It seems to me that there are questions about this new Jean Claude Van Damme movie, Dragon Eyes. The biggest question is why he was advertised on the cover of the movie as well as the DVD itself when he was only in there for about 15 minutes.
It’s probably not the first time that this has been done. I recall that in the movie Executive Decision, the big movie stars there were Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, and Steven Seagal. But if you saw the movie, you found out afterward that Seagal was only in that movie for 15 minutes.
Maybe the biggest difference is that back then, Seagal was making a name for himself so fans were probably not happy that this happened. It certainly seems like false advertising.
Can you say the same thing about Van Damme? I would expect that the comments might be who cares. In fact, you may have more people who look at the movie and say oh I’m not seeing that because Van Damme is in it.
Let’s face it, he had a great career like Seagal and he was in the movie theaters the last time as the bad guy in The Expendables 2. So after that, he goes back to getting his next movie on DVD again and this time, he’s only in there for a few minutes.
Getting back to the movie, the part he plays is to be a mentor to the next martial artist, Hong, who is Cung Lee. You can look at the past movies and see this this is the first chance to have a major part in a movie. He is in a movie with Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu called The Man With The Iron Fists. You’ll notice that Crowe and Liu have the 3rd and 4th credits in the movie. David Carradine was billed even lower during the movie as well.
Not much of a plot for this movie. Hong wants to make the neighborhood safer from drug dealers so he fights the two gangs with the martial arts skills. Of course, the police are involved in the gangs as well so he is their only hope. At least Charles Bronson had a decent script for this when he did Death Wish 3 where he fought against rival drug dealers. In the end, that’s what makes the movie, the script, not the actors.
As a martial artist, Cung Lee is very talented and some would probably say that he can hold his own in this movie and it wasn’t necessary for Van Damme to be in it. If anything, Van Damme’s scenes were even harder to understand because there was an echo in his voice.
The movie itself is gritty and the supporting case was awful but I wouldn’t say that the violence was gratuitous. Other Van Damme movies that went straight to DVD had more gory scenes where the violence was over the top and gratuitous.
Dragon Eyes would be worth one star to me. Going back to the false advertising issue, you can look at a movie like Crank 2 with Jason Statham. David Carradine was in the movie with a very small part - about the same amount of time as Van Damme - yet he was not billed in the commercials or the DVD that he was even it it. Corey Haim was in the movie as well although you wouldn’t know it. Even Lauren Holly had a brief role in the movie but she wasn’t even listed in the credits.
Rick Holman
It’s probably not the first time that this has been done. I recall that in the movie Executive Decision, the big movie stars there were Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, and Steven Seagal. But if you saw the movie, you found out afterward that Seagal was only in that movie for 15 minutes.
Maybe the biggest difference is that back then, Seagal was making a name for himself so fans were probably not happy that this happened. It certainly seems like false advertising.
Can you say the same thing about Van Damme? I would expect that the comments might be who cares. In fact, you may have more people who look at the movie and say oh I’m not seeing that because Van Damme is in it.
Let’s face it, he had a great career like Seagal and he was in the movie theaters the last time as the bad guy in The Expendables 2. So after that, he goes back to getting his next movie on DVD again and this time, he’s only in there for a few minutes.
Getting back to the movie, the part he plays is to be a mentor to the next martial artist, Hong, who is Cung Lee. You can look at the past movies and see this this is the first chance to have a major part in a movie. He is in a movie with Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu called The Man With The Iron Fists. You’ll notice that Crowe and Liu have the 3rd and 4th credits in the movie. David Carradine was billed even lower during the movie as well.
Not much of a plot for this movie. Hong wants to make the neighborhood safer from drug dealers so he fights the two gangs with the martial arts skills. Of course, the police are involved in the gangs as well so he is their only hope. At least Charles Bronson had a decent script for this when he did Death Wish 3 where he fought against rival drug dealers. In the end, that’s what makes the movie, the script, not the actors.
As a martial artist, Cung Lee is very talented and some would probably say that he can hold his own in this movie and it wasn’t necessary for Van Damme to be in it. If anything, Van Damme’s scenes were even harder to understand because there was an echo in his voice.
The movie itself is gritty and the supporting case was awful but I wouldn’t say that the violence was gratuitous. Other Van Damme movies that went straight to DVD had more gory scenes where the violence was over the top and gratuitous.
Dragon Eyes would be worth one star to me. Going back to the false advertising issue, you can look at a movie like Crank 2 with Jason Statham. David Carradine was in the movie with a very small part - about the same amount of time as Van Damme - yet he was not billed in the commercials or the DVD that he was even it it. Corey Haim was in the movie as well although you wouldn’t know it. Even Lauren Holly had a brief role in the movie but she wasn’t even listed in the credits.
Rick Holman