| Lionheart(1991) Cast:Jean-Claude Van Damme,Harrison Page,Deborah Rennard,Brian Thompson,Lisa Pelikan Lionheart at times seems more like a remake of Hard Times then the Bloodsport style vengefest you'd expect but with everything considered Lionheart emerges as one of Van Damme's better films. The story itself has Van Damme going AWOL from the foreign legion to see his dying brother, however he arrives too late and finds that his brother's widow is broke and on the verge of homelessness, to prevent this from happening Van Damme turns to a streetfighting circuit. We all know what to expect from a cover in which Van Damme with slicked back hair and a muscle shirt looks as if he's going to kickbox people into oblivion, however what one finds surprising about Lionheart is how ambitious the premise is and how well it works at what it tries to establish itself as. Basically the movie itself is fairly paint by numbers but I found myself more interested in the characters and mainly in Jean-Claude Van Damme's and so with that angle worked in, the fightscenes are that much more exciting. Sure Lionheart is full of weaknesses such as some thrown in actionscenes to give the movie it's action but for the most part Lionheart works well in its small scenes and delivers the required suspense in the fightscenes. Lionheart also represents a vast improvement over Death Warrant and Cyborg.. D.Sheldon Lettich *** |