September 1st, 1966
Arthur is looking outta sight. Collar? Popped. Pants? Tight. Sideburns? Loooong. His summer has been spent jamming to the latest hits on his record player. His dad had one word of advice for him as he navigates this crazy thing called life: “why don’t you get outside for some fresh air?” And with that he swept his arm in the general direction of Central Park and called it ‘nature’s movie.’ Despite this being wrong (nature’s movie is Born Free) he ventures forth and soon finds himself groovin’ around the park. Just when he catches the eye of a lady and pops her a patented Arthur Finger Gun, he feels a hand grab his shoulder. “Did you just pop my gal a Finger Gun, buddy?” A fellow of the football variety asks him. Arthur assures this fine fellow that in fact he was popping the finger gun to the old peanut vendor that happened to be behind his gal. He also assures him that he’s got a nice gal himself up in the Niagara Falls area that wouldn’t take kindly to such behavior on his part. But this doesn’t fool the football fellow and Arthur soon finds himself upside down in a trash can. “I can’t abide this!” he says, slamming his fist into the side of the trash can. But what can he do? He looks over at a flier for kickboxing lessons. He nods his head slowly but eventually discards the idea. He is already a martial arts master. “I need to showz these bozoz.” He says, which is not only a very cool thing to say, but also happens to be a cosmic key that inadvertently connects him to his ancient ancestors. His eyes glaze over and he enters a patented Artorius Memory. That’s right! Arthur may not be taking Kickboxing lessons, but we are. We are watching the JCVD classic Kickboxer where JCVD kickboxes a bunch (I’m just guessing). We are also pairing this with Kickbozer 2 and 3 which look pretty great (even though they replace JCVD with Step by Step’s Sasha Mitchell). Let’s go!
Kickboxer (1989) – BMeTric: 20.8; Notability: 14
StreetCreditReport.com – Notability: top 23.2%; Rotten Tomatoes: top 24.9%; Higher Notability: Tango & Cash, Troop Beverly Hills, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child, Harlem Nights, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Fletch Lives, Leviathan, Lock Up, Pink Cadillac, Listen to Me, Family Business, Millennium, Three Fugitives, Dead Bang, Let It Ride, Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, Renegades, Slaves of New York, The Karate Kid Part III, and 38 more; Lower RT: The Toxic Avenger Part II, Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects, Speed Zone, Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, House III: The Horror Show, Elves, Worth Winning, Night Game, Second Sight, Wired, Dream a Little Dream, Wild Orchid, No Holds Barred, She’s Out of Control, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, Millennium, Chattahoochee, The Lemon Sisters, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland, and 38 more; Notes: The Top 10 90s Listing Plays for qualified films: The Karate Kid Part III (161); Who’s Harry Crumb? (136); Physical Evidence (94); Family Business (91); Road House (89); Pink Cadillac (82); Speed Zone (78); Harlem Nights (75); Gross Anatomy (75); Dream a Little Dream (75). Only seen one of those. This ain’t on there either, Kickboxer played around 46 times, so a decent amount. Man, Karate Kid III played like a thousand times in 1990.
Leonard Maltin – 1.5 stars – Van Damme seeks revenge against Thai fighter who crippled his brother. Strictly by the numbers. Followed by several unrelated sequels.
(UNRELATED! Slander. The main character is supposed to be the younger brother of the two characters from Kickboxer. Relatedly I’m a bit surprised at least the second didn’t get a review in the Maltin book, but I guess there is a bridge that is even too far for Leonard.)
Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1vPYM1d3wo/
(Cannon. Nuf said. But for real, that looks bomb. Ridiculous that people are like “dumb movie”.)
Directors – Mark DiSalle – ( Future BMT: The Perfect Weapon; BMT: Kickboxer; Notes: Color me a bit skeptical here. He is a producer and only has credits for Kickboxer basically. I imagine he directed the film, but brought in Worth to “advise” or something?)
David Worth – (Notes: Oddly he isn’t in TMDB or something? He has directed a ton of stuff, including a few Cynthia Rothrock films we’ll probably watch.)
Writers – Mark DiSalle – ( Known For: Kickboxer: Vengeance; BMT: Kickboxer; Notes: Yeah there is very little about this guy, and I can’t be bothered to look it up. He doesn’t have a wiki … I think he just really really liked kickboxing?)
