Now Introducing Jean-Claude Van Damme

The challenge - review every single one of Van Damme's movies and comment on the variations in fight choreography from film to film. Since I am not one to back down from a challenge when this one was issued I had no choice, but to accept.

In the way of an introduction Van Damme, or the Muscles from Brussells has he his known to those of us who watched a lot of E Entertainment Television in the 90's, has been staring in movies for nearly a decade. His first big break was in 1988 when he started in the martial arts tournament movie Blood Sport and he has managed to star in a movie almost every year to date with his most recent film Until Death which was released this year.

It is the goal of this blogger to evaluate Van-Damme's fighting prowess from movie to movie so while each review will essentially be a discourse of the film being reviewed; following the first review the commentaries will also include a section on how the choreography has changed from film to film. With the idea being that this will be your single most informative resource for evaluating the career of one of Hollywood's most famous martial arts action movie stars.

This should be some interesting reading, I am excited to rewatch some classics as well as get a chance to check some of his newer work. Let's see where this goes.

Movies in chronological order -

1. Bloodsport
2. Cyborg
3. Kickboxer
4. Lionheart
5. Death Warrant
6. Double Impact
7. Universal Soldier
8. Nowhere to Run
9. Hard Target
10. Time Cop
11. Street Fighter
12. Sudden Death
13. The Quest
14. Maximum Risk
15. Double Team
16. Knock Off
17. Universal Soldier: The Return
18. Inferno
19. Replicant
20. The Order
21. Derailed
22. In Hell
23. Narco
24. Wake of Death
25. Second in Command
26. The Hard Cops
27. Until Death

Black Snake Moan

Black Snake Moan

Nymphomania or Hypersexuality is a desire for human sexual behavior at levels high enough to be considered clinically significant, as defined my Wikipedia. It may be easier to write someone off as loose or a slut, but that would foolish as it clear by the number of dysfunction that result from pre-mature or unwanted sexual activity that this is a problem. Craig Brewer tries to shine some light on the subject in his most recent film Black Snake Moan.

Black Snake Moan is the story of an older Georgian Black man doing his best to help a young Georgian White girl over come her sexual addiction. I know, I know, you haven’t heard of a more perfect storyline for a Porno crossover, they wouldn’t even really change the name. But leave it to director Craig Brewer, Hustle & Flow, to make this a lot more than a soft core Skinemax special. The movie has real emotion and is unrelenting in taking on this controversial subject matter head on.

Lazarus, played by Mr. Samuel L.Jackson, is one time Blues performer who wife has just left him for his brother and is having crisis of faith when he discovers the beaten and bloodied body of the beautiful Rae, Christina Ricci, who was left for dead on the side of the road after a night of sex, drugs, and violence. Lazarus brings the young girl into his home to help her as best he can. He ends up not only helping her heal from the wounds on the outside, but also from those of her past that have scared her soul.

I really can’t say enough about Brewer’s ability to make this more of a movie than it should have been. It is no small feat to film half-naked incredibly sexy Christina Ricci in her underwear and a T-shirt for half the movie and do it in such as way as to not have the audience singularly focused on her. Brewer is very good at capturing the pure heart of his characters underneath their very flawed exteriors. Additionally he also incorporates the heat and personality of the south as it own character in the film. The environment is an additional silent player that compliments everything else that is happening on screen. Even though his films contain many of the stereotypical elements of the south that we Northerners tend to look down on; in Brewers films they serve to contextualize the story and add a layer of depth not seen anywhere else.

As great as Brewer is he was not alone in this movie, Sam Jackson and Christina Ricci were exceptional. I have to say it again for Christina to take on this role and come across as someone battling with a severe problem and not just some whore who really liked sex had to take talent. She did an excellent job of selling the inner torment that plagued her. She clearly did not want to be the way she was, but knew no other way to ease the pain of her past, until she met Lazarus. Sam Jackson is versatile and captivating. He is convincing in everything he does and after this movie I now know Sam is a fairly talented musician. I am not sure if he was striking those chords on the guitar or not, but he was definitely signing the words and sounded pretty good. I would also be remise if I did not say a word or two about Mr. Timberlake, who was very believable. Justin gives a strong performance and never drops into the background even when he is acting against clearly better actors. He hangs in there as best he can and does a very good job. I am not ready to give him any awards, but he did a nice job for someone I expected very little from.

This movie will not receive critical acclaim and will probably go largely unnoticed, but I am glad I saw it. There are many kinds of addictions and sexual addictions should not be taken any less serious than some of their more well none counterparts. It is clear that Rae was abused as a child and that abuse imparted a spirit that would only be satisfied by more sex, until it grew so strong she would take it from anyone at almost anytime. Brewer pays this subject matter the appropriate respect and in the end delivers a strong piece that is not only entertaining but is also a commentary on something that is not taken seriously enough in our culture.

GRADE - A

300

I am almost as excited to right this review as I was to see this movie.

