Sound On Sight Radio Rewind: Episode #114 – The Cult of Jean Claude Van Damme

The late eighties and early nineties were the golden age of American martial arts action films. Which, of course, means that it was a cinematic dark age for anyone who doesn’t drunk-drive pick-up trucks while listening to Toby Keith CDs. Cheap and easy to produce, 80s movies like Above the Law and China O’Brien didn’t need scripts longer than a paragraph’s worth of block printing, provided they had a roundhouse kick and a blond woman being put in her place. And it was at that time that Jean-Claude Van Damme, the Muscles from Brussels, was king. After a string of big screen hits, however, Van Damme disappeared into the world of direct-to-DVD releases. But last year’s JCVD, an inventive crime film that casts Van Damme as himself, promises, or perhaps threatens, a comeback for the Belgian action star. Tonight, Sound on Sight takes a look at JCVD, as well as six of Van Damme’s other action films. Remember, we watch these movies so you don’t have to.

Episode 114 -Part 1

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Episode 114 – Part 2

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