The Quest (1996)

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Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 8-JAN-2002
Media Type: DVD Product Description

Van Damme & Moore: Quest Without A Compass

When watching "The Quest", you can tell that Jean-Claude Van Damme's career was on a descent: directed by himself, it's basically a retelling of "Bloodsport" lacking any and all cult intrigue, and co-stars a way-past-his-prime Roger Moore.
Though I've never been a fan of Van Damme, I'm always ready for a good action film: "Quest", disappointingly, is merely a bad film with good action scenes, and therefore remains miles behind the likes of "Universal Soldier", "Hard Target", or "Timecop".

Van Damme is Christopher Dubois - a 1920s pickpocket whose frequent run-ins with the law see him shanghaied on a smuggling ship, from which he is "rescued" by a mercenary Englishman (Moore) who sells him into a Thai fighting circuit. The two inexplicably reunite and agree to aid eachother as they enter a Tibetan tournament pitting fighters from all over the world for the prize of a valuable golden statue.

Let's get right to the good stuff, the fighting. In short, it's good. The choreography of the encounters in the tournament regularly surpasses that of "Bloodsport": the action is faster but just as hard-edged, and just about all of the diverse fighting styles - from Muay Thai to Capoeira - are represented faithfully. Very good stuff.
Slightly disappointing is the length of most of the fights: with the exception of Van Damme's, each encounter is lucky to last more than 20 seconds, even when the complete fight is filmed (in contrast to opening halfway into the fight).

Sadly, the tournament only begins about halfway into the movie, and just about everything leading up to it is a lacklustre storytelling-attempt that most action films are known for, with minimal fights to be seen. To his credit, Van Damme is a step ahead of most other action heroes when it comes acting, and Roger Moore is known for his work...but neither they nor the rest of the cast (including James Remar of "48 Hours") are anything out of the ordinary in this movie; and the fact that nothing out of the ordinary dominates this film is what makes it an eventual disappointment.

The repetitive use of slow motion might irk some others than me, but that's not going to bring down the film. While I enjoy the film more than some of Van Damme's more universally-acclaimed features, "Quest" will give viewers plenty of time to use the bathroom or make popcorn. Though fans will surely scoop this one right up, newcomers to Van Damme should save this film for later in their experience. June 1, 2008

Close but no cigar Van Damme

The Quest is Van Damme's atempt at a comeback going back to the films where he was staright into fighting and not playing a cop or any like that. The film has okay fight sequnces but the storyline is a little murky and the fianl does drag a little. But still better than the two previous Van Damme films which were Sudden Death and Maximum Risk. April 1, 2008

a damme cool movie

I have seen this film so many times, and every time I think I love it more and more. Sure its a Van Damme movie which means its not up to par with most of Hollywood and it may be cheesy with its title and story, but I find it to be an original Van Damme story, with a very involved and entertaining martial arts tournament, even more enjoyable than that in Bloodsport.

The Quest is about a young man named Christopher Devoir (Van Damme), living homeless in NYC with a group of homeless kids. He gets caught stealing, and leaves the country sneaking onto a ship, promising the kids he will return. He then escapes the ship onto another, a last ship of the Buccaneers led by Lord Edgar Dobbs (Roger Moore, from the James Bond films). Immediately, he is sold secretly to the Thai on an island to be trained as a Muy Thai fighter. Months later, he runs into Dobbs again, and requires Dobbs to repay him for his dishonesty towards him. The Quest therefore begins, to find the golden dragon, awarded to the greatest fighter in a martial arts tournament held at the Lost City. The plot still unfolds with some more twists, right until the very end.

The best part of this movie is the tournament, which takes up about the last half of the film. It consists of the greatest fighters from around the world (oddly enough, quite similar to that of Bloodsport). I actually found this tournament to be more enjoyable than Bloodsport, with a lot more unique fighting styles. The arena is also much larger than the Kumite arena in Bloodsport, and sets the tone well for the fights. The camera work and sound effects make the punches and kicks seem quite hard. There are many fighters in the tournament that are from many other martial arts movies including Bloodsport 2, Bloodmoon, Shootfighter 2, and Lionheart.

As with most tournaments, there is always a big, bad villainous fighter. Chong Li was the charcater in Bloodsport. In the Quest, it is an unnamed Mongolian fighter, who is the same guy Van Damme fought at the end of Lionheart. They fight a huge 8 minute final fight, that is kinda like a no holds barred fight. It begins on the arena platform, but eventually extends beyond the gates and outside at night time.

Made in 1996, this is probably one of the last of the great Van Damme films, and one of the last times he performs his famous high split kicks, also seen much of in Bloodsport. A different but original storyline for Van Damme. Its quite interesting, but can be slow at times. The tournament is the real fun and excitement, and keeps the last half of the movie moving along nicely. Any fan of great martial arts tournament style movies should definetly check this out. July 14, 2007

One of Van Damme's Worst Movies

The Quest was one of the movies that began the descent of Jean-Claude Van Damme from a major motion picture star into a straight-to-video movie star, which still is better than most actors accomplish, but far from the level that Van Damme achieved at the height of his success.

The Quest is a poor ripoff of Bloodsport and Kickboxer about a martial arts tournament with Roger Moore thrown in for comic relief. While there are some good fight scenes, they don't make this film worth watching or buying. Fortunately, Jean-Claude made many more that are worth watching. April 5, 2007

Van Damme's best film

I think this is JCVD's best movie. He directed it too. The story is set on Thailand (nice settings, nice photography) and for some reason, our hero is forced to play in a tournament in the foothills of the Himalayas with a number of fighters from other regions of the world. The first part of the movie is a classic adventure yarn, with the Van Damme character traveling to the tournament in the Himalayas. The second part is the tournament itself. I'm not saying the film doesn't have silly moments (like the presentation of the fighters from the different countries in the tournament), but the silliness is part of the fun this movie is. February 8, 2007

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