hyped garbage

Great Film overall

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Let's call this, Wrong Bet, it sounds better. I've just watched this film again, after twenty years, and it ain't half a bad film, with some good performances, that of Lisa Pelikan, and Harrison Page. Wrong Bet's start, does seem familiar to a couple of other Van Damne flick early scenarios, as he again escapes the ugly foreign legion, and retreats to Los Angeles, amid some pit stops, as hearing his brother (involved in drug activities) is badly burnt. To help the widow and little Shirley Temple looking daughter, largely behind in rent, he partakes in underground fights, to earn some moolah. W.B has a pretty grounded story and straight forward plot and situations, where it veers more towards a drama, than the usual heavy action pics from our hunky lead. There is a quite a bit of action, but of course, it's mostly on the fighting ground, where the final fight, long and grueling, really has your attention, one of the best of it's time, where the opponent is a real beefcake of a fighter, those ones you really can't take as a human in these wrestler/kickboxer pics. This isn't a badly made film, where I was appreciative of those two performances, (Pelikan as the down on her luck widow) and Page as the limping ex fighter who partners up with Van Damne (dejavu of some other films of his, right?). But of course, the other standout is that of The Lady, the devious hot female fatale, running the underground fights, with her assistant (Cobra's Thompson- more human here). She takes VD under her wing, literally. This might not be the best one, for JCVD fans, who want to crave real action, amid explosions, and gunfire. But this movie does have heart, and quite a beautiful ending, but again, falls to average. Frequent graphic violence warning is an absolute joke.

AWOL also known as Lionheart shows us Van Damme just on the cusp of hitting stardom. By this time he had a loyal following for what were low budget martial arts films that got a loyal following on VHS and did well in the fledgling satellite movie channels market.Lyon Gaultier (Van Damme) escapes his post in Djibouti with the French Foreign Legion when his brother is set on fire by drug dealers in LA. His brother's wife rebuffs him and and two agents are pursuing him to drag him back to the Foreign Legion.Once in the USA he stumbles into the underground fight scene which he quickly becomes successful at and soon enlists a street hustler as a manager, Joshua (Harrison Page) who gives him the nickname Lionheart.His success attracts the attention of a fight promoter Cynthia (Deborah Rennard) who gets Lyon for several no holds barred street fights. However it seems the real action is on the side bets and although he is her champion she is not averse to betting against him.Lyon in the meantime is trying to get money together for his sister in law and his niece for which Joshua is used to inform them that its proceeds from an insurance policy.The film has several good action sequences allowing Van Damme to display some of his signature moves. You have fight scenes set in an underground car park and more memorably in a half empty swimming pool. The combat scenes are well choreographed with even some humour thrown in in the final segment.The storyline is rather so-so and the script is just about passable. If in doubt the writers put some cursing in. Van Damme's acting would get better in time but here its still weak. You can see how even a few years later Dolph Lundgren would out-act him in Universal Soldier.Still there is enough fight scenes allowing Van Damme to excel at what he does best. Rennard best known for years as JR Ewing's loyal secretary Sly in Dallas provides sassiness as the scheming fight promoter.

I've never been a fan of van Damme (I'm die-hard Bruce Lee). This is one of his 'more human/humane' films. He goes to help family in distress. That's fine. He has compassion and empathy, and is probably a nice guy.However even 20 years ago I didn't like his fight choreography, and I like it less now. You can see the fighters telegraphing their moves. vD is so SLOW... He's like baby elephant. By the time he's completed one round house manoeuvre his opponent t could have ended the fight. His movement sequences are illogical. His opponents made to look stupid.But the final fight scene takes the cake. vD is supposed to have a BROKEN rib; not merely cracked but broken. He is being beaten up by this Attila idiot. Spends half the fight having his broken rib bashed repeatedly. Then he ends up making moves that would tax a fully fit and healthy martial artist. Leg movements intense and rapid. He should have been bleeding out and in agony, not winning the fight. Even for vD fantasy fight choreography this was Alice in Wonderland stuff.This film gets 5 for the human story. The rest even by vD ropey standards was pure bunkum...

In this one the Muscles from Brussels stars as Leon, a foreign legion deserter who gets mixed up with no holds barred underground fighting at first to make a phone call then to give his sister-in-law some much needed money after her husband, his brother is murdered.If one thinks too hard about the pol of the film, it seems utterly ridiculous. But for an action flick it fits the bill quite nicely. Van Damme kicks a lot of butt and doesn't care. The film lulls a bit after he gets to LA, but picks back up before long. All in all a decent watch, but rather dumb, an enjoyable kind of dumb though.My grade: C+