Review of No Retreat, No Surrender (1986) by Robin W — 14 May 2008
Jean Claude Van Damme's big break in the action genre was playing the villiain in this hilariously awful eighties martial arts flick, where JCVD is actually the best actor in the film! Shamelessly ripping off everything from "Rocky IV" (Van Damme's character is an Ivan Drago clone also named Ivan) and "The Karate Kid", but instead of being mentored by Mr.
Miyagi, the underdog hero is trained by the ghost of Bruce Lee! One of the most unintentionally funny movies of all time, with too many classic moments to mention here, but the standout scene has to be the homoerotic training montage where the hero does a stretching exercise with his Michael Jackson-esque sidekick sitting on his crotch eating ice cream (would you call them "crotch-ups"?)!!
This review of No Retreat, No Surrender (1986) was written by Robin W on 14 May 2008.
No Retreat, No Surrender has generally received mixed reviews.
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