300 tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae during which 300 Spartans lead by their warrior King Leonidas, Gerald Butler of Tomb Raider fame, defended their homelands against more than one hundred thousand warriors from all corners of the globe making up the Persian army, lead by the self proclaimed god king, Xerxes - Rodrigo Santoro. The Spartans are breed from birth to be warrior of the bravest and fiercest sort so while 300 versus several hundred thousand seems a little more than unreasonable for the Spartans it was an opportunity to do what they were born to do, die in battle defending their country.

From birth the moment a Spartan male is born it is inspected and if there are any imperfections found on the child it is discarded. For those that kept from that moment on all they know is training and battle and pain. Then when the boy turns seven he is taken away for his training and eventual initiation where they are required to roam the country with nothing but a spear. It is during this initiation when the teen aged Leonidas encounters a vicious wolf. It was this moment that defined Leonidas a true warrior in that not only did he slay the beast, but he outsmarted the animal and never showed a moment of fear or hesitation. Leonidas returns to his home and take his rightful place as king.

It would be easy for a movie with this much testosterone and adrenaline to do nothing more than have a bunch of battle sequences with nearly naked men showing off their abs of steel and fighting prowess. In stead we got and more. There was not shortage of blood and gore and amazingly choreographed fight sequences they movie was balanced with an interesting sub-plot that featured the Queen of Sparta, Lena Headey and the head of the Spartan council Theron, Dominic West. Headey does some political maneuvering as she entreats the council to send the rest of the army to aide to her husband and their king, while West is secretly conspiring with Xerxes to have Sparta overthrown. While this story is original to the movie it was a positive addition that gave the movie more depth and gave the audience something to look at while the Leondidas and his men rested however briefly between battles.

This movie was a lot of fun, I am unfairly skeptical when it comes to movies that are shot almost entirely against green screen, in many ways CGI has made film makers lazy. However that was not the case in this movie. Synder struck the essential balance of using the CGI, but not relying on it. The backgrounds and environments were a piece of the story, but not the story itself. The story was carried on the back of Leonidas and his men that managed to make tough, body builder type warriors more than just brutal thugs. These were soldiers of honor and intellect and made watching their brutality on the battle seem more like what one would expect to see when a coach’s game plan is carried out to perfection. Once again Frank Miller’s unique graphic art is made three dimensional with style and precision.

GRADE - A

Smokin' Aces

Movies featuring Ensemble casts can be tricky. Many times they turn out to be nothing more than just a series of "big name" performers being paraded across the screen. It is a rare thing for an Ocean's Eleven to come along and be genuinely interesting, tell a good story, and keep all the egos in check. Fortunately there were not many egos to keep in check for director Joe Carnahan because many of the names were not that big or were first timers. However there is still the matter of telling an interesting story and not simply falling back on all the performers.

Smokin' Aces is the story of Las Vegas showmen, Buddy 'Aces' Israel, played by Jeremy Piven, who uses his fame to become a wannabe mobster and ends being a real FBI informant. Word gets out the Israel is an informant and the mafia hires every hitman worth something to take Israel. The lead agents for the FBI, Carruthers and Messner, played by Ray Liotta and Ryan Reynolds respectively are trying to make their way to Israel before the hitmen do to bring him into protective custody, needless to say they all converge on Las Vegas and Israel's hotel room around the same time and bedlam ensues.

The movie was a quirky ride that has some self identity problems. It featured a handful of very Hollywood type characters, the bombastic veteran Fed - Liotta, a group or Aryan Nation Hitmen brothers, two slick sexy young ladies who are as deadly as they are beautiful. And at the same time the movie tried to balance that with Piven and Reynold attempting to interject genuine heart and emotion into the lunacy that is happening all around them. Instead of being content with being a caper flick or an action comedy, the movie tries to be those things with moments of drama and heart injected throughout the story. I would have preferred Carnahan decide the kind of movie he wanted to make and stick to it. Instead he tries to do too much.

Having said all that the movie is still a good time, Ryan Reynolds is fun and tough and sarcastic, he will fill the void left by Bruce Willis whenever he stops trying to do action movies. You can't wrong with Ray Liotta and Andy Garcia just showing up to some aforementioned random depth to the movie. Jeremy Piven was on the money and always does a good job with what he is given. I must also take a moment to express my pleasant surprise at Common coming off as the anti-thug. He had a couple of really good moments in this movie. I hope he gets more opportunities to show up and do stuff. And of course I have say something about Ms. Keyes. Honestly I am way too into this woman to give an objective opinion of her performance. Please Hollywood keep Alicia Keyes working. I can watch her do just about anything. So the movie has some issues no doubt, but it had its moments, certainly enough to make it worth the price of admission.

