Lionheart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_cheese

Like so many JCVD actioners, the story revolves around a series of organised multi-national streetfights. At least we get one in a squash court and one in a swimming pool, for atmosphere. Another surprise is the quantity of developed supporting characters with speaking parts. Ok, it's never going to threaten the Oscars, but there's a level of complexity not always present in its facsimiles, Kickboxer, Bloodsport, and Quest. The actual fight scenes, though, are possibly a little unimaginative.

I think people base their ratings of this movie more on its shitty melodrama than what the main appeal of the movie should be - It's totally awesome and brutal fight scenes and its hilarious chessyness. I mean really, what more should you expect from a Van Damme movie?

Something of a hidden gem for JCVD; Lionheart has some pretty good fights, a Van Damme character you might actually care about and some perfectly classic/corny lines!

Jean Claude is back and his flying split kick is as devastating as ever. Another tournament movie, this one has it all (including the Jean Claude butt shot, the slow motion power punches, and the excuse for why he has an accent). YOU MUST SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT!!!

Hahaha!!! SO bad it's amusing. It used to play on TV a lot during the day, so I saw it several times when home sick in high school.

Classic 90s action film.

PSI predicted a 14, but I had a good time--probably would've been closer to 70 if it wasn't for the rough start and the silly ending. The Lionheart universe is basically the Yakuza overworld, what with nonsense skirmishes breaking out when you approach a pay phone, swimming pool brawls, improbably huge and lucrative underground fight rings, and people being pretty lax about you showing up half dead. The music, characters, fights, and presentation made it way more fun to watch than Bloodsport.

More subpar Van Damme a couple decent fights though.

Lyon Gaultier (Van Damme) is a member of the French Foreign Legion serving in Africa. He went to the desert. He use Eldridge (Page), to begins making money through higher-class fights created by Cynthia (Rennard) and Russell (Yahoots Magoondi). All Lyon wants to do is give the money to his destitute sister-in-law (Pelikan) and her 5 year daughter Nicole (Johnson). But, as always, there's "one last fight" and this one's a killer: Attila (Abdel Qissi) is a brute favored to beat Lyon.

Street Fighter: The Movie. Oh, wait...

It's great for its fight scenes and its corniness. It's just funny when he walks up and sees the city skyline and goes: "Ah! America!".

ok

The plot, acting and such are very mediocre. But at least it's not irksome, actually the characters are likable. Above all it has adequate pacing with enough fun fight scenes breaking up the cliched plot. Def among JCVDs best

The movie manages to match the bad street fighting scenes with equally bad emotional scenes. And still movie is somehow not entirely terrible. It probably would have helped if Sheldon Lettich would be a better director.

An apparently asexual Jean-Claude Van Damme mopes around New York and then Los Angeles banging no chicks, preferring to grapple with sweaty mustachioed dudes. Some kind of fun bits, but it's hard to invest that much in a fight movie when the main dude just wins fight after fight after fight after fight. No teal tension or stakes.

Actually decent for a Van Damma flick.

Has a lot of unintentional (or intentional?) homo-erotic lines. Pretty terrible even for 1990 action standards. Also, the movie's name is Lionheart and the main character's name is "Lyon" that's the level of cheese you are dealing with here.

WRONG BET!

Jean makes some dire films,Matter of fact I dont think I've seen a good film with him in it.

After Bloodsport and Kickboxer, Van Damme is asked to handle some more dramatic material here, with mixed to positive results. The film has its moments, especially featuring some of the side characters, but also suffers from inconsistent characterization and poor fight choreography.

LIONHEART has all the testosterone-laden action and unexpected sensitivity of peak-era Van Damme, plus Harrison Page making a herculean effort to imbue his cliched jive-talking cornerman with far, far more humanity than one expects from such a film.

bad movie

VHS owner

About average for Van Damme.

ok so if you dont like jcvd films you sure as hell won't be giving this a 76 like me but let's review this in comparison to other jcvd films for those of us who enjoy them: the story is not as cheesy and the motivation for jcvd's character is much more more alive in comparison to his other movies. the fights are not all in the same arena. we see swimming pools, squash courts, etc that adds a thrilling flair to this film. its jcvds prime so the fights are all top notch. a standout jcvd flick.

I don't care what you say, this is the best Van Damme action film. Fighting through an underground circuit to avenge his dead brother? Yesssss.

Straight-to-video look, some iffy acting, a plot that ends up going nowhere and an increasingly corny finale. Yet despite all this, AWOL is (sadly) probably one of Van Damme's better efforts, mixing a cheesy screenplay with some hard-hitting fight scenes to produce a worthwhile watch for '80s/'90s b-movie aficionados. A large dollop of childhood nostalgia helps too. Certainly not one for the chin-strokers, but a bit of fun for the rest of us.

Host ratings: 55 / 60 / 64. (JCVD Marathon) Podcast review link: https://rydeorwrong.podcaster.de/rydeorwrong/folge-073-jean-claude-van-damme-the-last-of-us-part-ii-part-iv/

In Australia it's called Wrong Bet, much more apt. My brother and I used to quote the brilliantly frank "KICK THE SHIT OUT OF HIM!" line at inappropriate times when we were younger. Ah, good times...

One of VD's better movies. Unfortunately, that's not saying much. As a martial artist, I enjoyed it; as a fan of plot, character and style... nah, I didn't bring that.