Customer Reviews

The Quest

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

This Motion picture does have a plot.The movie has alot of action. It is a combination of a bloodsport, and kickboxer, but a better version I believe. The fight scenes are fantastic. Their is alot of fighting, and there is a lot of quality acting from Van Damme, and Ex-bond of the past Roger Moore[both are superb actors]. The only disappointment I have is that Janet Gunn did not play the hot babe who was after Jean Claude. The chemistry looked so so, it was there, but that magic was missing, the chemistry! I recommend this movie to all the old and new fans who like and admire Jean Claude-. A great motion picture!

I have seen this film so many times, and every time I think I love it more and more. Sure its a Van Damme movie which means its not up to par with most of Hollywood and it may be cheesy with its title and story, but I find it to be an original Van Damme story, with a very involved and entertaining martial arts tournament, even more enjoyable than that in Bloodsport.

The Quest is about a young man named Christopher Devoir (Van Damme), living homeless in NYC with a group of homeless kids. He gets caught stealing, and leaves the country sneaking onto a ship, promising the kids he will return. He then escapes the ship onto another, a last ship of the Buccaneers led by Lord Edgar Dobbs (Roger Moore, from the James Bond films). Immediately, he is sold secretly to the Thai on an island to be trained as a Muy Thai fighter. Months later, he runs into Dobbs again, and requires Dobbs to repay him for his dishonesty towards him. The Quest therefore begins, to find the golden dragon, awarded to the greatest fighter in a martial arts tournament held at the Lost City. The plot still unfolds with some more twists, right until the very end.

The best part of this movie is the tournament, which takes up about the last half of the film. It consists of the greatest fighters from around the world (oddly enough, quite similar to that of Bloodsport). I actually found this tournament to be more enjoyable than Bloodsport, with a lot more unique fighting styles. The arena is also much larger than the Kumite arena in Bloodsport, and sets the tone well for the fights. The camera work and sound effects make the punches and kicks seem quite hard. There are many fighters in the tournament that are from many other martial arts movies including Bloodsport 2, Bloodmoon, Shootfighter 2, and Lionheart.

As with most tournaments, there is always a big, bad villainous fighter. Chong Li was the charcater in Bloodsport. In the Quest, it is an unnamed Mongolian fighter, who is the same guy Van Damme fought at the end of Lionheart. They fight a huge 8 minute final fight, that is kinda like a no holds barred fight. It begins on the arena platform, but eventually extends beyond the gates and outside at night time.

Made in 1996, this is probably one of the last of the great Van Damme films, and one of the last times he performs his famous high split kicks, also seen much of in Bloodsport. A different but original storyline for Van Damme. Its quite interesting, but can be slow at times. The tournament is the real fun and excitement, and keeps the last half of the movie moving along nicely. Any fan of great martial arts tournament style movies should definetly check this out.

In "The Quest," Jean-Claude Van Damme directs and stars in this action movie about a street dweller (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who helps out kids that are on the street the best he can. He accidentally gets onboard a freight ship and travels to the Far East. Some people notice his fighting skills and he eventually gets entered in a fighting tournament that features the best fighters from various countries and continents. The fighters range from a sumo wrestler from Japan, a martial arts fighter from China who fights just like a monkey, and a monstrous and intimidating fighter from Mongolia. It's up to Van Damme to try and show everybody that he's the best fighter and have a chance at winning a huge golden dragon that goes to the fighter.

Unlike what Van Damme movies are usually known for, "The Quest" does have a good plot, and it's even directed by Van Damme himself. He should make more movies like this. "The Quest" has a plot, the fighting is exciting, and it's a good movie. I recommend anybody who likes good fighting movies to get "The Quest." You'll be glad you went along on this quest.

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

1. Who is he? Christopher Dubois, whose story is too complicated for a one sentence breakdown
2. Which family member/friend must be avenged? No avenging needed, but he's got kids to feed.
3. Does he take his shirt off? The closest he gets is the tank top version of a thong.
4. Does he have sex with a C-List actress? No sex, all business
5. Is there a tournament? Oh...YES there is!
6. Is training needed for this tournament? Absolutely, and all training takes place amidst the sweltering squalor of Bangkok Muay Thai fighting
7. Does he do the splits in training or in the tournament? It probably doesn't count, but after a vicious spin kick in the final battle, JCVD stretches that extra little bit to show a slow-mo, suspended splits shot.
8. Does he punch someone in the balls? Patented by Ric Flair of wrestling fame, JCVD delivers the reverse heel to the twins
9. Does he do a series of flying or 360 kicks? In slow-mo even!
10. Is his enemy unbeatable? After beating every previous opponent with little more than a stiff jab, the final enemy for JCVD is a Mongolian beast, part Chong Li from Bloodsport and part Attila from Lionheart (actually the same actor who played Attila).
11. Does he overcome an injury or other hindrance? A rarity for JCVD, the entire tournament is on the level.
12. Does he win? Not only does he win, but he delivers what is probably the best overall fight scene in his career.