Jean-Claude Van Damme – ( Known For: Kickboxer: Vengeance; The Eagle Path; The Order; Future BMT: Lionheart; BMT: Kickboxer; Double Impact; The Quest; Notes: This and Bloodsport are the guys. He apparently heavily edited Black Eagle, and then in Bloodsport and this he claims in some places that he did all of the directing and choreography for the kickboxing. And in both of those he brought along Michel Qissi who was his good friend from Belgium.)
Glenn A. Bruce – ( Known For: Cyborg Cop; BMT: Kickboxer; Notes: Apparently was originally tapped to develop Bloodsport as well, but lost the project. Afterwards he was brought on to develop Kickboxer.)
Actors – Jean-Claude Van Damme – ( Known For: The Expendables 2; Minions: The Rise of Gru; Kung Fu Panda 2; Bloodsport; Kung Fu Panda 3; Street Fighter; Hard Target; Timecop; No Retreat, No Surrender; In Hell; Sudden Death; Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning; Kickboxer: Retaliation; The Last Mercenary; Inferno; JCVD; Black Water; Legionnaire; Kickboxer: Vengeance; Welcome to the Jungle; Future BMT: Last Action Hero; Lionheart; Breakin’; Death Warrant; Maximum Risk; Nowhere to Run; Missing in Action; BMT: Universal Soldier; Cyborg; Kickboxer; Double Impact; The Quest; Double Team; Universal Soldier: The Return; Knock Off; Notes: Y’all know Van Damme. This film is chockablock with his friends from Belgium and the wider kickboxing community. Dare I say this is probably the best example he has of creating the movie he was born to create. Bloodsport is the only one that could maybe stand beside it.)
Dennis Alexio – ( Known For: Picasso Trigger; BMT: Kickboxer; Notes: Picasso Trigger?! You kidding me? His IMDb bio is quality: “Dennis “The Terminator” Alexio is considered to be one of, if not the, greatest heavyweight kickboxing champion in the sport’s history. His record is an outstanding 70-2, with 65 wins by way of knockout.” Ignore the later stuff about outstanding child support and bank fraud. Actually seems to be most famous for getting his shin shattered during a widely televised match.)
Dennis Chan – ( Known For: The Man with the Iron Fists; Naked Weapon; Yes, Madam!; Kickboxer 2: The Road Back; God of Gamblers; Twin Dragons; Heart of Dragon; Kickboxer 3: The Art of War; Fight Back to School; Future Cops; A Simple Life; Naked Killer 2; A True Mob Story; Seventh Moon; Naughty Boys; I Love Maria; Mermaid Got Married; The Lunatics; Pom Pom; Hong Kong Corruptor; BMT: Kickboxer; Knock Off; Notes: Oh snap he was in Knock Off too?! He was in the original trilogy, but doesn’t seem to have made the jump to the fourth one. Was born in Hong Kong and he and his brother seemed to have been big deals there.)
Budget/Gross – $2.7 million / Domestic: $14,697,005 (Worldwide: $14,697,005)
(Yeah that’s solid. But Van Damme is going to Van Damme and can’t be locked into a Kickboxer franchise. So he moves onwards and upwards to fame.)
Rotten Tomatoes – 36% (4/11)
(Ah I get to do a consensus: Derivative of the bigger films of the genre, the only thing that could save it is excellent acting … this ain’t it.)
NYT Short Review: Martial arts yarn set in Thailand. American kickboxer and Asian master.
Poster – Sklogboxer
(Wait, how did I transport back in time and hang this poster up in my childhood bedroom? I like the color scheme. Font isn’t great, but I like how it’s like old school cartoon art. I think it looks pretty cool. A-.)
Tagline(s) – An Ancient Sport Becomes A Deadly Game. (B)
(That’s not a bad cadence. Not sure about the juxtaposition of Ancient and Deadly, but it’s trying something, so I can forgive some of the clunkiness and length.)
