Kickboxer (1989) DVD-RIP -MediaFire

Plot Synopsis in Haiku
Van Damme's bro is smoked
To avenge he trains hard and
Kicks ass with hands of glass

Why This is a Good Van Damme Movie
The film stars a rookie Van Damme as Kurt Sloane in the oft-used action role of apprentice-on-a-death-vendetta-that-trains-with-a-crochety-old-martial-arts-master-and-eventually-beats-the-snot-of-the-main-bad guy. It's certainly a tried-and-true formula, utilized by many films before, but Van Damme is a much more capable action star than, say, Ralph Macchio, and he and all his physical glory are exhibited here in full force.

The primary fighting style is a Muay Thai variation, though the discipline apparently allows Van Damme to bastardize it with his own brand of high flying acrobatics, which is fine; the guy can jump and kick extremely well, and not necessarily in that order. And the scenarios that the aforementioned training master puts his pupil through are apparently designed wholly to showcase Van Damme's groin flexibility. In this way, Kickboxer is a little like Ong Bak (and I said a little), whereas the plot is lightweight, and the film appears to exist solely to introduce a new action icon to the populace, while also showing off said icon's athletic attributes.

Finally, there's the big brouhaha at the end. I remember in school my friends telling me about the hands dipped in resin and broken glass and thinking that it was so freaking awesome, and, yeah, the concept was cool…

Why This is a Blah Van Damme Movie
…but the execution was anti-climactic. For one, the shards of glass didn't really do too much damage to the fighters. And it's only a few minutes later that Van Damme rips off his glass-gloves and proceeds to knock the crap out of Tong Po (Michel Qissi), the menacing heavy with all the eye-liner, in slow-motion, culminating in a humdrum finale, made more disappointing because it was hyped up from the very beginning when Tong Po paralyzed Kurt's brother.

And really, the movie is kind of corny and hasn't aged well. The majority of the film deals with Kurt's training, in what is essentially an extended montage, cool if you dig Van Damme attacking a tree, shadow-boxing underwater and having his crotch stretched by a fearsome contraption. The supporting cast is largely ridiculous, from the cigar-chomping gun-toting cheeseball Winston (Haskell Anderson) to the charisma-free romantic interest to Kurt's brother Eric who looks like a wheelchair-bound A.C. Slater