Kickboxer: Vengeance Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Kickboxer: Vengeance Blu-ray Movie Review

No Kick

Reviewed by Michael Reuben November 11, 2016

Kickboxer:Vengeance is a remake/reboot of the 1989 film that started a franchise and helped launch the career of Jean-Claude Van Damme. Van Damme returns in a different role, but he's the only bright spot in an otherwise amateurish and dispiriting affair. Next to K:V, the original Kickboxer plays like Shakespeare.

Van Damme's former role of Kurt Sloane is now played by Canadian-Lebanese stuntman Alain Moussi, whose thespian skills run the gamut from awkward to wooden. An aspiring Muay Thai practitioner, Kurt travels to Thailand seeking vengeance against champion Tong Po (Dave Bautista), who killed Kurt's brother, Eric, in a high-stakes match (Darren Shahlavi, in his final role). Failing to shoot Tong Po when he has the chance, Kurt has himself trained by Master Durand (Van Damme), so that he can seek revenge in the ring. A crooked fight promoter (Gina Carano) hovers on the fringe, and she's being investigated by a Thai police detective named Lui (Sara Malakul Lane), who improbably becomes Kurt's lover. Even more improbably, Lui stands by idly with a squad of police rather than stopping Kurt's match with Tong Po, which would end the illegal fight ring she's been investigating, bring Tong Po to justice and, as a bonus, save her boyfriend from being beaten to a bloody pulp.

K:V hasn't been so much directed as improvised from a sketchy script, with training and fight sequences haphazardly shot and indifferently edited and an equal disregard for both exposition and continuity. The film is so sloppily executed that many of Van Damme's lines have been looped by a different actor, who doesn't so much imitate JCVD as supply a bad impression. Following his grudge match with Tong Po, Kurt appears without a bandage or a visible mark on him, even though his face has supposedly been shredded by broken glass.

Kickboxer: Vengeance Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kickboxer: Vengeance was shot on Red by Colombian cinematographer Mateo Londono (Miss Nobody). Image Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is a competent rendition of a Red-acquired film, with good sharpness, clarity and detail, decent blacks and a mostly realistic palette accentuated by washes of color. The average bitrate of 22.01 Mbps is typical of digitally originated projects.

Kickboxer: Vengeance Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

K:V's lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack immerses the listener in the crowds at various fight scenes and in environments such as the Thai police station where Liu is headquartered. The surrounds are also heavily used to expand the score by Adam Dorn, a/k/a Mocean Worker (Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic). The dialogue is too often buried in the mix, but it rarely matters. The Thai dialogue is translated by animated subtitles that are the most visually interesting element in the movie.

Kickboxer: Vengeance Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (1080p; 1.85:1; 6:11).



• Photo Gallery (1080p; various).



• Introductory Trailers: Bone Tomahawk, Odd Thomas, Rage, The Colony.

Kickboxer: Vengeance Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Kickboxer: Vengeance is a waste of time, let alone money. Maybe the two planned sequels will be better.