![]() Martial arts fans continue to cherish Bloodsport for exquisite training montages and fight scenes with a vast range of different disciplines showcased in the Kumite itself with Stan Bush's "Fight to Survive" only enlivening the film that much more. ![]() Based on the heavily disputed claims of Frank Dux, Bloodsport is a tournament movie that simply fires on all cylinders. In Van Damme's star-making role, he plays American special forces soldier Frank Dux, who goes AWOL in order to entering the shadowy and deadly underground martial arts tournament known as the Kumite. The '80s was the era when the martial arts tournament movie cemented its B-movie foundation, and Bloodsport is one of the best there's ever been in that distinguished arena. In the underground martial arts tournament sub-genre, The Quest is a true gem. Roger Moore also adds his reliable James Bond charm to the film as conniving thief and Chris’ semi-friend Lord Edgar Dobbs, while the massive Adbel Qissi looms over the tournament as a Mongolian boxer possibly Van Damme’s most imposing opponent ever. ![]() Martial arts fans have plenty to feast on with exponents of disciplines of martial arts as diverse as John Wick's competing in an MMA tournament decades in advance. The Quest essentially dials up Bloodsport’s basic concept to much more grandiose levels, pitting fighters from different nations in a sprawling arena in epic fashion with Randy Edelman’s Hans Zimmer-worthy score. Told in flashback from modern times, The Quest follows 1920s New York City pickpocket Christopher Dubious (Van Damme), who enters a secret martial arts tournament in Tibet known as the Gang-gheng. The best candidate for Van Damme’s most under-appreciated movie is also the one he made his directorial debut with in The Quest. For Julia, of course, it was just Tuesday. Street Fighter was given a much more beloved reboot in 2014’s Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, but Street Fighter nonetheless holds a place of honor for many fans for Julia’s supervillain energy as M. Street Fighter is still a very worthwhile campy romp to revisit almost three decades later, with Julia’s hammy performance being worth the admission price and then some. Some of the fight scenes admirably strike hard, especially Ryu and Ken’s battle with Vega and Sagat, but the silly tone and absence of many of Street Fighter’s core fantastical elements left fans and most audiences unimpressed. ![]() Van Damme plays Colonel Guile, tasked with rescuing hostages from Bison’s Shadaloo fortress before his 72-hour ransom clock runs out. Bison into a forever-after quoted meme factory. The 1994 adaptation of Street Fighter was eviscerated by fans of the games and professional reviewers, but it turned a robust profit over the holiday season and made Raul Julia’s M. Here are Jean-Claude Van Damme's movies ranked from his weakest to his strongest. Van Damme has since announced his retirement after what he's declared to be his final action movie in the forthcoming What's My Name? With decades of doing fight scenes and splits in front of the camera and even a few times in the director's chair, Jean-Claude Van Damme will leave behind an astonishing action movie legacy. RELATED: Every Perfect Van Damme Villain For His Final Action Movie Though Van Damme experienced a significant career decline in the late '90s, he staged a remarkable comeback with his semi-autobiographical movie JCVD, and he leapt back to the spotlight with movies like The Expendables 2 and his return to the Universal Soldier movie franchise. The success of the movie led to Van Damme steadily growing in popularity with other low budget hits like Kickboxer and Cyborg, and he rose to mainstream action movie recognition in the '90s in action films like Universal Soldier and Timecop.
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