Kickboxer

"An ancient sport becomes a deadly game."

1989 1h 38m EN

👍

6.8

SOLID

★6.8TMDB · 1,640

ActionThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

If your enemy refuses to be humbled... Destroy him. Accompanied by his brother Kurt, American kickboxing champion Eric Sloane, arrives in Thailand to defeat the Eastern warriors at their own sport. His opponent: ruthless fighter and Thai champion, Tong Po. Tong not only defeats Eric, he paralyzes him for life. Crazed with anger, Kurt vows revenge.

“An ancient sport becomes a deadly game.”

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Cast

Jean-Claude Van Damme
Kurt Sloane
Dennis Alexio
Eric Sloane
Dennis Chan Kwok-San
Xian
Haskell V. Anderson III
Winston Taylor
Rochelle Ashana
Mylee
Michel Qissi
Tong Po
Steve Lee Ka-Ting
Freddy Li
Gam Biu
Tao Liu

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: David Worth
Writers: Glenn A. Bruce, Mark DiSalle, Jean-Claude Van Damme
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $50M — a 33.3× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

37 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Kickboxer Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by David Worth, shot by Jon Kranhouse. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Paul Hertzog. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Wayne Wahrman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dennis Alexio and Dennis Chan Kwok-San carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

David Worth directs. Jon Kranhouse behind the camera. Paul Hertzog scores. Wayne Wahrman cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.5M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $50M — a 33.3× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
337 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Part of the "Kickboxer Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by David Worth, shot by Jon Kranhouse. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Paul Hertzog. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Wayne Wahrman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dennis Alexio and Dennis Chan Kwok-San carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "An ancient sport becomes a deadly game.".
10IMDB entry: tt0097659 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 17 themes, including "martial arts", "showdown", "rape", "sibling relationship".
12Released under 11 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Jon Kranhouse
Original score: Paul Hertzog
Editing: Wayne Wahrman
Production design: Shay Austin
Stunt coordinator: John Cheung Ng-Long
Runtime: 98 min · 1h 38m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,500,000
Box office: $50,000,000
Return: 3333% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Kickboxer (1989)

Part of

Kickboxer Collection

Kickboxer Movie Collection

Also by

David Worth

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-07-08
★ 8/10
Just listen. With your mind, your heart, your whole being. Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Kurt Sloane, who after witnessing his brother getting crippled in a Muay Thai fight in Thailand, sets about learning the art himself so as to enact revenge on the sinister Tiger Tong Po who illegally put his brother in the wheel chair. Ah look, I don't see any point in writing about the market that Van Damme movies sit in, I think everyone knows that there isn't going to be great acting in these movies, the plotting will be straight and simple and the resolution will be prescribed to get a whoop and yee-haw response. I would think that as much as some highbrow film fans roll their eyes and look down their noses at these type of action movies, they do at least acknowledge the fighting artistry and choreography on show. They, you hope, stay away and leave the ass kicking fans and nostalgists to wallow in their cheese and beaten body pulp kingdoms. I mean why would an arty film lover seek out an early Van Damme movie anyway? I love Kickboxer, I really do, when I first caught it on release I could be found trying to do some of those wonderful Van Damme moves, rewatching the key moments over and over again, enjoying immensely the adrenalin rush that comes as we go slow-mo and Jean-Claude goes about dismantling uber bastard villain Tiger Tong Po (Michel Qissi). Now, well over twenty years later, I still get that rush, I can't do the moves, mind, I nearly put my shoulder out just punching the air in triumph as a mullet headed Dennis Alexio sticks his thumb up from his wheelchair, but all the thrills are still there, the skills on show still amazing. Hell, there's even a pet thread of substance, damn those animal threads, that cool dog better not get killed! Grrrrrrrr. Of course now, viewing with older and wiser eyes, you can see the clunkiness of the script, the lame-brained plotting and excuses for Van Damme to flash the flesh and show his dexterity. There's even one of the worst dance sequences ever put down on film, so bad I can't believe I never laughed out loud at the cinema all those years ago. Yet it's still a wonderful movie, often exhilarating, the thematics of second chances (Haskell V. Anderson III having a great old time of it as Winston Taylor), revenge and different cultures, these impact greatly on the picture. Then there's Dennis Chan as Xian Chow, giving Pat Morita a run for his money as the most fun cinematic Martial Arts trainer, the real location photography in Thailand, the training sequences and of course we get to learn about the ancient sport of Muay Thai. There's a lot of good here to off set the saggy cheese. There are some truly awful Van Damme movies out there, case in point Cyborg which was released the same year as Kickboxer, and without doubt the quality of Van Damme movies improved in the 90s as his stock began to rise and the budgets went higher. But this is a goody for his fans to lap up, a film to sit alongside Bloodsport as one of the two best action movies from his early body of work. And I love it so. 8/10
KayP972022-10-09
JCVD is not a good actor, but he is a fantastic martial artist, and he has shown that in a lot of movies. While there are moments here that demonstrated his skills, I can't help but feel a little disappointed. Some of the build-up I actually quite liked. Tong Po looked menacing and while the Winston Taylor character was a bit cheesy, he grew on me. I was not a fan of Eric Sloanes arrogance. I guess you need to have a bit of that when your champion, but he just did not feel real. Most of the film plays out more like a training montage before the big fight at the end. There were some fun training moments, but a lot of it felt quite boring to me and the added romance did not really work, especially when the acting is not great. I wish the final fight played out differently, it was extremely predictable and there was not much of a fight considering they tried to fix it. I just hoped for more than what I got. 5/10.

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