रूस्तम-ए-जहांँ

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.

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.

While running from the mob after stealing from them, pickpocket and homeless Christopher Dubois hides on a ship in dock. When he wakes the next morning he finds himself in the 'employment' of the ship's crew. He remains their slave until the ship is raided and Dubois rescued by Lord Dobbs, Edgar Dobbs. Dobbs Edgar Dobbs then sells Dubois into slavery on an island where he learns to fight over several years. When the pair run back into one another, Dubois asks Dobbs Edgar Dobbs to buy his freedom and help him gain entry into the secret contest where the grand prize is a solid gold dragon. Getting entry on the back of Maxie Devine's invite, Dubois fights his way through the best in the world while Dobbs Edgar Dobbs casts his twinkling eyes over the golden dragon.

Having just watched Bloodsport again a few weeks ago, I was taken aback by just how similar this and that film were – clearly Van Damme's desire to have a hit movie he decided to go back to basics for his first film as director. The film feels like it cost more than Bloodsport, although the period setting takes away a little bit from the rough edge that a martial arts movie should really have. The plot is a bit better and employs some humour (mostly from Dobbs) but this only means it is better than Bloodsport – not that it's a great film! All the aspects of Bloodsport are here – the fight, the fighter friend, the female journalist love interest, the different fighting styles etc. I think this damaged it a bit for me because I was very aware of how lazy it was just to do the same film all over again.

The writing is mostly poor (the films is narrated in a bar at the start but ends being read from a book) and has few good lines and mostly just a load of halfbaked ideas but chances are you aren't watching for the plot! No, most of us came for the fighting and, in that regard the film is just about worth seeing.

Aside from the lazy national stereotyping, the fighters are mostly good and even the ones given silly styles (oh look he's a snake/monkey/tiger) manage to impress. Van Damme as director focuses on showing us the difficult moves by using slow-mo occasionally but what he forgets to do is inject any of the fights with any real excitement, tension or passion – even the last fight seems rather by the numbers in terms of watching it; I observed it rather than got into it! Aside from this he does OK as a first time job but I'm not sure if many of this film's weaknesses didn't come from him as writer/director/star. As star, he goes through his usual stuff and does his moves well – he is a poor character (lazily using kids to get him to be a hero sort) but generally all his fans care about is that he fights well and here he does some good moves. Remar has little to do but I quite like him, but both McGee and Gunn just hang around the edges. Thank God then for Roger Moore who plays the whole thing with a twinkle in his eye and appears to be having fun while doing it. Hardly acting so much as just being himself, he evens introduces himself as 'Dobbs, Edgar Dobbs', which I thought was hilarious and, even if the material is weak, he seems to enjoy himself a lot more than I did watching this! The other fighters are OK but few really make an impact (if you know what I mean) and as big as Qissi is, Bolo he ain't!

Overall if I had to pick one of them, I think I'd watch Bloodsport again as it is rougher round the edges and doesn't have the bigger budget pretensions that this film has. The fights lack passion and excitement but are quite fun to watch; just a shame that plotting, dialogue, structure, tone and acting are pretty much average at best. Van Damme photocopied his first American hit hoping that's all he's have to do to have another hit – his laziness caught him out with this one; not a really bad all told, but not much cop neither.

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.

The Quest is certainly one of JCVD's best. It has a quite good epic story and style which generally you cannot see in a martial arts movie. Come on people, this is action and so evaluate it in its genre. Emancipate yourselves from "film d'art" complexes. Give its right, this is an exquisite "film d'martial arts"..