Christopher Dubois has a crazy story. First he's a juggling clown on stilts caring for a bunch of criminal orphans in New York. Then he's enslaved on a gun-running ship after being discovered as a stowaway. Next, he's in a pirate battle complete with cannon fire. He then becomes captive on a martial arts training island replete with Muay Thai fighters. Eventually, he becomes a champion whose will has been forged by countless shin-shattering leg kicks. Meanwhile, monks are dispersed all over the country to invite a myriad of combatants to the Kumite...er...Ghang-gheng.

So, essentially, the entire thing is an amalgamation of the invitation from Enter the Dragon (or Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory if you prefer), the orphan being taken in by criminals from Oliver Twist, and the tournament from Bloodsport.

The Ghang-geng tournament is diverse. The director, who looks like Lo Pan from Big Trouble in Little China, has invited everyone. Sumo, Muay Thai, Sambo, Judo, Kung Fu, American boxing, Savate, Tae Kwan Do, all forms are represented, even that incredibly lame Capoeira garbage. What's great is that the entire tournament borrows, just like Bloodsport did before it, straight from the racial and country stereotypes from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!. Unbelievably, the final battle even featured JCVD's enemy doing the "Bull Charge" and Super Macho Man's Spin Punch. What's more, JCVD manages to pull off the "drum technique" from The Karate Kid II, as well as a finishing blow Sho-Ryu-Ken from the Street Fighter II game. Soak in the special moves people, soak'em in.

This is great JCVD tournament action, paying homage to what made him famous: Bloodsport. The original was better, but this is solid on its own merits. Oh, and by the way, Roger Moore co-stars, so you know the acting and production is superb. ALL action and martial arts fans should love this movie.

I first saw this on Spanish TV and I was only aggravated that I couldn't understand what was being said. I then went to my video store to rent it the same week.

Fantastic film, although I will admit that the plot could do with a little work... But still a kick-awesome movie.

If you want to see how they should have done the "Mortal Kombat" film, get this DVD. Greatly diverse fighting in the film more than most other fighting films.

Way better than the "Street Fighter" movie...then again, I'm sure that "The Barney Movie" was better than that.

Jean Claude usually has some poor taste in the scripts he takes on but The Quest was actually a decent role and movie for him. As usual, Van Damme is pitted against the best fighters in the world and they are all brought to the Forbidden City in a quest to find the best.

A really good point to this movie was that it was really diverse in the martial arts in this movie. There was everything from both styles of Capoiera (Brazilian and Angola), Muay Thai kickboxing, Kung Fu and Karate and of course, how could you go wrong with the occasional brawler?

One thing that really ate as far as the movie was concerned was that there were some corny parts like how Van Damme gets left behind at "Muay Thai Island"? Why didn't they just say he gets left in Thailand, wouldn't that have sounded a little better?

Anyway, for a Van Damme movie it's pretty good and worth a rental. I wouldn't put too much hype into this one because like I said, you're not really watching this one because it's a great story or the acting is so great, it's because the action in this one speaks for itself.

In Jean Claude Van Damme's oeuvre, Nowhere to Run, Hard Target, and Timecop are the cream, while suckfests like Sudden Death, The Order, and Derailed won't even draw flies. The Quest falls somewhere just below the best of Van Damme's films. Having just recently seen Tony Jaa in action, Van Damme's martial arts stylistics pale considerably in comparison. Still, The Quest, coming out about a decade before Jaa's films, showcases some nice, energetic martial arts sequences. And it was cool that every country was represented by its own distinctive fighting style (savate for France, sumo for Japan, snake/monkey/tiger style for China, capoeira for Brazil, nut-twisting for Turkey, and, er, boxing for the U.S.).

In 1925, top fighters representing various countries are invited to the Lost City to participate in Ghang-gheng, a martial arts tournament of the world's best fighters, the prize of which is a dragon statue made of gold. Meanwhile, in New York, Chris Dubois (Jean Claude Van Damme) tries to fend for several street urchins under his care while evading the police and a gang leader who wants Dubois to work for him. When a chain of events leads to Dubois being wanted for murder, he jumps onboard a smuggler's ship, where he is taken prisoner by the ship's crew and is forced to slave labor. When he is rescued by the roguish Lord Edgar Dobbs (Roger Moore) and his buccaneers, Dubois journeys with him to Muay Thai Island, where Dobbs sells him to Khao (Aki Aleong), an elder of the Muay Thai martial arts.

