal videos from you and needed to give you a subscribe. Keep the work going - Love your vids. You need more viewers!

Damn, I love this movie. Really looking forward to your reviews of the sequels, which I actually prefer to this one. The second (my personal favourite) pairs martial arts B-Movie legend Cynthia Rothrock with the not-quite-so-legendary Loren Avedon, who also returns for the third, alongside the charisma-vacuum that is Keith Vitali. Talking of these actors, at some point you should check out Undefeatable (with Rothrock), and King of the Kickboxers (with Avedon, and the incomparable Billy Blanks, of Tae Bo fame). Blanks only made a handful of movies (EDIT: by which I mean starring roles, not bit-parts, extras etc), but they'd all be a great fit for your channel as well (Expect No Mercy or Showdown would be good places to start). Anyway, that's enough for now or I'll be banging on about crappy-but-brilliant martial arts movies all day, which I tend to do when given even the slightest provocation, as you can no doubt tell :)

Thank you for doing this review. This is like my all-time favorite movie

This T’N’T sounds like a super handsome kinda guy with great tastes in movies because he voted on No Retreat, No Surrender. But he shouldn’t be the only one deciding these movies. So please, please, PLEASE, I beg of your subs to go donate at the Regular level or higher if they are able. 10:40 Yep. There you have it….. Also, this was a hilarious review! I literally started to aspirate on coffee because of your jokes about the refs hair. It’s almost like he has Lego hair or something. Hair molded, not stylized. Cheers!

Just discovered you yesterday and binge watching all your vids. Not feeling well but this is amazing funny content. Don't like the gd's that you throw out but really entertaining.

"Karate is not to be used aggressively, but if I have no other choice..." -- Sensei Tom Stillwell

This channel is going to explode lol. I don't watch many movies but every single review you have is straight fucking hilarious!

I can't stop watching your videos in the past couple of days, love your sense of humour. Would you also consider reviewing some newer blockbuster franchises like Fast & Furious, Transformers, Pirates of the Carribean etc.? I think it'd be very entertaining but also may help boost the channel recommendation to wider audience. Although please don't stop reviewing these old school and the more obscure B-movies though.

RJ's shower cap is to keep his Jerry Curl fresh😂

Damn! Your channel keeps growing! I'm truly happy for you. You're doing a great job too. Keep it coming!!!

Proud you have more Patrons now (including me!). You deserve it- your content is comedy gold. By the way, check out 13:36 - JVD destroying that dude's face on the reals. No wonder he got sued.

So as a kid in the 80's and also unfortunately had a Jerry curl the "shower cap" was so you don't mess up your bed sheets, which you did anyway.

The U.S version of the film cuts out the scene with Jason meeting up with Kelly before the party, hence the lack of explanation. The U.K version shows them on a brief shopping trip/date, which kinda explains how they know each other. The U.K version also had a better soundtrack with the theme 'stand on your own' (theme available on spotify) playing during the training montage. Alas you cannot get the u.k version anymore. A whole bunch of useless knowledge right there!🤣

lol! This movie! You did a brilliant job! This is also a great Rifftrax movie! Your content is always awesome!!🔥

The actor who played Scott is named Kent Lipham. His IMDB bio states, "Not being very smart, athletic, or crafty, the drama club seemed perfect for him".

No one mentions the bit in the garage where he's break dancing but it's a white guy stunt double.

🤣😂🤣. Tnx again. Keep it up bro. And Tnx for making a review on one of my fav movies. So much memories and nostalgia. 🍻🙇🙏

"I'm gonna go haunt some other a**hole who thinks I'm Japanese." hahaha

What did Van Damme say to his Van when it broke down??????? DAMN VAN....................😂😂🤣🤣😂😂🤣🤣😂😂😁😁😂😂🤣🤣

Legend has it that he kicked the bully so hard that cake is still coming out of him to this day. Also that training post is way too low and it isn't supposed to rotate because that defeats the whole purpose of the exercises. Not gonna lie that uh "exercise" with the uh hips and the sitting, that seems less than effective but the dude sitting on him seems to be having a great time.

The way you described the movie, while reviewing it was classic!! Your tone of voice is really does justice, to the cheesy type of movie this was. :)

This is by far my favorite martial arts movie! Great review! Although, I feel like there should have been a Soul Glo joke made about RJ and his shower cap!

I have absolutely not seen this movie and I appreciate you bringing it to the light

One of the most traumatic experience of my life, I freaking watched it at the movies😱, I was just a kid, innocent. I came out different, damaged for good 😜

I remember two things about this movie. Bruce Lee ghost teacher. The burgers looked pretty good and I wanted one.

another fun funny video and yes watch a ton of 80's and early 90's karatia and ninja movies over the year and did see No Retreat No surrender 2 and it's CrossBow tastic! also see Buckaroo Banzai as a Review you did...it's one of my favorite movies So i'll be looking forward to that next. look forward to all the reviews you've done or movies i love and funning them up RedEye just adds to why i like them.

Man I watched so many of these as a child...thanks for reviewing it

This is the greatest channel on RU-vid, just discovered and subscribed 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Yes I saw this in the 80's on VHS rental borrowed from my Dad's best friend. Thank you.

man, this guy deserves more views wtf so good, but the youtube algo gods have not yet blessed him

seen this movie growing up. Had it on VHS and we watched it over and over....I just now remember how it always seemed weird the way Bruce talked...now i know why! Awesome as always!

