Customer Reviews

Lionheart

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This movie has a little bit of everything. One of the better Van Damme movies that I have seen.When he deserts the Foriegn Legion and hits the streets this movie never loses pace. His career as a professional street fighter is very entertaining. Van Damme fights every kind of villain you can imagine. The final battle when he fights a true killer is very exciting. This is Van Damme at his best.

Whether you're a Van Damme fan or have never heard of him, you'll appreciate this movie. As always, there's plenty of kickbutt action but it also has lots of heart and a good story-line. Van Damme usually plays good guys (with the occasional evil twin), helping friends and family out of tough situations. The same goes for this film. He sacrifices his body through underground fights to financially and anonymously help his widowed sister-n-law and nephew. Great fighting scenes. Funny sidekick. Good acting, by all characters, pulls you into the story. Bottom Line: Golden Oldie that will win you over!

Let me start by saying that I don't go for action-adventure movies. I was reluctantly dragged to this one by my boyfriend yet came away singing its praises. Wow!!! Most AA movies are mere vehicles to showcase the star's martial-arts prowess; this movie does much, much more. It crosses over into the mainstream and has a plot which is much more riveting than the so-called blockbusters Hollywood churns out. The characters are believable and rouse genuine emotions. To wit: Jean Claude's tears when he is informed of his brother's death. How could that not melt your heart? And the genuine and desperate need of his sister-in-law and little niece -- who can't empathize with that?

This is the only AA movie that would score huge points with feminists because unlike every other movie in its genre, LIONHEART is very female-dominated. The genuinely powerful people are not Jean Claude or any of his competitors, even the Goliath he ultmately battles. They are the niece and the sister-in-law, and, of course, the lady he works for in the fighting world. These are the people who call all the shots and control every aspect of this movie.

The score is wonderful, too, especially the piece that is played while Jean Claude covertly watches his sister-in-law and niece walk to school one morning.

Because this movie crosses over so brilliantly, I think it could very accurately be categorized as a drama. The ending is a complete tearjerker!

The Jean Claude Van Damme Review Matrix (JCVD-RM)

1. Who is he? Lyon Gaultier, a disgruntled, often disciplined French Legionnaire stationed in Africa
2. Which family member/friend must be avenged? His brother François, who gets torched to a crisp after reneging on a drug deal
3. Does he take his shirt off? As a stowaway on a ship to America, Lyon is forced to shovel coal into the boilers of the boiler room. And, whew!, does it ever get hot down there!
4. Does he have sex with a C-List actress? No, despite the fact that a rich, psychopathic, sadistic blonde fight organizer named Cynthia basically threw herself at him
5. Is there a tournament? More or less, only, winners advance to bigger and more lucrative matches with each victory
6. Is training needed for this tournament? Not specifically. His military training and hard labor already prepared him for battle.
7. Does he do the splits in training or in the tournament? Sadly, unless mid-air splits count, the answer is no.
8. Does he punch someone in the balls? With a well-placed single shot in his initial organized bare-knuckle fight, Lyon destroys the reproductive future for a guy who looks like the biker from the Village People.
9. Does he do a series of flying or 360 kicks? The question isn't "does he", it should be "where does he". The answer: In a racquetball court, under a bridge, in a nearly empty swimming pool, and a small arena with stands.
10. Is his enemy unbeatable? Atilla basically looks like the guy one-step-to-the-left on the Evolutionary chart. Additionally, he has saxophone-sized mutton-chop sideburns, which is scary in and of itself.
11. Does he overcome an injury or other hindrance? In a previous battle, Lyon sustains a broken rib, and some betting against him know it.
12. Does he win? Yes, and it's a near perfect ending.

It's uncanny how talented JCVD is at making this type of movie. If it were anyone else, the corniness would be much worse. It's almost as if his poor acting (despite this being his best acting job) makes this type of movie better. JCVD is like epicac; under normal circumstances, it's not great to chug a bottle, but when mixed with the consumption of something sure to turn your stomach otherwise, it's perfect. Best of all, the little girl who plays Lyon's niece Nicole (Ashley Johnson) is absolutely adorable (later went on to be Mel Gibson's daughter in What Women Want), and adds a real humanistic aspect to the movie without getting in the way of the tumultuous action.