Six months later, Lord Dobbs is gallivanting about in Bangkok. He goes to a dive to watch a kickboxing match and is shocked to see that one of the competitors is Dubois. Later, Dubois corrals him and demands that he help him get to the Lost City, where the Ghang-gheng tournament will take place. Dobbs, being a greedy bastard, instantly agrees. The rest of the film pretty much spirals down into the formulaic, centering on match after match after match...This time, Van Damme's tournament nemesis is an arrogant Mongolian giant, who may not be steeped in martial arts but is incredibly strong, cruel, and destructive.

Van Damme not only stars in this one, but also takes a decent turn behind the director's chair. He knows when there are better actors around (which is pretty much when he's not alone), and he wisely leaves the emoting to veteran actors Roger Moore and James Remar, who make the best of their limited roles. The debonair Moore is fun to watch as he toils away in his post-James Bond days, while Remar plays it straight-forward as the straight-shooting heavyweight boxing champ and Dubois's mentor. Van Damme himself is his reliably stoic, one-note self, ever fruitlessly plumbing the shallows of his acting talent. The other semi-decent actor in here is Janet Gunn as journalist Carrie Newton and token cute chick. She even seems mildly interested in being in the film, an attitude worthy of several kudos. The rest of the cast are negligible and stereotypical, and I doubt most of them are even actors.

The Quest is certainly hackneyed movie-making and borders on camp. It's your basic B-movie, martial arts cheesefest. And if you go into this chop-socky bearing that in mind, you'll have fun. Because, while it is derivative, it's also quite entertaining. And it's always nice to again see Van Damme's helicopter kick. The best part of the movie, by the way, is the match between the acrobatic Brazilian and the equally-acrobatic, style-changing Chinese. Anyway, enjoy the movie. Or not.

By the way, does anyone know where that bump on Van Damme's forehead came from?

This film wasn't too bad considering it was directed and cowritten by star Jean-Claude Van Damme. The movie starts off in the 1920's with Van Damme dressed as a clown wearing stilts working with street orphans to steal some money from gangsters. He escapes from gangsters before being chased by the police onto a ship. The next morning, out to sea, the ship owners chain up the stowaway and put him to work. Shortly after the ship is ambushed by British cavaliers, led by Roger Moore, which free him only to bring him to an island and sell him to the Mutai to be a fighter.

The movie quickly changes from an adventure story to a video-game movie the likes of Tekken. All of the best fighters in the world are invited to fight in a tournament at the Lost City for the prize of Golden Dragon and honor. The fighters are acted by real fighting champions from around the world. Each brings his own fighting style resulting in some satisfying matches which is the saving grace of the film.

This film would have been much improved with plot twists and more attention paid the the back story of Van Damme's orphaned past to gain a better appreciation of why the fighting is so important to him.

what do u get when u let a international superstar like van damme direct a movie?? A very dissapointing movie.....The story itself wasn;t that great. Van damme is a clown on the streets taking care of homless kids and is chased away by cops to move elsewhere. Soon he escapes on a cargo ship and then goes on a "Quest" to find the lost city and attain the golden dragon....the action and fighting scenes were short and not intense as they used to be... and on top of all that the ending was a dissapointment too becuase van damme didn't even get the golden dragon. Van damme should just stick to fighting and not directing..I gave this three stars just because Iam huge fan of van damme....i reccomend u see his top quality movies such as double impact, bloodsport, kickboxer, deathwarrant, and maxium risk...

This is a fine Van Damme movie. Once again he is pitted against the worlds greatest fighters.(This happens alot in his movies!) Once at the contest, he ends up fighting a huge mongolian man who feels no emotion, no pain, and no fear. Its obvious he cant be beaten. As the battle rages between them the crowd begins to back Van Damme. Although he is beaten down to a bloody pulp he begins to think of all the little orphans he will let down if he doesnt win. Suddenly with a renewed strength he hits the monster man with all his power, the stunned behemouth falls for the first time in his life. He looks at Van Damme with stunned amazement. With no reguard for his life, Van Damme brings all his power and skill to bore on the hulk and leaves him dead in the dirty filthy street! Broken and beaten bad himself he crawls to the gold prize statue and caresses it so gently.We were left dizzy with all the action and events. Two thumbs up.