Apart from Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. No one got me more into martial arts and martial arts movies than Jean-Claude Van Damme. Back into the ’80s when Van Damme burst onto the scene with Bloodsport, it was a time when muscular action heroes dominated the big screen. Arnold Swazennegger was in full swing with the like of Predator, Commando, The Running Man etc. You had Sylvester Stallone with Rambo and Rocky. Chuck Norris was kicking arse with Delta Force, Missing in Action, Lone Wolf McQuade. You also had Dolph Lundgren with He-Man, Red Scorpion and Dark Angel. Showdown in Little Tokyo etc. That’s just the ones that made it big. There’s also the likes of Richard Norton and David Bradley.
Then, of course, we have Jean-Claude Van Damme. He had the perfect look, had the moves, could kind of act. Wasn’t any worse than the others. He was very marketable and made hit after hit. So now let’s take a look at the top ten Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. These will only be movies where he is the main star so The Expendables doesn’t count.
10. In Hell/Maximum Risk
I couldn’t decide which is best out of these two and wanted to include them both. Probably the least known on the list but I really enjoyed them both.
In Hell– Upon discovering his wife has been murdered over the phone, Kyle LeBlanc rushes to the scene and is too late. The guy that did it gets away with it so Kyle takes the law into his own hands and kills him earning him a ticket to hell itself. A tough, dirty depressing prison where the warden makes money by putting on fights between inmates. Life behind bars starts to make Kyle crazy, the warden liking what he sees, so forces him to fight. After a while, he starts to enjoy it. Surprisingly there’s actually not a lot of martial arts. The fights are more feral and brutal slugfests. Two guys rolling about in the mud type of thing. Great stuff.
Maximum Risk starts with a shootout and Mikhail Suverov (Van Damme) is being pursued throughout the city and is seemingly killed. Enter cop Alain Moreau investigating the scene played by you guessed it, Jean-Claude Van Damme. It seems Moreau had a twin brother he didn’t know about who was desperately trying to reunite them, getting very close only to fail and get killed at the final hurdle. As you can guess Morea is shocked to the core and obviously wants to know everything. He finds out His brother was basically part of the Russian underworld but wanted out and to meet his brother finally. There’s quite an emotional moment when Moreau upon acquiring a security box left for him by his brother finds a videotape. On the tape is Suverov saying how much he wants out and just wants to meet his brother but then apologising saying if he’s watching this, he must be dead. There’s not a lot of fights but there are some great ones with a giant Russian enforcer pursuing Morea simply known as Red Face. An exciting action thriller whether you’re a Van Damme fan or not.
9. Hard Target
One of Van Damme’s most popular movies and directed by legendary action director John Woo. A woman in search of her father hires a drifter Chance Boudreaux (Van Damme) to help her find him. What they discover is a group of people that offer homeless people with no family or ties a chance to earn a lot of money. What they don’t tell them is they will be hunted by a bunch of rich people who have paid Emil Fouchon (Lance Henriksen) and his hunters including Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy) to pretty much take them on a human hunting safari as they regard people as the ultimate prey.
Upon discovering this and causing problems for them they make Boudreaux their next target. Lance Henriksen plays a great villain. Tons of action, fighting and of course slow-motion diving while shooting. There is also a sequel starring Scott Adkins which is worth a watch.
8. JCVD
During his later years, past his box office heyday. Van Damme was making straight to DVD jobs. Kind of the way Steven Seagal has gone. But then comes along one of his most critically acclaimed movies JVCD.
Without spoiling too much because it’s best you watch it without knowing too much, Van Damme pretty much plays himself as a struggling actor. Not really any martial arts to speak off but just a powerful message expressing a kind of depressing depiction of being trapped inside this celebrity status destined to make the same type of movie for the rest of his career. Heart-breaking in parts, definitely his most emotional movie.
7. Sudden Death
If a Die-Hard sequel did away with Bruce Willis and cast Jean-Claude Van Damme, it would be Sudden Death. Darren McCord a former fireman is innocently taking his kids to an Ice Hockey game but luck would have it a bunch of terrorists led by Joshua Foss (Powers Booth) decide to take the vice president and some others hostage and threaten to blow up the stadium unless their demands are met.
