The Quest

My main issue with the film is the plot. We have seen this many many times with his films. No name guy goes to fighting tournament as an underdog and surprises everyone and wins it. Very common with his film from the late 80's to early 90's.

I loved roger moores character. He has a funny sense of humor that we also get to see in most of his James Bond films.

The scenery was beautiful. Thailand is a gorgeous country.

A lot of stereotypes with the fighters. Every time they announced a country to fight, you could tell what the fighter would look like, Japan sumo, Scotland kilt, etc.

A truly underrated gem in the JCVD catalog.

For a Jean Claude Van Damme movie, then "The Quest" is a fairly standard one. And if you have seen the 1988 "Bloodsport" movie, then you have essentially also seen "The Quest". And I don't think that it is a mere coincidence, especially since the story was written by Frank Dux and Jean Claude Van Damme.

The story is about Christopher Dubois (played by Jean-Claude Van Damme) who is living on the streets, when he is forced to run for his life and ending up as a stowaway on a ship. When he comes to his senses, he is put into slavery, working on the ship. By sheer luck he is rescued by Lord Edgar Dobbs (played by Roger Moore) and Harry Smythe (played by Jack McGee), two thieves and con artists. Setting out to steal a massive golden dragon in a reclusive and secret fighting tournament, Christoper Dubois finds himself fighting on behalf of the boxer Maxie Devine (played by James Remar).

Storywise, then "The Quest" focused more on the fights and action. And as in "Bloodsport", then there is lots of it, and the fight sequences are nicely executed and brought to the screen. The movie itself is as predictable as they come - but then again, aren't most of Jean Claude Van Damme's movies?

There are so many similarities between "Bloodsport" and "The Quest", that you just sit there wondering why "The Quest" was actually ever put on film. Wasn't it enough with this story being told in 1988 back when "Bloodsport" came out? But as with virtually all of Jean Claude Van Damme's movies, the main focus is the action and fighting, and whatever story or resemblance of a story there is becomes secondary. Obviously you have the fighting tournament held in an exotic location, there was the bested friend of whom Van Damme takes a headband, there was a woman reporter, there was a massive and seemingly invincible opponent, and of course there is Jean Claude Van Damme as the underdog who swoops in and wins it all against all odds.

That being said, then "The Quest" is good entertainment where you don't have to use your brain at all. Funny, how I remembered this movie being much better back in the late 90's, when I remember my brother getting it on VHS. And after having obtained the DVD in 2013 and watched it again, it wasn't as cool as I remembered it to be. But still, fun and action-packed, a fairly standard Jean Claude Van Damme movie to be honest.

The Quest is an odd mix of martial arts and epic adventure. Its running time is too short for it to be deemed a true epic, but the panoramic worldwide locations hint that Van Damme was trying to give it the flavour of an epic.

It's a painfully simplistic story. Young American pickpocket Chris (Van Damme) has to flee from New York in the 1920s after a botched robbery. He ends up on a pirate ship headed for the Orient. Soon, he is rescued by another ship (another pirate vessel, this time captained by gentleman buccaneer Roger Moore). Moore drops him off on a Thai island where young men are trained as fighters, and before long young Chris is a very handy fighter indeed, with aspirations to win an ancient golden dragon in a fighting competition. The final third of the film is comprised entirely of fight sequences in which competitors from various nations combat each other in an effort to take the ultimate prize.

The film marked Van Damme's directorial debut, and he gives it a lovely sense of scale and period but can't wring much out of the thin and obvious story. The backdrops pictured in the film are beautiful. Some of the martial arts moments are well choreographed. Roger Moore gives a surprisingly thoughtful and moving performance. Beyond that, it's very childish and simple-minded and doesn't contain enough memorable moments to be anything other than a passable time filler.

The Quest is a surprisingly decent Jean Claude Van-Damme movie.

Quest is a period piece, and a pretty well-done one at that. Taking place shortly after World War I, Van Damme plays Chris Dubois, a humble indentured servant figure with Rocky-like ambitions to become a big fighting champion. Dubois has set his sights on some very elite and secret tournament in some mystical forbidden city, to which only the best fighter in every country of the world gets an invitation.

To get into the tournament, Dubois enlists the help of a mischievous figure, Lord Dobbs. In one of the many parts of the plot I was unable to follow, Lord Dobbs owes him some unknown favor so he buys his freedom and makes arrangements to get the kid to Beijing, with the aide of an attractive blonde newspaper editor, Carrie Newton (Gunn).

Dobbs is played by seven-time James Bond alumni Roger Moore, who I'm so used to seeing as Bond that I half-expected him to, at a crucial point in the movie, bag the attractive news lady, beat someone up, or use some cool gadget. Sadly, Moore only accomplishes one of these three things (uses a cool gadget) and fails miserably at it. However, Moore does carry one James Bond-like trait to this part which is being a smooth talker which gets Dubois in trouble in the first place. Apparently, Dubois was never really entered into the tournament, so he must win over the guy who's slated to fight for the U.S. and get his invitation, which raises the question, isn't Dubois French?

Anyway, there's no reason to fret over little things like that, because considering the plot is secondary to the action, it's pretty well-thought out, and besides the action doesn't disappoint.

The tournament where most of the actions scenes come from is probably my favorite thing about the movie because the single elimination bracketed format has the same thrill as watching something like NCAA's March Madness. The only difference is that except for rooting for your favorite colleges, you root for Industrial Era superpowers. The other plus of this was that the clashing of such a diverse array of fighting styles (sumo wrestling, Scottish fist fighting, Brazillian street fighting, and the like) led to some great action scenes.

My main complaint about the action is that Van Damme's fight scenes attempt to create suspense by him being knocked down and then supposedly against our expectations, getting back up and winning. This just becomes predictable, and besides, because the Master of Ceremonies usually hits the gong after a guy gets knocked down, Dubois would have realistically been out in the second round after getting the crap beat out of him by the Spaniard. Even if he did get back up, he wouldn't have been able to overpower the other guy after having taken so many hits. If he is such a skillful fighter, why doesn't he just win the fight efficiently without all the drama? He reminds me of the present-day LA Lakers who slack off the entire regular season, knowing that they only really have to work during the playoffs.

This gag would have been an effective if it was restricted to only happening in the film's climatic finale. Instead, to top the earlier fights, the tournament's final match really got to be a disappointment. The master of ceremonies was incredibly generous with the gong, deciding to let the fight continue even after Dubois got knocked down twice and kicked out of the ring, where he is beaten up some more and magically throws in a couple kicks at the right moment and walks away with the medallion.

Anyway, the film is a decently played out story that has its moments.

This film is Van Damme's first effort as director, and he is surprisingly good in his task!The Quest is, of course, a simple action film, but it has a lot of good intentions and the story, written by Van Damme, is good-hearted. The star plays Chris Dubois, a man who is saved by a group of mercenaries led by a smooth and charming thief (Roger Moore, who brings a little bit of comedy and softness to the story), and this guy takes Chris to the Lost City to fight in a highly dangerous tournament. The winner takes home a beautiful, enormous golden dragon. This isn't the best film of Van Damme's career, his best phase was with the Chinese directors (Hard Target, The Colony), but The Quest isn't a good film for those who want to see explosions, Van Damme blowing people's heads off and those kinds of thing. This is an adventure, the type of film that, if we were now ten years old, would love!you don't have violence, shootings and explosions, if you want to watch something like that rent Hellbound Hellraiser 2, this is a Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark kind of film. If you want to give the movie a shot, try to forget your grown-up side and watch it as if you were ten years old again. Then you will love it!it's a simple, entertaining and very good movie!