Product Description

VAN DAMME QUITS THE FOREIGN LEGION TO BECOME A PROFESSIONAL STREET FIGHTER. SUPER MARTIAL ARTS ACTION.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13162 in DVD
• Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
• Released on: 1998-09-09
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Customer Reviews

where's the letterboxed edition
5 stars for the movie but only one star for the company releasing it. Much like "timecop" another terrific Van Damme movie, there's no letterboxed edition. Why do they do this to us? The horror...the horror...

An Oldie but a Goodie! Good movie for those new to Van Damme films
Whether you're a Van Damme fan or have never heard of him, you'll appreciate this movie. As always, there's plenty of kickbutt action but it also has lots of heart and a good story-line. Van Damme usually plays good guys (with the occasional evil twin), helping friends and family out of tough situations. The same goes for this film. He sacrifices his body through underground fights to financially and anonymously help his widowed sister-n-law and nephew. Great fighting scenes. Funny sidekick. Good acting, by all characters, pulls you into the story. Bottom Line: Golden Oldie that will win you over!

Lionheart: About Duty & Responsibility Too
Most films starring Jean-Claude Van Damme are nothing more than vehicles for showing off his considerable fighting skills. Prior to LIONHEART, JCVD rarely had to act. He fought a lesser series of bad guys on the way to a final confrontation with a very intimidating fighter. Now this also sounds like a plot summary of LIONHEART, but in addition to the kicks and punches, the film also delves into some serious issues of duty versus responsibility and the meaning of friendship.
JCVD plays a Legionnaire whose brother in the US is ill, so he requests permission for emergency leave. His request is turned down on the rightful claim of his commandant that his presence in Africa was needed for Legionnaire business. At this point, VD must decide which is of greater import: his duty to his brother or to his country. He chooses to go AWOL to find his brother. This choice could not have been an easy one since his decision to leave the base would necessarily entail his being labeled a deserter. Two Legionnaire NCOs are sent to bring him back in chains. While in America, he discovers that his brother is dead and has left behind a destitute wife and child. VD determines to win money to provide for them by engaging in brutal cage fights. Along the way he picks up the services of a wino manager, oily played by Harrison Page. Slowly the two men, the fighter and the manager, lay the grounds for a binding friendship, which is tested by the manager's decision to bet on the fearsome and final opponent. When VD finds out that his manager sold him out, you can see that the pain in his heart outweighs the more obvious pain of his bruised ribs. When he somehow defeats this monster fighter, the scene in which his manager first congratulates then apologizes to him is both touching and convincing.
As with most JCVD movies, there is plenty of eye-popping body slugging, with the final match the most interesting. But behind the fighting, Van Damme also shows that emotional impacting on those who call him either friend or enemy is often at least as fascinating as watching him grind his most recent opponent into the dust.