The whole place is rigged with bombs. Powers Booth plays a great lead terrorist and it’s almost a shame to see him ultimately lose. It’s an adrenaline-fuelled race against time as Darren tries to disarm the bombs before time runs out all the way being hindered by Foss’s men which of course he has to take out.
As mentioned earlier it’s a complete Die Hard rip off but there’s nothing wrong with that. Die Hard with martial arts, what’s not to love? It’s definitely one of the best Van Damme movies.
6. Double Impact
Van Damme seems to have a thing about having two of him in movies. Replicant, Maximum Risk. This was the first. Separated at birth when their parents are killed. Chad is raised by a nice family in Paris. Alex becomes a petty crook in Hong Kong. They eventually join forces to avenge their parent’s death. Bolo Yeung stars alongside again as Moon, a bad arse henchman.
As a kid, I couldn’t wait to see this one. Two Jean-Claude Van Damme in one movie, double the fights, double the kicking arse. I remember back then being just a dumb kid saying to myself I never knew Van Damme had a brother. They look identical. The power of camera tricks and this being the early 90s they actually pull it off kind of well.
5. A.W.O.L (Lion Heart)
Known else ware as Lionheart. A.W.O.L (Absent without leave) here in the UK. One of his most iconic movies. Lyon is in the French foreign legion. Upon hearing his brother has got mixed up with the wrong people and it’s badly injured, close to death, he decided to go see him. Being the foreign legion, you can’t just up and leave so Lyon goes A.W.O.L. Upon arriving in the state he’s too late and his brother is dead leaving a wife and kid behind who Lyon feels responsible for.
They are struggling for cash, on the verge of eviction and the only way Lyon knows to make lots of money quickly is through underground fights which is good because Lyon is a dab hand at close quarters combat. Working his way up, fighting bigger and badder opposition until he gets to face the unbeatable Attila. Lots of fights, lots of emotion. Cliché Van Damme gets beat to a pulp before coming back. Truly awesome stuff.
4. Kickboxer
As a kid, me and my friends were obsessed with this movie. We had never seen anything like it at the time. I think I probably saw it before Enter the Dragon. Everything about it to me as a kid was like a drug. He looked how I wanted to look, could kick arse how I wanted to kick arse. Kurt Sloane is the brother of Kickboxing champ Eric Sloan played by real-life legendary kickboxer Dennis Alexo.
They travel to Thailand because they heard they are the best at it to take on their best. Enter Tong Po played by Van Damme’s long-time friend Michel Qissi. Eric gets completely outmatched and beaten to a pulp. On top of that out of pure spite, Tong Po purposely breaks his back Paralyzing him for life. Kurt obviously wants revenge so seeks an old legendary master to teach him, Muay Thai.
Queue kick-arse training montages and an even kick arsier dance routine by Van Damme. What I loved about the training montages was the mystical music playing as Kurt training on ancient ruins and getting images of past warriors in battle all with a glorious eagle watching him. At the time it was my favourite Van Damme movie. On top of that Stan Bush returns for some movie great cheesy music that fits perfectly with the movie.
3. Time Cop
Van Damme’s biggest and most successful hit and why not, if you can look past his dodgy haircut you will find a kick-arse sci-fi movie. Walker (Van Damme) is an agent that works for a law enforcement agency regulating time. He basically stops people that commit crimes through time. For example, if you tried to go back and give yourself the winning lottery number, Walker would be there to stop you. But think more seriously than that like murder. On top of this, ten years prior, Walkers wife was killed when some men attacked him.
After stopping an old co-worker from going back in time to make money, the co-worker admits he was put up to it by a senator named McComb. Senator McComb needs money for his upcoming presidential campaign. He also admits McComb has been manipulating time and if he doesn’t do his bidding then McComb will erase him from time by simply killing one of his ancestors. This Prompts Walker and a new rookie to investigate McComb in the past. They bump into the present McComb who has also gone back to the past putting them on his radar. Shockingly, Walker sees himself from the past as well. Meaning once again with having another film with two Van Damme’s although not brothers or clones this time.
