I love this movie so much

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I'm afraid that KICKBOXER: RETALIATION didn't enthrall me as it did some other reviewers on this site. I found it something to a chore to watch and a step down from the previous flick, KICKBOXER: VENGEANCE. It tells the same old story once again, but at a near two hour running time it goes on a bit too long and there's some cheesy overacting to contend with. Not that the story matters in an action film, but the action is somewhat sub-standard too. The film suffers from awfully cheesy direction and the CGI train in the first sequence tells you everything you need to know. Some of the actor's moves are okay but the fight choreography isn't really all that special. What this film does have going for it are a number of B-movie stars making an appearance. Van Damme returns as mentor and is blind this time around, while Mike Tyson shows up as a prison fighter and is great value. Christopher Lambert surprisingly appears as the villain but has very little to do other than sit around and make wisecracks. The hulking Hafpor Julius Bjornsson, of GAME OF THRONES fame, is the big bad guy and solid enough, but after a long wait the extended fight climax is only so-so.

'KICKBOXER: RETALIATION': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)The seventh entry in the 'KICKBOXER' martial arts action flick franchise, and the second film in the recent reboot trilogy. This one has Alain Moussi (star of the last movie) returning as Kurt Sloan, who is now kidnapped and forced back to Thailand, so he can fight a monstrous fighter named Mongkut (played byHafþór Júlíus Björnsson). Jean-Claude Van Damme (star of the original film, and the last chapter), Sara Malakul Lane, Sam Medina and Steven Swadling also reprise their roles form the last installment. Mike Tyson and Christopher Lambert also join the cast this time. Dimitri Logothetis and James McGrath once again wrote the screenplay (as they did the last sequel), and Logothetis directed the movie this time around as well. It's gotten mostly positive reviews from critics so far, and it received a VOD and limited theatrical run at the Box Office, before now becoming available on Bluray and DVD. I enjoyed it. The story takes place one year after the conclusion of the last film, and Kurt Sloane (Moussi) is now a professional MMA fighter. He's kidnapped by thugsworking for Thomas Tang Moore (Lambert), who runs the underground fights in Thailand. Moore wants Kurt to fight the new champion there, Mongkut (Björnsson), a 6'8" 400-lb. fighting machine. Kurt refuses the fight, but of course Moore has many (bloody) ways of getting Kurt to do what he wants. Master Durand (Van Damme), who's now blind, once again agrees to train Kurt for the deadly fight. The movie is a lot of fun, and it's surprisingly well made (for what it is). The production values are definitely a lot better than most Van Damme movies. It's of course not as classic as the original 'KICKBOXER' film, or any of the Van Damme classics from that era, but it still does a surprisingly good job of paying tribute to that genre. I'm really impressed with this reboot series so far, and I definitely look forward to the next one.

My quick rating - 5,0/10. Ok, I will admit I like these types of movies, regardless of how unbelievable they are (without spoiler, this one goes over the top). The story is the typical "I am not going to XXXX, anymore" Fill in the X with fight, crime, kill, whore yourself out, among other things to make the story of stopping something only to be forced back into it. In this case, tournament fighting. Well, there it is. The secondary characters of Mike Tyson and Christopher Lambert actually were used well. And then there is Jean Claude Van-Johnson....if you get that joke, you want to see this movie, if not, you probably aren't interested. The fight scenes are done quite well and are not filmed in hyper edit mode which seems to be the norm these days. Realistically, this movie should score below a 5, but the reason it should be lower is the reason I gave it 5. Once you see the movie, you will know just why when you roll your eyes and say "how stupid is that" Well that is what I did, and for a movie to actually get that reaction out of me, bonus points. Funny, just noticed, IMDB has it at a 5.0 as well lol.

I guess, nobody should expect much of movies like this, or be surprised when they don't deliver. This latest effort in the Kickboxer franchise is nothing new. Same old story-line. The movie has a great opening few minutes, very well shot action scenes, but then it descends into the usual farcical weaknesses - mainly the poor acting, direction, script and plain barmy plot. The fight sequences are quite well shot, but more attention is given to them than the actual acting and this leaves you not believing in it. Christopher Lambert looks like burst settee for much of the movie; our hero has no acting ability and Van Damme looks absolutely ludicrous. Lots of sequences and characters were plainly stolen from other movies; we have the mirror smashing scene from Enter the Dragon and Van Damme plays his role as mr miyagi, from Karate Kid. No matter that he is totally blind, he makes his way around the world, appearing to be able to see perfectly well, without eyes. So, the plot.... Well, our fighter is asked to fight a 6ft 10 inch 400lb fighter (they've added an inch to his real size for effect), when he refuses, they kidnap his girlfriend and put him in jail until he accepts. There, he is befriended by a ludicrously wacky set of prisoners, including Mike Tyson and Mr Van Damme, who for some reason sucks on a smokeless pipe for the whole movie. I suppose the hat and sunglasses mask how bad he is looking of late, but the pipe is a mystery? I don't need to spoil the ending, as I think you will have worked that one out already. There are lots of improbable characters, overplayed and badly acted - there isn't one who I can say comes out of the movie with any credibility on that score. Even Mr. Lambert doesn't convince as the baddy. This movie will appeal to anyone who likes mindless violence and can ignore the rest of the important stuff.... such as acting. It will also be attractive to the criminally insane and anyone with an IQ below 40. It's watchable, but you will find yourself open-mouthed at the sheer stupidity of it all sometimes. It does make you chuckle quite a lot. The huge fighter that our hero is to fight, is well-known to strongest man fans, but despite his impressive stature, occasionally he looks frighteningly like Ricky Gervais. It's really all stitched together with shamelessly stolen scenes and ideas from a lot of other movies over the years; ones far better done than this! I gave it a four, because I watched it all, but I was close to turning it off after about 15 minutes, because the acting was so appalling.