Van Damme's best movies that aren't "the hits"

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Best JCVD film for me was TimeCop. I loved Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Cyborg, and Lionheart but TimeCop was actually a good movie.
 
DaleBoca said:
Best JCVD film for me was TimeCop. I loved Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Cyborg, and Lionheart but TimeCop was actually a good movie.
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Timecop I believe was the highest-grossing movie of his career, but I didn't care for it much.

It's ironic that his most successful film was also the film the lead to him being blacklisted.
 
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The Quest was my favorite JCVD film as a kid. Just so kewl seeing all those martial artist traveling to the Tibetan plateau to duel it out in a tournament.

Legionnaire was a good one too -- definitively different from his usual martial arts fare.
 
DaleBoca said:
Why did that movie get him blacklisted?
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It was in an indirect way. Its success made Van Damme think he was worth more than he was, which lead to problems. Here's something he said a little while back:

After the movie Timecop, I received a huge offer for a three-picture deal and it was 12 million dollars per picture. That's 36 million dollars. I was wasted. I said, 'I want 20 million like Jim Carrey' and they hung up on me. I was not myself. I was completely fucked up and I made a bad mistake and I was on the blacklist in Hollywood for years.
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Another one I enjoyed back in the day was The Order. It also weirdly has Charlton Heston in a small role.


 
DaleBoca said:
Best JCVD film for me was TimeCop. I loved Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Cyborg, and Lionheart but TimeCop was actually a good movie.
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I love this wobbly ass motherfucker of a future car.

timecop1.jpg
 
all the ones i like have been mentioned,except for death warrant,i still like that one.
 
Nowhere_to_Run.jpg


Underrated JCVD flick.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
We all know that Van Damme did most of his best work in the late 80s and early 90s. That's when he produced most of his classics, like Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Double Impact, etc.

But what Van Damme movies do you enjoy that don't fall into this category? What are some of his lesser known films that you thought were pretty good?

To kick things off, I'm going to go back to around the turn of the millennium.


Legionnaire (1998)

I remember ignoring this movie for quite a while because I just assumed that it wasn't any good. Considering that this was 1998, I was also puzzled about why Van Damme was appearing in a direct-to-video movie. He was still a big star in my mind at the time.

Eventually I did sit down and watch this one though and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Van Damme as a soldier in the French Foreign Legion in the 1920s was different from the kinds of roles I was used to seeing him in and the film was actually pretty well made.


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Bloodsport was easily his best movie. That movie kicked ass, and it was in the back of my mind the first time I ever heard of the UFC. "Sounds like 'Bloodsport.'"
 
jeicex said:
Nowhere_to_Run.jpg


Underrated JCVD flick.
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Man, I hated this movie so much.

I remember when it first came I went to see it and was SO PISSED. I wanted martial arts and action and it delivered very little of both. I just didn't care about the core story at all.
 
fonzob1 said:
Bloodsport was easily his best movie. That movie kicked ass, and it was in the back of my mind the first time I ever heard of the UFC. "Sounds like 'Bloodsport.'"
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It's my favorite Van Damme film, but it definitely falls under the category of "the hits."

Do you have any favorites among his lesser known films?
 
shadow_priest_x said:
Man, I hated this movie so much.

I remember when it first came I went to see it and was SO PISSED. I wanted martial arts and action and it delivered very little of both. I just didn't care about the core story at all.
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That's why I liked it. It wasn't just balls to the wall action and flying kicks, it actually had a heart for a minute. Also, it didn't end in the cheesy "winner wins the fight and the loser is defeated" way that almost all of his other films did. It sort of broke the mold for him.
 
shadow_priest_x said:
Man, I hated this movie so much.

I remember when it first came I went to see it and was SO PISSED. I wanted martial arts and action and it delivered very little of both. I just didn't care about the core story at all.
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Didn't Rosanna Arquette take her top off? That has to count for at least ten aerial kicks.

And Ted Levine was great as always.
 
In Hell is his best straight to DVD, barring the most recent Universal Soldier w/ the Adkins/Arlovksi fight scene (can't link from govy computer, peep it on YT, it's incredible)...

His best movie, perhaps the most forgotten prime JCVD movie, is Hard Target. John Woo directing the Most Dangerous Game? Yes, please

plus at least his French accent made some sense being a Cajun homie in New Orleans
 
jeicex said:
That's why I liked it. It wasn't just balls to the wall action and flying kicks, it actually had a heart for a minute. Also, it didn't end in the cheesy "winner wins the fight and the loser is defeated" way that almost all of his other films did. It sort of broke the mold for him.
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It was definitely different. But I'm not sure it's different in a good way.

I haven't seen it probably two decades though, so it's hard for me to speak definitively. Maybe I should give it another watch.
 
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