Thursday, May 8, 2008

LIONHEART: 4.0 out of 5 stars



Lionheart starts out with a guy getting set on fire and it stays hot until the end,
October 5, 2007

Lionheart stars Jean-Claude Van Damme. So, obviously it is an Unintentional Comedy Action flick. However, we, Sid the Elf, were not expecting such a strong effort. You had Frank Dux back for another round of whippings, you had the black detective from...wait for it...Death Ring!!!!!!! That's right, a Death Ring alum. Instant 2 stars. Then, to put the cherry on the sundae we had Freddy Bisco from Scent of a Woman, and the bad guy from Cobra!

Lionheart was a classically styled B-action. It had a lot of techniques from the Frank Leone(Sylvester Stallone) school of filmmaking. Van Damme was the tough fighter with a heart of gold. Teamed with the jive talking brother from Death Ring, they were the hottest on-screen couple we've seen in a long time. They even had the hug at the end instead of Van Damme and a chick. Sketchy, right? You have cheesy music which seems to rev Van Damme's engine. You had plot stretches as far as the eye could see. Van Damme jumps off a freight ship moving who-knows-how-fast in the middle of the night and swims to the shore of New York. Then, he decides to enter the glamorous world of fight clubbing. He literally starts off at the bottom, fighting homeless guys for food under a bridge. Let us interject for a second that if you're B in your own B movie, that's probably not a good sign for the future. Anyway, the guy from Death Ring "discovers" Van Damme and starts managing him. Ace and Gary win a few fights and make it to L.A., the big time as far as underground fighting in those days. But, they still live together in a small apartment. Hmmm. While in L.A. Dux stalks some family and kicks some major tail. He's even such an entrancing figure that the authorities are in awe of his lionheart and don't mess with him.

So, Lionheart earns the Sid the Elf Seal of Approval. It is king of the jungle. Well kids, it's getting mighty close to Christmas time, so Sid will be slowing down for a while. There are many pink turkey basters to make. But he will be doing reviews as often as he can.

Click here for movie trailer:http://www.videodetective.com/movies/LIONHEART/trailer/P00001217.htm

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