R.J. is one of the coolest side characters. The shower cap was a normal thing for curly hair back then. I guess it was not suppose to get wet or something.

Dude, the shower cap is to keep the moisture of the Jheri Curl.

Sensei and sifu... in the 80's everybody (at least everybody in Hollywood) thought these things are the same, karate and kungfu and all martial arts (there are a lot of movies where there are just "martial arts schools") and there are "masters" who totally mix chinese and japanese (sometimes korean) names, people and theories. I think JCVD was russian because of his accent (there is a movie, where he is in like 5 minutes, some black eagle or something is in the title, and he is a russian bad guy there too)

" I'm going to haunt some other ass hole who thinks I'm Japanese " BRUH ROFL 🤣 😂 💀

"Put diet coke into a cup- it becomes a cup! Put diet coke into a bottle - it becomes a bottle! Be diet coca cola my friend" 😂

When I was a small kid, I had this movie on VHS, watched the Shit out of it! Also loved the cheesy theme song a lot! Good old times!

Sifu is Chinese, I never knew why Jason addressed Bruce Lee as sensei.....this was a great review lol... 😂 👍🏻💯 Jason's father the pacifist was such an annoying crybaby...lol.. still a great movie.

I think there was a plot in this movie somewhere, but I couldn't stop laughing long enough to work it out

2:50 "I wasn't punching you Johnny, I was hitting you!"

There are so many things wrong with this movie it boggles the mind but...I remember renting this out and loving it back then.

Damn, this video was on point. I need these laughs at work.

This kid is actually a black belt in Taekwondo and this was his first movie, only 3 months after his arriving in holywood to become an actor. After that he decides he doesnt want to be typecast so he does a soap opera role. Things doesnt work out so well for him obvs but he have roles here and there still and he is not retired. His day job is Vice President of Home Services Shop.

Oh my god, the natural color joke cracked me up😂

The vhs version had Jason and the girl go on a date and they were up the seattle needle. And shows them looking into a pet shop window at the hamster that he gives to her at the party . It was cut from the dvd. The date was montage

Saw a screenshot on IMDB of Kelly and Jason at a restaurant, massively plugging a Pepsi sponsorship, which is apparently a deleted scene of how they know each other.

Wow, completely forgot about this film. I remember watching this about 30years ago. Just been on a binge with your content loved the Ninja series. Just a recommendation would love to hear your views on the Bloodsport and Kickerboxer series. Great content 👌

Can't judge him reading a book backwards. When browsing a magazine or a study book I used to start from the last pages... 👀

The montage song was the best thing about this movie.

I saw this movie when it came on VHS, yeah VHS lol. This is comedy gold. Still love your Steven Seagal movies commentary

Bruce Lee would be the ultimate spirit advisor

Hell yeah I love this cheesy B movie. Grew up on this movie. I watched the US version though that I finally saw this International version years later. Great and funny review dude. Glad these type of movies get love now.

Thank sir and that's how karate tournaments are fighting in the professional League this is one of the best movies ever I saw when I was a kid influenced me to get into martial arts and it taught me a lot and because of this movie I kept watching all of Van dam's films and now to the grace of God I have my own dojo and I'm just going forward when I was in United States I used to do choreography for an independent movie and all I can say is this was a big influence thank you keep up the great work coach Sal from Nicaragua

Oh man this film...😂 I wish I was actually a teen in the eighties.

Seen this many times and can’t believe I didn’t notice how wrong that ice-cream scene is. Did spot the finger-push wires though. Why would they put an electric countdown in the background during the end fights?! The countdown is all over the place between shots! Love Van Damme but he was never a great bad guy - see Black Eagle.

Boy, moving from LA to Seattle used to be a safe move...before 2017.

No Retreat, No Surrender is the best movie of all time! Best wishes from Portugal! :)

I love this movie ! I made my father Watch it with me over and over and over again as a kid

i LOVED this movie, i watched it so much. haven't thought about it in years.

Thank you for reminding me about this cheese 🧀. I’d purposely forgotten about it.

I'm sorry but this is better than all 3 Karate Kid movies, at least in terms of action scenes. My God, didn't expect them to be THAT good. That RJ kid cracked me up. Too bad this movie isn't more popular. Literally watched it because I saw you have a review of it and wasn't disappointed. Thanks for the review and movie suggestion!

I have seen this and the 2nd one. Always thought this was JCVDs first movie

Great video. I watched this movie as a kid a few times and always worried I wasn't supposed to be watching it because of the planking with his friend on his junk scene. As a very little kid I realized how inappropriate that scene was, how did the film makers miss it?

What? It’s perfectly normal to sleep behind the fence in your yard while wearing a shower cap. It’s how I scare off the garden gnomes.

In Germany the film is called "Karate Tiger", making the parallels between the two movies even more obvious.

I totally forgot about this movie! !

You had me at Bruce Lees Ghost. Took a while though.

Ive seen 3 different versions of this film. Vhs, dvd and then online. All different soundtrack and all have different edits and clips added/deleted But i love this film haha

Seen them all! Loved the cheeze!