The Quest

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source: The Quest

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The Quest (1996): Dir: Jean-Claude Van Damme / Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Roger Moore, James Remar, Jack McGee, Janet Gunn: Pitiful bag of crap that lacks imagination and originality for Jean-Claude Van Damme has ventured this dreary story countless times. The quest in question evolves around many stages of violence until only two factors remain. Complete mindless bullshit that is numbingly embarrassing as these idiots beat then living snot out of each other. Van Damme beats up opponent after opponent but we cannot keep from yawning. How many times has he played this crap out? He wrote the screenplay and then hired himself as director as if two wrongs made a right. Then again, who else would desire to be blamed for directing this garbage. Roger Moore saw this as a perfect career suicide opportunity. His career wasn't quite in the hole deep enough since leaving the James Bond franchise so this seemed like the point of no return. James Remar and Jack Mcgee also got talked into appearing in this crap. Van Damme should have sought work at an arcade if he really wanted to do this sort of thing. It would cost way less and be more rewarding. Karate classes are filled with more intrigue than this ham handed piece of junk. There is no point to this film other than to present mindless brutality so why not quest to the garage and beat this film with a sledgehammer. Score: 1 / 10

This is probably one of my favorite movies of all time. It is an easy watching, under dog winning classic. Just lived it.

Dont read the bad comments, this is actually JCVDs best movie made , real action, comedy, sexy girls and a lots of old school fighting, i miss movies like this

This disappointing Van Damme vehicle plays like one of his late '80s flicks - you know, the martial art tournament and everything - but without the graphic violence. Yes, there's not much of a plot on show here, and it seems to take an inordinate amount of time for the characters to actually reach the mythic tournament, which doesn't happen until the hour mark. Until we're introduced to one silly situation after another and meets lots of pointless characters who don't actually appear to be in the film for any reason whatsoever (take the female reporter, whose role could have been written out with ease). Van Damme also serves as director on this film, so we get to see just how much he thinks of himself when he indulges in all manner of "helicopter kicks" and other athletic manoeuvres. To be fair, Van Damme isn't particularly bad as a director, but not particularly inspired either - he choreographs the fight scenes well, but doesn't seem to understand how to make the camera warm to the people on screen. He just sits back and watches and doesn't really take part. Rated as a lenient PG-13 in America, this still managed to get a (cut) 18 certificate here in the UK. It's hard to see why, as the violence isn't much worse than in something like STREET FIGHTER and there are only a couple of nasty bone-snapping moments. The fight scenes are still highly enjoyable and exciting, especially the final battle between Van Damme and the Mongol (incidentally played by his chief opponent in A.W.O.L., this time the actor just looks like he's copying the looks of the bad guy from KICKBOXER). Van Damme looks the part, with his buzz haircut and string bandanna, but his acting is as awful as ever. At least we have the cult appeal of Roger Moore on board, playing a pirate who shamelessly introduces himself as "Dobbs...Lord Dobbs". Moore seemingly hasn't aged in the last twenty years and is fun to watch. There are a lot more entertaining Van Damme flicks out there in the sea though, so give this one a miss unless you catch it on the telly.

THE QUEST is directed by and stars Jean Claude Van Damme and watching this movie I was struck by the opening scenes which have a passing resemblance to Sergio Leone`s ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA , but don`t build your hopes up , we`re not going to be watching a masterpiece of American cinema and as soon as Jean Claude appeared as the head of a child gang of pick pockets I just knew I wasn`t going to be watching a masterpiece of American cinema . Oh and it`s a good thing dead people can`t sue otherwise Jean Claude would have received a copyright writ from Charles Dickens for using a surrogate Fagin . I hear the Jewish ADL are pretty good at issuing writs for people preaching anti-semitism and this has probably stopped Jean Claude uttering " We`ll pick a pocket or two moi dearz , we`ll pick a pocket or two " so instead the actor/director appears as a clown with his face painted completely white where he proceeds to give little children lots and lots of dollars . Expect Jean Claude to receive a writ from Michael Jackson in the near future This being a Jean Claude star vehicle we`re soon treated to our hero escaping from the law and finding himself having to resort to his martial skills to make ends meet . Sounds just like every other movie that`s starred Jean Claude Van Dumb doesn`t it ? And there`s absolutely no difference between this movie and Jean Claude`s other films . We`re even treated to these tedious arena scenes like what we saw in BLOODSPORT and LIONHEART except the ones here are directed even worse than we`d come to expect in a movie like this Watching THE QUEST I suddenly realised what it is that I dislike about Jean Claude movies - They lack any type of humour , everything is done in a completely dead pan and serious way with no room for any type of light relief . I don`t want to sound egocentric but I had more fun typing the first paragraph of this review than watching this movie and I reckon - He said modestly - Joe average would have more fun reading it than having to sit through this dumb , formuliac , dire movie

Jean Claude Van Damme directs and stars in this quite interesting action-adventure movie. Unlike Steven Seagal, Van Damme does an amicable job directing in his directorial debut. He, unlike Seagal, doesn't fall into the trap of blowing your own trumpet and keeps the story moving, albeit slowly. In this movie, Van Damme starts out as an old guy sitting in a bar. But when some local thugs begin to trash the bar, Van Damme beats them up. The landlord then asks Van Damme ‘How did you learn to fight like that?' Rather than just saying ‘I learnt how to fight in Tibet', Van Damme begins to tell his life story. The movie has Van Damme being the ring leader of a group of child pickpockets in New York during the very early 1930s, and how Van Damme gets mixed up with the local mafiaosi and has to escape New York and the mob swearing that, `one day I will come back, billy'. He makes it very clear that he will come back. At this point the story begins to move very, very slowly. But it's still quite watchable and at times, enjoyable. However, it struck me as rather odd that in a movie which is about an old guy talking about his life story, we never actually hear Van Damme narrate. Not once. So, Van Damme enters a tournament, much like Blood Sport. But unlike Blood Sport he's not doing this for revenge, for honor. Nor for pride - but to steal the 'golden dragon' (which he never intends to actually steal) and for Billy, one of the kids he leaves behind in New York. During the tournament, Van Damme has to face various foes. All with their sterotypical outfits and fighting styles. Although all the fights are incredibly flashy (flashy kicks, flashy punches, flashy roars), they also look incredibly staged. Anyhow, Van Damme wins the very flashy competition and beats the Mongolian behemoth to return to New York. This is where I expected the film to pick up. I wanted to see Van Damme, world's toughest man, to beat up the New York mob and save Billy. Unfortunately we get a very lazy ending. We get Van Damme narrating something like `I eventually got back to New York and it turned out that Billy was okay, everything was okay, I was happy, the end'. Then, we cut from Van Damme's victorious final fight to some lady's hand closing a book cover. Hang on a second, I thought we were hearing and watching Van Damme's quest, not some lady's novel. Apart from the lazy ending and the long running time, I think this film was amicable. But if you're after a fun action movie, then it's better to hire Bloodsport. Overall: 5/10.