1989’s Kickboxer is a cult classic and one of the most popular martial arts films in Jean-Claude Van Damme’s career. With the first film in the series, Kickboxer pit the Muscles from Brussels against the ruthless Muay Thai killing machine, Tong Po (Michel Qissi).
Kickboxer would be followed by four sequels, though Van Damme did not return as his kickboxing protagonist Kurt Sloan. Kickboxer 2 through Kickboxer 4 focused their attention on Sasha Mitchell as the new hero of the series, David Sloan, while Mark Dacascos later headlined 1995’s Redemption: Kickboxer 5. Van Damme would later return to the franchise with the reboot Kickboxer: Vengeance in 2016, this time in the mentor role of Master Durand with Alain Moussi as the new Kurt Sloan, both returning for 2018’s Kickboxer: Retaliation.
The Kickboxer film series has long been a consistently action-packed blast for martial arts fans. In addition to helping launch Van Damme’s early career, the Kickboxer franchise also gave many of the other aforementioned big stars a big break in the martial arts film world, showcasing their skills in roundhouse and spinning kicking sequences. As a testament to the Kickboxer franchise, Tong Po himself also continues to be one of the greatest martial arts movie villains of all time. Here are all the Kickboxer films, ranked from weakest to strongest.
Kickboxer 2: The Road Back (1991)
The Kickboxer series moved the lead role to David Sloan for Kickboxer 2, and despite some decent fight scenes, the film took a very ill-considered approach to the transition. While introducing another Sloan character as a martial arts warrior to lead the Kickboxer franchise would have been a welcome addition, Kickboxer 2 ruins much of that potential, starting with having Kurt and Erik killed by Tong Po after the first film. Kickboxer 2 isn’t the sequel you’d hope for from the much more impressive original, and while Murdocco does pull out some good points in some of the film’s sharpest kickboxing fights, Kickboxer 2 is otherwise a disappointment with an unsatisfying return for Tong Po and largely unimpressive fight scenes.
Kickboxer 3: The Art of War (1992)
After the Kickboxer franchise hit its lowest point with Bloodsport, Kickboxer 3: The Art of War gave Kickboxer a small comeback. Kickboxer 3 sends David and Sian to Rio de Janeiro for a match, where they end up uncovering a child trafficking operation. Kickboxer 3 is a more competent film overall than Kickboxer 2, with real-life kickboxing champion Ian Jacklin bringing some great new energy to the series as David’s in-ring opponent, Eric Martin. even with the return of Jean-Claude Van Damme, for the overall tonal departure it represents, both the charm and sophistication of the original Kickboxer a distant memory by the time the film begins. Like Murdocco in Kickboxer 2, Jacklin is the greatest source of entertainment in Kickboxer 3. Otherwise, there’s similarly little to recommend him.RELATED:
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Kickboxer 4: Aggressor (1994)
The Kickboxer films have gradually returned to their original standards over time, and while Kickboxer 4: Aggressor is hardly the equal of the original, it at least does what it set out to do much better than Kickboxer 2 or Kickboxer 3, this time forcing David Sloan to fight Tong Po again after the Muay Thai master has become a crime boss in Mexico. Kickboxer 4 at least has some decent fight scenes with David and his many opponents. By the time of Kickboxer 4, Tong Po has been killed off and later reassigned as the villain (Kamel Kriefa replaced Michel Qissi in Kickboxer 4). Kickboxer 4’s plot is about David fighting in the Tong Po tournament to the death to save his wife Vicky (Deborah Mansi). Kickboxer 4 does enough right to show that there was more life in the franchise.
Kickboxer: Vengeance (2016)
2016’s Kickboxer: Vengeance, featuring a new Tong Po in Dave Bautista and Van Damme handing the baton to stuntman Alain Moussi in his first starring role. Kickboxer: Vengeance follows the spirit of the 1989 original, with Darren Shahlavi’s Eric Sloan being defeated (and in this case killed) in a match with reigning Thai champion Tong Po. Eric’s brother Kurt (Moussi) is training for a rematch under Master Duran (Van Damme), and like the original, fans of the training montage and the art of the splits will have a blast in Kickboxer: Vengeance. Alain Moussi does a great job as the new Kurt Sloan and is a wonder to behold in the fight scenes, especially when paired with Van Damme’s signature helicopter kick.
Kickboxer: Retaliation (2018)
Kickboxer: Vengeance was not without its bumps in the road, and its 2018 sequel Kickboxer: Retaliation took notice of them to deliver a significantly better sequel. In Retaliation, Kurt Sloan is coerced by Thailand-based crime boss Thomas Moore (Christopher Lambert) into facing champion fighter Mongkut (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson). Dimitri Logothetis, the screenwriter of Vengeance, steps up to direct Retaliation, and while the plot is not a radical shift from the fight films of Van Damme’s filmography, he shows real promise as a martial arts filmmaker. If Kickboxer: Vengeance was a good warm-up, Kickboxer: Retaliation is a real martial arts powerhouse with a villain aptly described by Durand as “four times Tong Po” and delivering on that in his showdown with Kurt, which is also surely behind calls for Alain Moussi to be cast as Johnny Cage.
Redemption: Kickboxer 5 (1995)
Redemption: Kickboxer 5 is easily the best of the four sequels. Mark Dacascos stars as Matt Reeves (not to be confused with the director of The Batman), on a mission to avenge the death of his friend and fellow fighter Johnny (Denney Pierce) against kickboxing megalomaniac Negaal (James Ryan). Mark Dacascos is spellbindingly amazing in his fight scenes in Kickboxer 5. Redemption: Kickboxer 5 is everything Kickboxer fans love about the series and everything martial arts fans adore about the ‘90s straight-to-video kickboxing sub-genre in one package, made that much better by Mark Dacascos as the movie’s high-kicking lead and James Ryan’s daffy narcissism as Negaal (who even gets in a match with a German fighter played by Gavin Hood).
Kickboxer (1989)
Jean-Claude Van Damme was off to a start strong in his early career in the ‘80s, and Kickboxer is still one of the most refined and enjoyable martial arts films he ever made. When American champion kickboxer Eric Sloan (Dennis Alexio) travels to Thailand for a match with Tong Po, the vicious monster of the ring leaves Eric crippled with an elbow to the back. Van Damme’s non-twin brother Kurt trains with Xian Chow to defeat Tong Po. Kurt’s harsh Muay Thai training is one of the best relationships of teacher and student ever portrayed in an American martial arts movie, with Kurt also developing a romance with Chow’s niece Mylee (Rochelle Ashana).Kickboxer’s fight and training scenes show why the movie remains a
favorite among Van Damme fans, while Van Damme’s bar dance to Beau Williams’s “Feelin’ So Good Today” is a fun romp of his affability and flexibility alike. Kurt’s showdown with Tong Po for the honor of Eric is also one of Van Damme’s all-time best battles, Kurt and Tong Po’s fists bound in glass-coated hemp as the hero spin-kicks his revenge against his enemy. Kickboxer is second only to Bloodsport on the ranking of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s movies, but when it comes to the Kickboxer series itself, with its outstanding martial arts fights, training montages, and Stan Bush’s classic rock ballad “Never Surrender”, the original Kickboxer continues to hold the franchise’s championship belt.