I am a big Van Damme fan. I was excited to finally get this widescreen edition. Not only is widescreen not available as described, my old vhs tape has better video quality than this.

For 7 bucks I'll keep it for now and replace it when it (hopefully) comes out on Blu Ray.

5 stars for the movie but only one star for the company releasing it. Much like "timecop" another terrific Van Damme movie, there's no letterboxed edition. Why do they do this to us? The horror...the horror...

This is the first movie I felt Van Damme really acted in. You know the plot from the other reviews but, his acting ability really came out here. I actually felt he didnt want to keep fighting but he had to for his niece and sister-in-law.Punch after bloody punch came in the climactic fight scene, where a giant of a man beats him down without mercy. Then he realizes he has to do it. He rises up on sheer willpower and gives his all for freedom! VAN-DAMME... VAN-DAMME, VAN-DAMME!

Most films starring Jean-Claude Van Damme are nothing more than vehicles for showing off his considerable fighting skills. Prior to LIONHEART, JCVD rarely had to act. He fought a lesser series of bad guys on the way to a final confrontation with a very intimidating fighter. Now this also sounds like a plot summary of LIONHEART, but in addition to the kicks and punches, the film also delves into some serious issues of duty versus responsibility and the meaning of friendship.
JCVD plays a Legionnaire whose brother in the US is ill, so he requests permission for emergency leave. His request is turned down on the rightful claim of his commandant that his presence in Africa was needed for Legionnaire business. At this point, VD must decide which is of greater import: his duty to his brother or to his country. He chooses to go AWOL to find his brother. This choice could not have been an easy one since his decision to leave the base would necessarily entail his being labeled a deserter. Two Legionnaire NCOs are sent to bring him back in chains. While in America, he discovers that his brother is dead and has left behind a destitute wife and child. VD determines to win money to provide for them by engaging in brutal cage fights. Along the way he picks up the services of a wino manager, oily played by Harrison Page. Slowly the two men, the fighter and the manager, lay the grounds for a binding friendship, which is tested by the manager's decision to bet on the fearsome and final opponent. When VD finds out that his manager sold him out, you can see that the pain in his heart outweighs the more obvious pain of his bruised ribs. When he somehow defeats this monster fighter, the scene in which his manager first congratulates then apologizes to him is both touching and convincing.
As with most JCVD movies, there is plenty of eye-popping body slugging, with the final match the most interesting. But behind the fighting, Van Damme also shows that emotional impacting on those who call him either friend or enemy is often at least as fascinating as watching him grind his most recent opponent into the dust.

This is the best Jean-Claude Van Damme movie ever. From family to fighting to family, JCVD fights for money to help his brother's wife and daughter out. And at the end, JCVD fights a big guy where there is no rules, but hard-hitting action. Have people placed the wrong bet? Watch it and find out. The movie has the action and a great powerful movie score which makes this the best Van Damme movie ever. I wish I could own this on DVD, but Australia and New Zealand aren't releasing it on Region 4. Only if they did.

Not only we get to see him doing what he does best, which is kicking and fighting, but he really acts in this movie.

The story is touching: he's a french legionnaire in Djibouti when he gets a letter from his brother's wife that his broter has been severily injured, so he leaves for the USA, without money and with the french secret service behind him. When he gets there he has to fight to earn money for his brother's family, the brother's wife and his niece ( a beautiful little girl ).

The fight sequences are great, the last fight is one of the best Van Damme's fights ever.

Harrison Paige's acting is really good, and his character is really well done. His dialogue at the end of the final fight is one of the movie's best moments.

If you like any other Van Damme movie, then you have to buy this one.
If you don't like Van Damme at all, but like martial arts movies, then you have to buy this one, because the fighting scenes are great.
If you don't like martial arts movies, then you have to buy this one, because the story is interesting and touching.
What can I say? It's a great movie!

So...buy this movie, hightly recommended.