Christopher Lambert + JCVD = “Kickboxer: Retaliation”

What? You don’t recognize the Lambert name? Shame on you! Ok, not really. Lambert is best known for playing an immortal in “Highlander” and Lord Raiden (the God of Thunder) in the 1995 video game movie adaptation — “Mortal Kombat”.

What better way than to bring Lambert back into the limelight than by having him team up with international martial arts legend, Jean Claude Van Damme (who, rather ironically, played Guile in the video game movie adaptation “Street Fighter” (1994)?

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. The crazy doesn’t end there though. Lambert is set to portray a villain in a sequel to a rebooted series that hasn’t even come out yet. This rebooted series begins with “Kickboxer: Vengeance”, which is set to come out in theaters on September 2nd. ‘Vengeance’ will star JCVD, Dave Bautista, Gina Carano and Alain Moussi. Check out the trailer for “Kickboxer: Vengeance” below!

The producers believe ‘Vengeance’ will be a big enough hit that they have already started principal photography on the sequel, “Kickboxer: Retaliation”. The cast continues to get more interesting though. “Game of Thrones” star Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (The Mountain) will be set as the movie big bad, with Lambert playing a godfather of underground fighting and a scientist who helped create Bjornsson’s character using HGH, steroids, etc.

Classic JCVD in “Kickboxer” (1989).

‘Vengeance’ is directed by John Stockwell (“Into the Blue”, “Blue Crush”). Well, at least I really enjoyed “Blue Crush”. The sequel, ‘Retaliation’, is set to be directed by Dimitri Logothetis.

I’m surprised there isn’t a movie title predictor for Jean Claude Van Damme’s upcoming movies. Just saying. A betting man would find as many synonyms for ‘revenge’ as possible.

“Highlander” is required viewing even though the movie isn’t the best.

“Hey, quit bringing up “Highlander!”I hear this on a weekly basis. I like what I like alright! I have to at least write about why I love this movie so much.

In the immortal words of Christopher Lambert “there can be only one”. See how clever I was with that last sentence? I crack my own self up. Okay, so why should you care about a movie that isn’t actually that good? Simple: the premise of the movie and the legendary soundtrack by Queen.

Our story follows Connor Macleod in 1985 and in the 16th century as he learns he cannot die unless he is beheaded. The large gap in flashbacks is because he’s an immortal. No time travel in this movie. That would be cool though. Getting sidetracked. So he is trained by Sir Sean Connery (yes, he’s been knighted) and learns that all the immortals have to play a ‘game’ to be the last one standing to obtain the ‘prize’. The game is simple but the actual ‘prize’ is never really described. Well, they gloss over it very quickly – he can help everyone communicate all over the world I guess. That’s pretty damn lame huh? You’ve been living 500 years, beheading fellow immortals, to obtain the gift to help people communicate all over the world? What a let down. The prize gives you the power to be a global politician I guess.

Why isn’t it that good? The cheesy, off the wall, performances and a script that undermines the premise of what could have been the best movie ever. I learned to love how Connery pretends to be a flashy wearing, Spaniard dude that delivers such lines as “you feel that? that’s the quickening!” I also learned to love Christopher Lambert’s indiscernible accent (this was his first English speaking role) or how the beginning of the movie starts at a wrestling match or how every immortal prefers to use a goddamn sword to behead other immortals (what? no shotgun to head?) or how none of the immortals knows how to fight at all. I could go on….

What really works is that the movie begs the viewer to self reflect. What would it mean to be immortal? How would you value things? Would does time mean to you? These are the great questions the movie attempts to dissect.

Outside of its flaws, it’s a classic. It spawned four sequels, two TV shows, a cartoon, and an animated movie. Hollywood is attempting at getting a reboot going with a previously attached Ryan Reynolds. The latest is that Dave Bautista is looking to play the villain, Kurgan. Don’t hold your breath though as the reboot has been in talks forever. With all the reboots, sequels, prequels, remakes, and mid-sequels at the box office, I actually approve of a Highlander reboot. There is so much that you could do with a new movie — explain how there are immortals, explain why they even play the ‘game’, describe what the ‘prize’ actually is, implement excellent action scenes, and give it a credible director like Ridley Scott or Darren Aronofsky.

If you haven’t seen this hidden gem then what are you waiting for?!