This was Van Damme’s 2nd only film to gross the 100 million mark with Universal Soldier and rightly so, a sci-fi cult classic in my opinion.
2. Universal Soldier
I remember when universal Soldier was first announced and I first saw the trailer. Two of the biggest action stars at the time, Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme in one movie. One the good guy the other the bad guy. There was so much hype surrounding this movie when it was being made as well as the publicity stunt of Van Damme and Lundgren getting into an altercation. Science fiction at its finest. Van Damme plays Luc Deveraux, a soldier in Vietnam whose commanding officer Andrew Scott (Lundgren) has completely lost it and is killing innocents. Even making a necklace from severed ears. Devaurax tries to stop him and they both kill each other only to be brought back to life later on as emotionless obedient cyborgs in a secret project. They have no memory of their previous life and follow orders without question.
But certain events start bringing memories back. It’s not long before Devaurax goes on the run and Scott is back to his sadistic ways. Lundgren pretty much steals every scene which his cocky evil attitude. It always seems to take playing a bad guy to see an actor truly shine. From his endless comical quotes to just his screen presence. Definitely one of Lundgren’s best performances. Beating Devaurax to a pulp and then Devaurax makes a comeback gaining the upper hand before Scott shouts “That’s the spirit soldier” and beats him to a pulp some more.
There are a whole bunch of sequels including two tv movies with someone else playing Luc Devaurax which can be ignored. The only ones worth watching are Universal Soldier: Regeneration which is a direct sequel to the first movie and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning where Scott Adkins takes the lead role. Devaurax is now the bad guy. Universal Soldier: The Return can be skipped as it doesn’t really fit in with the timeline.
1. Bloodsport
What else could possibly be number one other than the martial arts action showpiece of Bloodsport? The movie that made Van Damme a star and properly introduced him to the world. Move over Bruce Lee because a new martial arts action star who shouts his head off a lot has arrived. At the time I’d never really seen anything like it. A tournament with different fighters from all over the world, different backgrounds and fighting styles. We have Kung Fu, Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Taekwondo, Ninjutsu and whatever the hell Jackson style was. Being big and brute force I guess. Based on the so-called probably fabricated true-life event of Frank Dux. A Ninjutsu expert who served in the army was a CIA assassin, rescued kids from pirates and somehow found the time to train his who live to fight in the ultra-secret Kumite tournament, by special invite-only of course.
We also have one of the most bad-arse antagonists of all time in Chong Li played perfectly by Bolo Yeung.
From the training montages to the fight scenes to the kick-arse Paul Hertzog soundtrack 80’s cheese at his finest. The Hertzog Fight to Survive song is on par with any Rocky training montage song in my opinion. Play it during your next training or gym session and you will see what I mean. It makes you want to go out, train in martial arts and fight in a tournament.
This movie had such an effect on me as a kid almost as much as Bruce Lee into taking up martial arts. But not just any martial art. I wanted to learn Ninjutsu of course. Being in the UK and not America that wasn’t really possible but hey, it all turned out for the best. I could still pick this up any day and watch it from start to finish, never getting bored. If it comes on tv and I spot it, no matter what else is on, that’s being put on, standard.
Of course, there’s a bunch of sequels that gradually got worse as they went on with Daniel Bernhardt taking lead. They were going to make a proper sequel to Bloodsport but Van Damme and the real Frank Dux had a falling out with lawsuits being filed. The movie eventually turned into The Quest which is definitely worth a watch. On a side note, I’d like to take the opportunity to say if you’ve never seen Bloodsport for whatever reason then close this page down right now and go watch it. It’s one of the greatest martial arts movies ever made and the best Van Damme movie.
Some honourable mentions:
Death Warrant (Only narrowly missed out, a great watch)
Wake of Death
Cyborg
The Quest
Universal Soldier: Regeneration
