Kickboxer: A Retaliação

I nearly loved the original KICKBOXER with Jean Claude Van Damme in his prime, and mildly liked the 2016 reboot (with Van Damme as the master), so it's not a surprise that I had to watch this sequel of a reboot. Well, it was good nearly on the same level of the 1989 original.

When it begins Kurt Sloane (Alain Moussi) wins another MMA fight but victory is short-lived because he's kidnapped by some thugs and held prisoner in a jail in Thailandia for the murder of Tong Po that happened at the end of the predecessor. Soon we are introduced to promoter Thomas Moore (Christopher Lambert) that wants Sloane to fight against a mountain of a man that can easily crush him. So Sloane returns to his master Durand (Van Damme) who is partially blind and trains very hard for the big fight and you might have guessed how it will unfold.

I was really amazed that when I saw it I couldn't understand why it has a score of 4,9 and so many negative reviews. Well, the secret is: suspend disbelief and enjoy. The acting by Van Damme and Lambert was up to their decent standards, and the fight scenes very cool and kept me excited.

So, if you are into the KICKBOXER franchise don't miss it, and also if you are action fans, it's a very enjoyable time-passer.

"Kickboxer: Retaliation" is an Action - Drama movie and the sequel of the movie "Kickboxer: Vengeance", in which we watch Kurt Sloane being sedated and taken to a prison in Bangkok after a fight in Las Vegas. There he is being pushed to fight another person for his freedom and $1M.

Since I had already watched the previous movie I knew what I was about to watch so, I was prepared for it but I did not expect it to be worse than the previous. At some points it was like I was watching Mortal Kombat or some other game and not an action movie. The direction which was made by Dimitri Logothetis, it was below average and I believe that he did not reach his potential. To sum up, I have to say that "Kickboxer: Retaliation" is a movie that can be reached only from a limited audience and it's not for everyone.

Kickboxer: Vengeance was a very pleasant surprise. Remakes aren't always a good idea, but the new take on the Van Damme martial arts classic turned out way better than it had any right to. It wasn't perfect, but Alain Moussi made a likeable lead, the action scenes were well-executed and the closing three-round battle was spectacular. That climactic brawl was so good it elevated the entire film and made it into a minor triumph of the B-Movie world.

Fast forward two years and we get the sequel. Alain Moussi returns as Kurt Sloane, now enjoying a career as a pro-MMA fighter and deeply in love with his wife. Faster than you can say "what was up with that dream sequence," he gets kidnapped and sent to Thailand, where Christopher Lambert's villainous Thomas Moore wants him to fight his champion; 400 pound monster Mongkut.

First things first, this isn't as good as the previous film. This is partly down to the choice of bad guy; Mongkut is huge, terrifying and absolutely towers over the hero. Kurt looks like he stands no chance, but that was the case with Tong Po as well. When they cross swords at the finale, the fight plays out in an overly familiar way, matching the beats of the previous film way too closely. Kurt took a remarkable amount of punishment first time round, but here the mauling he takes is utterly absurd. The fight is entertaining, but it re-treads familiar ground, wildly stretches credibility and isn't the nail-biting pulse-racer it was before. Your mind wanders and you may even start wishing Tong Po was still around to fight Mongkut instead.

On the other hand, Retaliation does enough to justify its existence. Van Damme returns as Kurt's trainer Durand and the Muscles is clearly having a great time again. There's a highly enjoyable extended cameo from Mike Tyson, not to mention a single take prison fight that steals the entire film. There's a couple of weird stylistic flourishes in here too that you wouldn't get in the average B-Movie, such as a surreal Hall Of Mirrors fight with two lingerie models and a sequence on a train that resembles a martial arts movie filmed like a fragrance advert.

Ultimately, Kickboxer: Retaliation is worth a watch but if you were blown away by the previous one, don't expect the same thing to happen this time. Moussi continues to defy gravity, but copying and pasting the previous film's climax was a mistake. He's already knocked down one Mountain after all. And the repeated suggestion that he's foreseen all this in a dream was a big mistake.

Filthy boring, not even my craving for Van Dame saved, and the only scene I really wanted to watch, with Ronaldinho Gaúcho (lovely scene, 10 seconds, kkkk), I lost it, I had to go back to watch it, boring...

One of the most sacred rules in Hollywood is never involve the viewer in your business. Yet, off the top, unless you are from another planet, it is crystal clear that JCVD, instead of retiring and opening a restaurant, decided to invest his money in a franchise that one of his own early films unintentionally launched. So, by joining the audience, you are supporting his enterprise, just like dining at his restaurant. The second rule broken is that the cast and crew are having more fun than the viewer. Chris Lambert is not only chewing up the furniture on set, but if you watch this at home, you will find teeth marks on the sofa. So many tricky camera angles, so many twisty story arcs, all to disguise the fact that this is just a glorified Rocky knock-off. This could all be forgiven of course if the result was solid entertainment. It isn't. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))