La prova

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"..

This is easily one of my favorite Van Damme films, and I really struggle to figure out why it receives little attention compared to his other work. I am choosing to ignore the infamy surrounding Frank Dux (co-writer) for the time being and instead focus on basically anything but him in this review. Action fans of all backgrounds can appreciate the elements at play here.

Van Damme himself is in fine form, performing the stunts and impressive martial arts movements on display in earnest since Bloodsport. The occasional ambiguity about his character's purpose is refreshing in this film. Typically there is very little detracting from the purity or innocence of any protagonist in movies like this, but some of the references to the reputation of thieves in society really make the viewer think twice about the moral character of Van Damme's Dubois. Sure, he is trying to make a better life for himself and the other misfits in the streets he left behind, but at the end of the day he is involved in some seedy activities.

Roger Moore does a fine job as, well, Roger Moore (and this is just fine with me). James Remar plays a loudmouth who eventually changes his ways, like he often does, but this time around his motivations are a bit more tempered. This is by far one of my favorite Remar performances. I feel as though an entire movie could be made around his Maxie Devine and it would be endlessly entertaining.

Overall, the performances are solid throughout. The locations are eye-catching, and some sea-faring and swashbuckling is thrown in to contrast the gritty streets of the US and the foreboding mystery of the tournament locale. I would not hesitate to recommend this flick to anyone who appreciates some unintentional humor and eye-rolling dialogue in their action gumbo. Most Van Damme fans have likely seen this and should check it out if not.

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!

Although it took four viewings before I finally lowered my rating of this from "9" to "8,", I suspect I will still watch this lame-brain action flick a few more times and enjoy it. That's because it offers a great mixture of fascinating fighters in the tournament that covers most of the final 40 minutes of the movie; is a modern-day martial-arts action film with almost no swearing and no sex; and offer some tremendous scenery in the first half of the film as Jean Claude Van Damme and company travel to the Far East for this "World's Greatest Fighter" tourney.

That tourney is a lot of fun to watch except that it got carried away in the final bout, of course, that went on almost as long as all the preliminary bouts! However, the filmmakers were smart to make all the contestants totally different with different styles, making each one fun to watch. You didn't see the same thing each fight. There was everything from a huge Sumo-type wrestler to a little guy who imitated a monkey and a snake jumping and slithering around the ring. By the way, these were real guys, not actors imitating fighters.

The photography is magnificent, far better than you would except. The colors are beautiful and the Thailand scenery spectacular. The movie benefits from a classy actor like Roger Moore joining the cast, too. Yeah, it's stupid in parts, but it's fun and highly recommended for first-time viewers who don't know the outcome of the bouts.

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.