Lionheart: El luchador

I know this movie as "A.W.O.L Absent Without Leave" but I have also seen it called Wrong Bet and Lionheart. This was one of the first movies I saw in 1990 knowing who Jean Claude Van Damme was, after previously seeing "Blood Sport" and "Kickboxer". Along with those two this helped set him on the road to stardom. Watching it today, I still think it is one of his best performances and best movies in general. Sure it's cheaply made and some of the acting is a bit dodgy but it's a lot of fun.

Plot In A Paragraph: Leon Gaultier is a deserter from the Foreign Legion arriving in New York . He finds his brother at death's door in L.A and his sister-in-law without the money needed to pay for medical care for her husband and to maintain her child. To earn the money needed, Gaultier decides to take part in some very dangerous under ground fights.

Whilst Van Damme is the star, Harrison Page steals the show as his friend/manager Joshua, I think he is fantastic. Having previously starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sly Stallone, Brian Thompson stars opposite the new action star in the block (at the time) Deborah Rennard does a fine job as Cynthia.

When i saw this film i was just 15 and it touched me how Leon wanted to fight for his brothers wife and kid.The films fight scenes are well staged and when i watched the film again recently i was surprised by how much i enjoyed it.Thats the thing,its a really enjoyable film,you can harp on all day about how Van Damme isn't the worlds best actor,how the sound mix is wobbly and the film looks as though it has been churned out for TV but its a good story well executed and that is the long and short of it.Van Damme has gone on to make many a film in a similar vein but i felt it was on this production that he came off best.The trainer played by Harrison Page helps lift the film too. 8/10

Lionheart is yet another Van Damme-movie with a lame story and great fight-scenes. Van Damme escapes from the French foreign-legion to find the people who killed his brother. When he comes to America he starts fighting for money, which he gives to his family. As said before, the story isn`t that good, but it is head and shoulders above the terrible "Black Eagle". Lionheart is a great B-movie that is worth renting. 8/10

Before we head off down critical trail, lets be charitable. This is a Van Damme flick - more or less its own genre, certainly sufficiently signposted for the unwary to avoid if this is not their comfort zone. Now I have to admit to a certain bias - we have almost every film Van Damme has ever made, and for the most part, on simply an entertainment scale, Jean Claude delivers the goods. (Even as late as REPLICANT)

This offering - known pretty much EVERYWHERE but the US as WRONG BET (By far the better title when you watch it) is value for money. You wanna see classical acting? go study Laurence Olivier's HENRY V. You fancy mind bending sci-fi...hell, Kubrick's 2001 ain't never gonna be topped. You want to laugh yourself senseless? go watch a Renny Harlin flick...but you want to see some serious hurting on screen...let Van Damme loose.

I am tiring of the incessant complaints that Van Damme can't act! Did he ever say he could? How many of his detractors could do any better? Could John Wayne? did anyone ever want to SEE him being anything BUT John Wayne? JCVD does a half decent job here I have to say and it strikes me as a case of "let him who is without sin" etc etc when it comes to assassinating his thespian talents.

This film has plenty going for it......namely action, conviction and courage. In the genre in which it finds itself necessarily categorised, I believe a 7 is in order!

This is one of the few films by Van Damme that stand out in my mind when I think of his 'career highlights'. All of his films are formulaic actioners, but Lionheart is one of his better films. His character is more layered here, which makes this more of a drama than most of his others. We as the audience can feel for his character and, as a result, root for him as he tries to evade his past and help what family he has left. A nice little action film, with Van Damme forced to act a little here. For his capabilities, he is convincing as Lyon. Harrison Page is very good in the film as the ex-street fighter turned confidant, and almost steals the show. A highlight of Van Damme's career.

*** out of **** stars.