GRADE - C

Zodiac

I want to start this with by commenting on the greatness of David Fincher. You don’t have to be a great director to take a story about a serial killer that terrorized most of California for more than two decade and was never caught and turn it into an interesting visual experience. What you get when you bring a talent like Fincher on board is more than just story telling. Fincher has the ability to take great ideas and make the most of them. All too often a producer will assemble all the pieces, actors, script, setting, etc… but the director is unable to pull it all together either trying to do too much or falling short of expectations. Fincher is able to make the most of his cast and keeps the story moving on screen. One of the secrets to his brilliance is that there is not one thing about his movies that is repetative from movie to movie, story to story he is able to completely involve himself in that story at the moment. His techniques are unique to the specific film that he is working on.

In Zodiac he is able to keep a relatively uneventful script moving for 2 1/2 hours. One would think that a movie about a serial killer would be easy to keep going, but this was want intended to be a slasher pic. In fact Fincher went anti his Se7en self and a real crime drama about what the individuals at the center of this unsolvable crime went through and what it did to each of their lives. Furthermore it was more about the story and following the pieces to the rather than focusing on the individuals putting the pieces together, in fact Jacke Gylenhall who stars in the movie as Robert Graysmith, the author of the best selling book about the Zodiac killings and eventually "solve" the murders, is sometimes not seen on screen for long stretches of time, becuase for Fincher he is only an element to this film.

However cudos must be paid to the cast that was able to carry out Fincher's vision. Mark Ruffalo, plays the lead detective on the case David Toschi and does a great job of playing a smart cop that is nothing more than simply a cop. He has quirks and flaws and is not overly tough any of the other cliches that we typically associate with hollywood cops. Instead he is simply a cop tyring to do his job. I also have to show some love to Bobby Downey, Jr. and his ascote. That's right Bobby Downey is rocking a silk scraf around his neck for a bunch of the movie. Gylenhaal also does a good job of not over doing it, but staying within the established boundries of his character.

This is not one of those movies I could watch over and over again, but I am definately glad I did see it and it is definately recommended. Good time at the multiplex.

GRADE - B+

Ghost Rider

“Are you o.k.”

“Yeah I just feel like my head is on fire, but I’m o.k.” …queue laugh track.

So shame on me if I expected great things, which I didn’t by the way, from Ghost Rider, but I have been in wrong before, so there was always the off chance I could be wrong. In this case I was not. Alright, alright, let me slow down. Ghost Rider is the first of three Marvel releases this year, sequels to Spiderman and Fantastic Four are fourth coming this summer, and the fourteenth released in the last decade or so. Marvel definitely has a cash cow on their hands and they are not afraid to just make movies, see Elektra here. One would hope over time the movies would get better, but I shame on me for expecting a movie about a stunt man who makes a deal with the devil to save his father life for the price of his soul and in turn becomes the devil’s dark angels of vengeance. I should not be so harsh considering I have never read a Ghost Rider comic before and have no loyalty to the character. What it comes down to is film making. Were it not for Sam and Toby Spiderman could have very easily become the Hulk or something worse instead of the great franchise that is has become. Mark Steven Johnson is not a bad director, he does have Daredevil under his belt, and while Affleck and Garner make for a better pair than Cage and Mendes, the latter pair are not terrible so it really does come down to story; and Ghost Rider is a weak one.

There are some really cool visual in this movie, like when the two rider are moving through the desert, but they do not do much to cover up for the shallowness of the story. Compounded by the fact Eva Mendes really is not that talented. Whenever she is on screen it is just blah at least Cage has a quirkiness about him that at least makes him interesting. Eva doesn’t even really have the hot thing going for her and it wasn’t for lack of trying. Her cleavage was a co-star in this movie. At the end of day this movie will probably be successful enough for the studio to consider a sequel, but if I could offer a word of advice… don’t.

GRADE - D

Breach

Breach tells the story of Robert Hanssen, played Chris Cooper, a twenty five year veteran of the FBI who is caught and convicted of treason for sharing top secret government information with Russia. Hanssen is eventually undone by his protégé and young FBI upstart Eric O’Neill, Ryan Phillipe, who gains Hanssen’s trust over time. Hanssen puts O’Neill through a number of different tests to determine his mental resolve and as well as testing his faith. By risking his marriage as well as his personal safety, O’Neill puts everything on the line in getting to Hansenn to trust him enough to make one final dead drop so that the FBI can catch him in the act of sharing secrets.

This was an enjoyable movie for two reasons; firstly Cooper and Phillipe work well together. This movie further cements my opinion that Ryan Phillipe really doesn’t work enough. He is one of Hollywood’s young pretty boys who goes largely unappreciated for ability. It would have been easy to have Cooper shrivel up around Phillipe in order for his character to come across as a believable pupil worth of getting the upper hand in the mental chess match they play. Instead Phillipe was able to take the lead in the scenes when he was required to dominate back down in instance when it is clear Cooper needs to be in charge.

In addition to the back and forth between the two main characters on such issues as religion, marriage, self preservation, and duty to country, the strength of this movies also resides in director Bill Ray’s ability to keep a virtually “action-less” script moving on screen. It is difficult to make scene of dialogue interesting and upbeat, but with the talent on screen and the material Ray does an excellent job of keeping the movie going.

GRADE - A-