Olhos de Dragão

Storywise this really aims high. Something that people might not really be into that much, but whatever the case, you have to admire the filmmakers for trying at least. There are some very fine ideas in this movie (loyalty, friendship, respect amongst them), but none get explored too much. Not to mention that the emotional connection between the viewer and the main character unfortunately isn't the strongest. And that has nothing to do with the storyline, but has more to do with the way the movie is handled.

The action scenes are decent enough (some are even spectacular), but hopefully you're not renting this to watch van Damme fight. He's playing a major part, but is a supporting player. But Cung Le knows how to fight. In the charisma department on the other hand ... One really good coup the movie made is installing Peter Weller as the main bad guy. He is terrific and shows what Charisma really is!

This movie is actually better than rated by audiences here. Cung Le is good in this quasi-western martial arts film. JCVD is very good in a Miyagi like role. Peter Weller is good as a crooked cop. Some good elements. Some good fights. Doesn't all tie together to make a great movie but good for streaming. If you know Cung Le's UFC career you'll recognize a lot of his signature moves here.

Really bad story- if you put this movie in DVD 📀 to watch van Damme move watch something else and the story in the movie is really bad. Terrible in fact. I give a honest 4/ 10.

I was finally able to watch this and I have to say that I enjoyed it. I do agree with some others that the story did have some plot holes, which was the main flaw of the movie. It felt like a lot of the scenes were missing about 5 min that would explain why the next scene plays out how it does. Still, this didn't really affect most of the overall enjoyment factor for me. I thought Cung Le was a cool lead. He has minimal dialog, which is probably a good thing, so he comes off as the strong silent type. As we all know, JC only has a small part...probably about 10 minutes spread throughout the whole movie. His scenes and his performance are both very cool. I didn't really care for how his back story was explained though. The fights do have a lot of slow motion thrown into them but it actually works for the most part. It allows you to feel the brutality of street fighting...plus you see everything clearly, which is great. Hyams knows how to stay on a scene, which I love. As far as the side characters go, they are all clichéd but the acting is actually pretty solid. The guy who plays Beech probably delivers one of the best crack head performances I've seen in a movie. The ending is very abrupt but I felt like it actually fit the tone of the movie. Like Regeneration, I really enjoyed the subtle music score from Michael Krassner too. Overall, the movie isn't great but I thought it was a well made little indie action flick. It totally felt like a late 80's/early 90's beat em up flick like Road House or Perfect Weapon. 3.25/5

Sigh. Where to begin?

A bad film with a hell of a lot of stupid moments, a stock caricature villain, awful rap music... At least the Western-style cinematography is new - not particularly well done, but new. There's also the annoying and cliché freeze-frame with each character's name as they appear on-screen for the first time. Yes, just five minutes in you'll know that this film will suck... but will the fight scenes redeem it?

Unfortunately, I'd have to say no.

Cung Le is pretty good as the stoic, kick-arse lead and, given some better material, I'd give him a second chance, but the film is forgettable at best and painful at worst.

Yes, van Damme's in it (the reason I recorded it when it came on TV), but don't expect too much from him, as he somehow manages to train the lead in prison from sorry loser to ninja, in such a short period of time that his student's hair doesn't even grow!

Credits to the man for that - now where do I sign up for my martial arts lessons?

Given van Damme's massive library of content though, I'd have to advise that a fan looked elsewhere to get his kicks... a joke that falls about as flat as this dreadful feature.