Movie Talk - The Last Dragon and No Retreat, No Surrender

Well, I’m in the last week of Martial Arts Month. I have one more post after this and I’ll be done. Today’s post is going to center on a couple of martial arts movies from the 1980’s: The Last Dragon and No Retreat, No Surrender.  I had originally planned this on be a match-up between the two, but I decided against it. I was going to match them up for four reasons: they’re tributes to Bruce Lee, they’re pretty cheesy, they have breakdancing, and they have ridiculous villains. In the end, I realized I couldn’t pair these two up for two reasons: one of them is really bad while the other is somewhat decent. Still, I wanted to talk about them together, so here it is.

I don’t remember when I first saw The Last Dragon, but I know I was pretty young. I remember a lot from it. It just has enough elements that make it a memorable movie. No Retreat, No Surrender is more of a recent watch. I do remember seeing a small bit of it on this video that talked about martial arts actors. In this case, it was talking about Jean-Claude Van Damme and I always wondered what movie those excerpts came from. Internet reviewer Obscurus Lupa (great name) reviewed NRNS a few years ago and that’s how I found out about the movie. I watched this movie a few weeks ago.

Movie Talk - Jean-Claude Van Damme

So, Jean-Claude Van Damme… was in Breakin’. Yes, it’s a little tidbit of information about the guy. It doesn’t mean anything though it is quite funny seeing him live it up.

Van Damme made a name for himself in the 80’s and the 90’s. Since I grew up in the 90’s, I’ve definitely heard of him. Some of his early work included a couple of bit roles and a sizable role as a villain in the movie, No Retreat, No Surrender. He was also originally supposed to be the Predator in Predator but that got eventually scrapped. From what I’ve seen of the suit he was going to wear, that was a good thing. The movie that put his skills on the chart was Bloodsport and he did more and more throughout the years. His popularity waned towards the end of the 90’s, but it’s had a bit of a revival in the late 2000’s.

Today, I’ll be looking at four movies from his pretty lengthy career. They’ll be Bloodsport, The Quest, 6 Bullets, and, Cyborg. All except for 6 Bullets are ones that I’ve seen in my youth. I decided to re-watch them over the month and see if they are actually good. So, sit back while I talk about some Van Damme movies.