Perhaps Jean Claude Van Damme's Best Movie
Beautifully filmed, well acted, great plot, Roger Moore, great fighting sequences, and I loved the very first scene especially
shareNah.
I'd put several films ahead of it. Bloodsport, Kickboxer and Double Impact just for starters.
I enjoyed The Quest--I still remember going to see it in the theater when I was 15 years old--but it's not a film that I ever have a strong desire to revisit. It's good, but I dunno . . . there just seems to be something missing.
It's greatest importance is that it was the last true martial arts movie that Van Damme made.
Yeah, that's my thought. It's the last of the classic fighting movies that JCVD did. After this is was almost strictly a straight-to-video career focusing on Action movies in general, in which he may portray the splits, but not displaying martial arts so much, more with gunplay than anything. I don't know if Van Damme would brag too much about it, but I thought his DTV career was among the best, certainly better than Seagal or Lundgren.
shareIt really rather weird when you think about it.
Van Damme made his name through his martial arts prowess and that's how he built his fan base. And he was a true karate practitioner and the martial arts were a genuinely important part of his life.
So why did he just quit making martial arts movies? I don't get it. I mean, if he wanted to do more conventional action stuff then fine, but you'd think he'd still make the occasional straight martial arts movie as well.
It's so good I saw it once in video and never bothered to see it again. I thought it was a weaker bloodsport.
shareThe weird thing is that on a technical level it's inarguably better than Bloodsport--it's certainly a more polished, professional-looking film--but it lacks the spirit and mystique of Bloodsport. Bloodsport is full of energy and life, but The Quest seems lifeless and artificial.
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