Shotokan and Van Damme
- Thread starter matt.m
- Start date
I have never had a reason not to like him, his movie are pretty good and he is a fair Martial Artist.
Bobby135
Orange Belt
I would have to say that I like his old stuff (Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Lionheart) but some of his new stuff is pretty bad. So bad in fact that I dont remember the movie names hehehe. He appears to be very showy with his signature spinning jump kick, not sure about his skills outside of the movies
Bobby
Bobby
Van Damme has seen better days... Still in pretty darn good condition, considering that he put his body through an 8,000 dollar / week cocaine habit. If any of us went on that type of a habit, we would have been stone cold dead.
Out of all of his movies, I can still remember No Retreat, No Surrender, where he played the role of the bad guy, Ivan. I always thought this was one of his better roles.
Bloodsport was quite entertaining, since it also brought exposure to various other martial arts (Sumo, Muay Thai, Capoeira, Gung Fu, Freestyle, Aikido, etc), even if some of them were portrayed very poorly.
I actually liked "The Quest," since the fight scenes were better, and the Capoeira practitioner was excellent.
Out of all of his movies, I can still remember No Retreat, No Surrender, where he played the role of the bad guy, Ivan. I always thought this was one of his better roles.
Bloodsport was quite entertaining, since it also brought exposure to various other martial arts (Sumo, Muay Thai, Capoeira, Gung Fu, Freestyle, Aikido, etc), even if some of them were portrayed very poorly.
I actually liked "The Quest," since the fight scenes were better, and the Capoeira practitioner was excellent.
Skip Cooper
Purple Belt
Not a big fan of Van Damme...I lean toward the stiff acting of Steven Segal, "I'm just a cook." 
BTW, what do shotokan and Van Damme have in common? Is that his original martial art style? I had always assumed it was taekwondo...never really put much thought into it, until now.
BTW, what do shotokan and Van Damme have in common? Is that his original martial art style? I had always assumed it was taekwondo...never really put much thought into it, until now.
agemechanic03
Purple Belt
Not sure about his everyday stuff, and wasn't too happy when I heard about his coke addiction back in the day. As for his movies, I'm a big fan of, even tho I haven't seen them all. As a matter of fact, I have Bloodsport with me here in Korea!
twendkata71
Black Belt
Van Damme did study Shotokan in Brussels when he was younger. Won some traditional tournaments. He added the taekwondo and muy thai later for the movies. He was not a full contact fighter.
OP
OP
matt.m
Senior Master
Not a big fan of Van Damme...I lean toward the stiff acting of Steven Segal, "I'm just a cook."
BTW, what do shotokan and Van Damme have in common? Is that his original martial art style? I had always assumed it was taekwondo...never really put much thought into it, until now.
Skip, Under Siege is a good movie. However, to me Seagal doesn't "Look" that good technique wise. I know I am a hapkidoan, but there is not a big difference from the two. Plus Van Damme has better 1 liners. Just an opinion.
Wild Bill
Green Belt
Bodhisattva
Blue Belt
WHERE is there any proof he is a full contact champion?
I have heard that fact disputed a lot.
He looks like a sissy boy, to me.
OP
OP
matt.m
Senior Master
I have the entire dvd library. You cant get Sinav, Black Eagle, or No Retreat No Surrender.
But I will see this
twendkata71
Black Belt
I don't of any proof that he was on any full contact team, champion team, or otherwise. The only thing I remeber about his record was that he won at some European (Wuko/WKF) type tournaments. The last I heard he was actually working with a Goju ryu stylist. Who know? The only karate ka/ actor that I know for sure was a full contact karate(Kyokushinkai) champion was Dolf lungren he is a 4th or 5th dan in Kyokushinkai.
Flying Crane
Sr. Grandmaster
When I saw Bloodsport in High School, I liked it. Looking back as an adult, I think he is an absolutely lousey actor, and his fight choreography is terrible.
The Quest is another showcase of horrible acting and gawd-awful fight choreography on his part. Boy, there is just nothing like standing nose-to-nose with a beefy bruiser, trading body shots with neither making any effort to block or evade in the mean time. Just dish out and take an equal amount of punishment. Stupid.
The Quest is another showcase of horrible acting and gawd-awful fight choreography on his part. Boy, there is just nothing like standing nose-to-nose with a beefy bruiser, trading body shots with neither making any effort to block or evade in the mean time. Just dish out and take an equal amount of punishment. Stupid.
I concur with Terry - then again I think that the younger Seagal was okay too, so what does that say about my judgement
That younger Seagal was good as were his films. He then started to believe he was better than he was and took to preaching in his films
Cheers
Sam:asian:
He did do some kickboxing apparently nearly severed a guys nose clean off with his big toe nail to win some obscure European 'world' title. Opinions vary on his ability. Dennis Alexio thought Van Damme ws pretty average yet former WKA world kickboxing champion Dida Diafat said Van Damme has some of the best legs he has ever seen.
I don't have the publication where i read the above info and don't really care enough to find out where it came from so it is up to you guys to either believe it or not.
Cheers
Sam:asian:
I don't have the publication where i read the above info and don't really care enough to find out where it came from so it is up to you guys to either believe it or not.
Cheers
Sam:asian:
Topeng
Orange Belt
His fight record is 15-1 and all 15 wins were by knockout. He went by the name Jean Claude Van Varenberg at the time (his birthname).
I liked his earlier movies but the newer ones don't do it for me though I can't say I have seen many of the recent ones. Its the same with Seagal but thats just me. Maybe I'm just guilty of jumping on the Jet Li / Tony Jaa train.
As a person my opinion is torn. He's a smart guy - A successful business owner in the past and is fluent in 5 languages. The blemish is in his history of domestic violence though that could be attributed to his bipolar disorder. All in all, who am I to judge? I've never even seen the guy let alone know him.
A sidenote: He'll never recover from that dance scene in Kickboxer. He makes ME feel embarrased during that one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_damme
I liked his earlier movies but the newer ones don't do it for me though I can't say I have seen many of the recent ones. Its the same with Seagal but thats just me. Maybe I'm just guilty of jumping on the Jet Li / Tony Jaa train.
As a person my opinion is torn. He's a smart guy - A successful business owner in the past and is fluent in 5 languages. The blemish is in his history of domestic violence though that could be attributed to his bipolar disorder. All in all, who am I to judge? I've never even seen the guy let alone know him.
A sidenote: He'll never recover from that dance scene in Kickboxer. He makes ME feel embarrased during that one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_damme
twendkata71
Black Belt
Ok, I stand corrected.
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