Keyword(s) – daddio
Top 10: The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Godfather (1972), Scarface (1983), 12 Angry Men (1957), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Dead Poets Society (1989), Citizen Kane (1941), The Game (1997), Dumb and Dumber (1994)
Future BMT: 79.0 Daddy Day Camp (2007), 59.0 Jury Duty (1995), 57.4 The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990), 57.1 Ghost Dad (1990), 50.9 Getting Even with Dad (1994), 50.5 Sleepwalkers (1992), 49.3 My Girl 2 (1994), 46.4 Daddy Day Care (2003), 44.6 Man of the House (1995), 41.7 Speed Zone (1989), 41.7 My Baby’s Daddy (2004), 41.4 Club Paradise (1986), 39.0 Fled (1996), 38.3 My Father the Hero (1994), 38.0 Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), 37.0 Desperate Hours (1990), 36.0 Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984), 35.8 I Got the Hook Up (1998), 34.4 Spring Break (1983), 34.2 Father Hood (1993)
BMT: Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), Troll 2 (1990), Super Mario Bros. (1993), Cool as Ice (1991), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993), Poltergeist III (1988), Shanghai Surprise (1986), Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), The Lawnmower Man (1992), Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988), Fire Birds (1990), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), Virtuosity (1995), Double Impact (1991), Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985), Navy Seals (1990), Iron Eagle (1986), Rambo III (1988), High School High (1996), Ernest Goes to Jail (1990), Clifford (1994), Man Trouble (1992), Leviathan (1989), Universal Soldier (1992), Days of Thunder (1990), No Mercy (1986), The Postman (1997), Fools Rush In (1997), Eraser (1996), Hackers (1995), Rising Sun (1993), Kickboxer (1989), Magic in the Water (1995), Lock Up (1989), The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)
Best Options (IMDb keyword kickboxing): 20.8 Kickboxer (1989)
(Oh good there was a kickboxing one to do. Joking, I matched up Kickboxer to a funny keyword to see if any other kickboxing films that qualified would work for the cycle. Evidently not. Here we are just doing the most obvious and hilarious qualified-friends trilogy we could find.)
Welcome to Earf (HoE Number 14) – The shortest path through The Movie Database cast lists using only BMT films is: Jean-Claude Van Damme is No. 1 billed in Kickboxer and No. 1 billed in Universal Soldier, which also stars Dolph Lundgren (No. 2 billed) who is in Expend4bles (No. 4 billed) which also stars Jason Statham (No. 1 billed) who is in In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (No. 1 billed) which also stars Leelee Sobieski (No. 3 billed) who is in Here on Earth (No. 1 billed) => (1 + 1) + (2 + 4) + (1 + 1) + (3 + 1) = 14. If we were to watch Norm of the North we can get the HoE Number down to 12.
Notes – Dennis Alexio, who plays Eric Sloane, was a World Light Heavyweight and World Cruiserweight kick boxing champion in real life.
The scene in which Kurt has meat tied to his leg and is chased by Xian Chow’s dog was inspired by a real-life event in which a young Jean-Claude Van Damme was ordered by his karate teacher to wear a protective suit and withstand the attempts of a trained dog to pull him to the ground.
The title held by Dennis Alexio’s character in the movie – the International Sport Karate Association (ISKA) Heavyweight Championship – is a real championship and has been held by Alexio during his fighting career. The belt in the movie, however, is not modeled after the actual belt.
Michel Qissi was a technical advisor/choreographer when he overheard the production crew say they were looking for a tall oriental-looking guy with a background in Muay Thai. He volunteered, and got the part of Tong Po. Because he is originally from Morocco, make-up was used to make him look more Asian.
Tong Po is mistakenly billed as playing himself (during the film’s credits). In fact, Michel Qissi played the villainous Thai for this film and its sequel Kickboxer 2: The Road Back (1991). Kamel Krifa played the character in the 4th. Qissi can also be seen in three other Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, Bloodsport (1988), Lionheart (1990) and Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016). In Bloodsport, Qissi is the fighter that gets his leg broken by Chong Li. In Lionheart (AWOL) Qissi plays Moustafe who alongside another legionnaire is trying to bring Lyon from America back to Africa. In Kickboxer: Vengeance, a remake of this movie, Qissi has a brief in-joke cameo as a prisoner who remarks “You forgot about me?” as van Damme walks past his cell.
Bad Movie Twins 