Lionheart (1991)

★★½
Growing up, I was a big fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme. He came across as a ripped version of Chuck Norris with the added ability to perform gravity-defying moves along with his signature splits. At the risk of running afoul of Norris, whose accomplishments have been documented in a convenient and inexhaustible list of facts, I would go so far as to declare Van Damme's movies as superior in terms of their variety. Norris always had the no-nonsense approach, while fellow European Arnold Schwarzenegger brought his muscular frame to his action movies. Van Damme was the best of both worlds. He was tough, but could soften up when the situation arose. He also had a magnificent physique. His punches and kicks looked like there was plenty of raw power behind them. His drug habit and waning audience interest in martial arts movies sent his career into the direct-to-video market. For a time, though, his movies were a yearly expectation in theaters, and Lionheart was one of his most polished movies.

Schwarzenegger rarely needed justification for his accent. It was part of his appeal, and audiences just went along with it. Van Damme's movies usually included something about his background to excuse his accent. He has played a Belgian, a Cajun and a Quebecker. This time, he's a Legionnaire in the middle of Djibouti. He gets the news that his brother in Los Angeles was involved in a crime that left him on life support. With his request for leave denied, Lyon Gaultier escapes and treks through the desert, finally making his way to a port city and books passage to the U.S. in exchange for working in the engine room. The ship's master lied, taking him to New York City instead of Los Angeles. Frustrated, Lyon jumps overboard and swims ashore. With no money or identification, Lyon is looking for a break. He finally catches one when he stumbles onto a street fight. He volunteers for the next fight and defeats his opponent, winning money in the process. Lyon meets Joshua (Harrison Page), a fixer with connections to high rollers who bet thousands of dollars to watch fighters pummel each other. Joshua introduces Lyon to Cynthia (Deborah Rennard), a socialite who is intrigued with Lyon's skills and dubs him Lionheart.

Lyon isn't interested in a long-term deal. He wins a few fights and uses the money to fund a trip out west. Joshua accompanies him, in hopes of convincing him to continue fighting. His brother dies in the hospital, but he left behind a wife and daughter. The wife, Hélène (Lisa Pelikan) wants nothing to do with Lyon, whom she views as a deadbeat. With the bills piling up and her rent overdue, Hélène has little chance of providing for her daughter Nicole (Ashley Johnson). Lyon reconsiders and enters the fight circuit to raise funds for his brother's family despite Hélène not wanting his help. On Lyon's trail are two Legionnaires sent to retrieve the runaway and return him to stand trial for desertion. Like a typical Van Damme film, Lionheart pits Lyon against a variety of opponents with different fighting styles. As a showcase for the actor's skills, the movie delivers. We get slow-motion shots and multiple camera angles to capture the action. The settings change. One contest takes place in a racquetball court, while another takes place at the bottom of an empty pool. This is all fun to watch. Despite the wide availability of martial arts films in theaters and on video in the early '90s, the genre was still going strong.

Van Damme gets more dialogue to recite this time around. His acting was improving at this stage. He still has a costar to help carry the story (as he did in Death Warrant and Universal Soldier), but he was on his way to becoming a confident lead. By the time of Sudden Death, he was firmly in the driver's seat. His scenes with his niece Nicole show a softer side to the Muscles from Brussels. He and director Sheldon Lettich wrote the script as a way to challenge the actor and show him in a different light (although we get the obligatory butt shot to impress the women in the audience). It's largely successful. He doesn't have big dramatic shifts in emotion, but he does just enough to move out of his comfort zone. Harrison Page as Joshua is a capable crutch for Van Damme. He mumbles in nearly every scene with him in it (he sounds like a foul-mouthed Popeye), establishing himself as the comic relief against Lyon's seriousness. The final fight against a brute named Attila (Abdel Qissi) is quite a spectacle, as the underdog Lyon wins the crowd over to his side for an inspirational finish. Deborah Rennard is cold as the villainess Cynthia. I liked a shot of her steely gaze as Lyon secures the advantage during the climactic match. Her sleeveless dress and deep breathing was mesmerizing too.

Lionheart's outline follows an established formula. It's a tournament movie in which the opponents become stronger and more skilled as the story progresses. Following a formula doesn't automatically mean the movie isn't trying. It's like buying a used car. As long as the previous owner took care of it, then the purchase is worthwhile. Van Damme and Lettich check off the necessary boxes for this kind of story, but they include enough interesting details. There's a key scene that brings Hélène around to Lyon's assistance, with Joshua playing peacemaker between the two sides. His character isn't developed much, but we get hints of his background and his prior history with Cynthia that lead him to make a choice that is unexpected and could cause a rift between Joshua and Lyon. It's just an extra layer of suspense on top of the final fight, which offers an opponent more menacing than the entire lineup from Van Damme's 1996 directorial effort The Quest. This is a movie that came at the right time and at the right point in a rising actor's career.

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