Lionheart (EOTWS)

End Of The Week Shorts #49 extract: Lionheart (1990)

As Van Damme movies go - as 80s and 90s martial arts/action pictures go - Lionheart (or A.W.O.L) stands up pretty well. 

With a surprisingly rounded set of characters and an unexpectedly strong story, Lionheart subverts many of the more grating clichés and tropes of the genre and actually attempts to take its characters seriously, to give you a reason to care about them and find their humanity. That said, there are still some horrible one-liners, some iffy performances and no grand narrative or intricate drama to speak of. And, of course, this is a tournament film - so there is absolutely nothing that will surprise you about the structure . I'm on the fence about the editing, which uses multiple angles of the same action over and over. This kind of works, allowing the fight scenes to be slow and impactful. It's also lazy and pretty noticeable. And I have to also say that the action scenes aren't too impressive - the same old kicks and spins. All in all though, this is unquestionably one of the better representatives of the genre and Van Damme.