Jean-Claude Van Damme's Lionheart arrives on 4K with both the original and extended cuts, offering martial arts fans another opportunity to revisit the 1990 action film.
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme (Bloodsport), was born in 1960 in Belgium and grew up in Brussels. As a youngster, he learned Shotokan Karate and competed as a teenager in Karate and Kickboxing tournaments. In adulthood, he owned a successful gym in Brussels before deciding to sell it and move to America in 1982 to become an actor. Originally landing small roles, his breakthrough performance came in 1988 in the film Bloodsport, where he played an American Captain who went AWOL to compete in an underground martial arts tournament. Over the next several years, Van Damme starred in numerous action films, including 1990's Lionheart. MDV Visual has now released Lionheart on 4K.
Lyon (Van Damme) is in Africa as part of the French Foreign Legion when he finds out his brother has been critically injured during a drug deal gone wrong. Denied his request to leave and go to the United States to see his brother, Lyon goes AWOL, illegally finds work on a ship sailing to America, and ends up in the New York underground fighting ring. Finding he can make good money at it, he continues in Los Angeles to help his sister-in-law and his niece after his brother succumbs to his injuries.
It is very obvious this film was written in order to showcase Van Damme's martial arts skills, as the story is pedestrian at best, and most of the cast are not the best actors. The action was decent for what was coming out of Hollywood over three decades ago, but pales in comparison to the likes of the John Wick films. Lionheart is the epitome of the late 1980s/early 1990s in terms of the fashion and the music, and unfortunately, some of it is laughable nowadays.
Sometimes the conversion from the original material to a new 4K disc isn't too bad, but with a 30-plus-year-old movie, there is some extremely noticeable graininess. The 2160p resolution and 1.85:1 aspect ratio can be hit or miss, with some scenes looking really good while others (even a split second later) look grainy, worn, and muted. This obvious contrast can be jarring at times.
The audio is lossless LPCM 2.0, which is decent considering the source material. It neither highlights nor downplays the dialogue, ambient sounds, and the cheesy, 1980s, synthesizer-heavy soundtrack.
The packaging includes the 4K disc, Blu-ray Disc, and a poster. The majority of extras are previously released and are on the Blu-ray Disc. They include Commentary by director Sheldon Lettich and moderated by Heath Holland, The Story of Lionheart, Inside Lionheart, Lionheart: Behind the Fights, Making of Featurette, Interview with Sheldon Lettich, Interview with Harrison Page, Behind the Scenes of the Audio Commentary, Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery, Five Promotional TV Clips, Trailers including Lionheart, and Audio Commentary featuring Sheldon Lettich and Harrison Page. If you have never seen these extras before, they are pretty interesting and worth seeing at least once.
This MDV Visual release includes the original film and the extended cut, which includes about 10 more minutes of the film. The additional footage adds slightly to the story and includes an opening scene where we see Lyon's brother being set on fire and a later scene where Cynthia (Deborah Rennard; Dallas) goes crazy on Lyon and throws him out of her apartment.
I'm not a fan of bloody fight scenes, so Lionheart isn't really my kind of movie, but if you are a martial arts/kickboxing fan, you will appreciate the skill required to make a movie like this. MDV Visual does a good job with this release, so anyone who enjoys Van Damme's movies will enjoy having Lionheart to add to their collection.
Grade: C
