Regarding Van Damme's new projects....

[MMCK2]

I see Jean Claude Van Damme as quite a few movies lined up, the most interesting one in my opinion is "Hell". Below is a Poster and frame shot of the film.

The plot sees Van Damme imprisoned on an island where the hardened criminals battle to the death for the wardens pleasure and are surrounded by croc-infested waters. It has cult film stamped all over it and hopefully will return him to the type of martial arts films he used to be good in.

I also see he has "Streetfighter 2", "The Tower "and "After Dead" lined up in the future. I am not sure about a sequel to "Streetfighter" though thats about as wise as a sequel to "The Postman" or "Battlefield Earth".

Below is a poster for After Dead which is described as having a premise similar to "The Six Sense".

I also see he seems to have abandoned a project called "The Monk". Does anyone know what happened this as he talked about it for a few years and was reported to be on a vegetable only diet for the role as it required him to be leaner and faster.

I happen to like Van Damme and think he gets slated to easily by people. He has made some very entertaining films in the past and is a decent enough screen martial artist. Though there definatly has been a drop in quality in his films from the mid-nineties onwards, the only decent ones I can think of have been "The Quest", "Double Team" and "Knock Off". Has anyone seen "The Replicant"? I here he actually got some critical acclaim for that one!

Peace.

 

[GlimmerMan]

MMCK - like you, I actually think Van Damme is a decent action movie star, his fight scenes are always excellently choreographed and he is in great shape for his age. While there is plenty of doubt among cynics about his martial arts abilities, there can be no doubting the fact that he consistently delivers the goods where his fans are concerned. 'Hell' sounds like it will be an awesome film and I see that Ringo Lam is directing, which certainly makes me take notice. While Streetfighter 2 is not a particularly good idea given that his first movie was hardly critically acclaimed, the other movies might be decent. As for The Monk, I heard that he had completed the movie - it looked pretty cool and if he has abandoned it then I will be disappointed. I own every one of his movies, and while it would take something pretty special to better the likes of AWOL or Double Impact in terms of action and fight sequences. I agree that from the mid 90's the quality of his movies deteriorated somewhat - I think that Timecop was possibly the last really awesome movie he made. Sudden Death was OK, but a bit of a Die Hard rip-off. The Quest was just plain awful. I liked Maximum Risk and Double Team and I thought Knock Off was excellent and was a step in the right direction for Van Damme (sort of like a Jackie Chan style movie in which he didn't take himself too seriously). Unfortunately, after that, Legionnaire (sh*t), Desert Heat (total fu*king sh*t) and Universal Soldier - The Return (bollocks) marked a serious decline in quality. Replicant, however was a return to form and hopefully the trend will continue with Hell.

 

[Waki Ya Cante]

Good God, that has the last bloodsport movie written all over it :yawn:

 

[Amos Stevens]

Thanks MMCK2

 

[suziwong]

Thank you very much MMCK2

in oneness

 

[MMCK2]

Originally posted by GlimmerMan
MMCK - like you, I actually think Van Damme is a decent action movie star, his fight scenes are always excellently choreographed and he is in great shape for his age. While there is plenty of doubt among cynics about his martial arts abilities, there can be no doubting the fact that he consistently delivers the goods where his fans are concerned. 'Hell' sounds like it will be an awesome film and I see that Ringo Lam is directing, which certainly makes me take notice. While Streetfighter 2 is not a particularly good idea given that his first movie was hardly critically acclaimed, the other movies might be decent. As for The Monk, I heard that he had completed the movie - it looked pretty cool and if he has abandoned it then I will be disappointed. I own every one of his movies, and while it would take something pretty special to better the likes of AWOL or Double Impact in terms of action and fight sequences. I agree that from the mid 90's the quality of his movies deteriorated somewhat - I think that Timecop was possibly the last really awesome movie he made. Sudden Death was OK, but a bit of a Die Hard rip-off. The Quest was just plain awful. I liked Maximum Risk and Double Team and I thought Knock Off was excellent and was a step in the right direction for Van Damme (sort of like a Jackie Chan style movie in which he didn't take himself too seriously). Unfortunately, after that, Legionnaire (sh*t), Desert Heat (total fu*king sh*t) and Universal Soldier - The Return (bollocks) marked a serious decline in quality. Replicant, however was a return to form and hopefully the trend will continue with Hell.

GlimmerMan

Did you see the documentary on Channel 5 tonight about Van Damme. The guy when he's being interviewed comes across as really eccentric with his incoherent ramblings on his quest to suceed in Hollywood and his outlook on life yet still remains endearing in a goofy sort of way. The reason for the documentary was that it preludes a season of his films and was quite entertaining in the sense that it was presented in a tongue-in-cheek style. Our hero also got a mention. A critic who likes JCVD's films asserted that he 'does not come across as a steroid guzzling freak like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Steven Seagal'.... or words to that effect.

We seem to have similar views on Van Damme and like you I have quite a few of his films on video (even "Streetfighter"!) I think the best of his low budget late 80's/early 90's films was "A.W.O.L" (a.k.a "Lionheart") where he put in a decent performance. Of his bigger budget films, I would say, "Universal Soldier", "Hard Target" and "Timecop" were his best and also where I think he hit his peak. The latter day ones have mostly been dissapointing and one in particular I don't like is "Maximum Risk" which I had to switch off half way through, the first time I rented it on video. I actually quite liked "The Quest", mainly because it reminded me of his earlier films like "Bloodsport", even so, your right, it probably isnt one of his best. I have'nt seen "Desert Heat" (in the documentary called "Inferno") but they showed clips of it tonight and all he seems to do in it is stagger around drunk or shag the life out of the local blonde! I've also heard it is real grade z dog sh*t before.

The documentary also stated that while he does not have many films released theatrically anymore, he still amasses massive video rental sales which is good enough for the film moguls as he is still making them money (they even pointed out that crap like "Legionnaire" made a massive prophet on video) and hence is why he continues to work. As long as he makes movies that appeal to me the way his old ones do then thats fine by me.

Yet I still can't believe they are planning a sequel to "Streetfighter" and according to the Action Kings website it is being made for Universal Studios as well! Strange..... Mind you they 'll make a sequel to anything these days, I was in my video store two weeks ago and found out that a sequel to the Tom Berenger film "Sniper" exists. Yes "Sniper 2" has just been released on video recently and although the original was not a crap film I never thought a sequel would be made, espcecially after 10 years!

Anyone seen it?

Peace

MMCK

 

[Amos Stevens]

Yes I did see Sniper 2..can't recall if I saw the first one-if it's as bad as you said maybe I did & blocked it out mentally! I got lost with all the "substitute"? movies.

Sniper 2 was pretty good I think-story line got kind of drug out-it could have been more to it.Otherwise it was good to see Tom Berenger in that type of role.