ZEBRAS IN AMERICA EPISODE 49

We're back! This week we get in to the new Lynne Ramsay, Hard Target, hip-hop biopics and much more. 

Enjoy...

RIP-OFF CINEMA: KICKBOXER VS. KING OF THE KICKBOXERS (KEVIN GEEKS OUT)

Due to unfortunate circumstances I wasn't able to participate in the most recent Kevin Geeks Out event which is a bummer because, for those of you that aren't familiar with my site or follow me on Twitter, the subject of this particular show is literally what I do. In fact - I like to think I'm somewhat of an expert on the subject.
When it comes to rip-offs, homages & influencing within cinema, things can get a little muggy, layered & complicated. Some filmmakers have no qualms when it comes to admitting to borrowing or flat out stealing from other filmmakers (usually their cinematic elders). Take Jim Jarmusch for example. He was once quoted saying:

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."

This shows the maturity of Jim Jarmusch given that so many other filmmakers try to act like they're above being influenced when they obviously are.

It's one thing to read that quote and take it at face value, but it's a whole 'nother thing to take his films and put them up against older films that more than likely were a source of influence or inspiration.

Not only was Jarmusch's underrated/misunderstood masterpiece Ghost Dog a loose adaptation of Jean Pierre Melville's Le Samourai...

Le Samourai/Ghost Dog

(and if those above images are too vague, the final sequences of Ghost Dog & Le Samourai are pretty identical)

The assassin intentionally empties his gun knowing he'll be gunned down

But Jarmusch also uses Ghost Dog to tip his hat to other films like Branded To Kill...

and, in my personal opinion, Takeshi Kitano's existential Yakuza film Sonatine...

Sonatine/Ghost Dog

And outside of Ghost Dog, Jim Jarmusch has borrowed from everyone from his friend Wim Wenders...

Mystery Train/Alice In The Cities
Stranger Than Paradise/Alice In The Cities

to his close personal friend Claire Denis...

Paterson/Beau Travail

who in turn has borrowed back from Jarmusch as well...

US Go Home/Stranger Than Paradise

Then there are cases that are completely coincidental. Look at these two scenes from Ninja 3 & Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon. Now...I'm willing to bet everything that Polanski doesn't even know Ninja 3 exists. But the similarities between these two crucial scenes are so polarizing that it should still be called out...

Ninja 3/Bitter Moon

Then there are questionable examples like in the case of Mad Max: Fury Road & The Passion Of Joan Of Arc...

The Passion Of Joan Of Arc/Mad Max: Fury Road

There is absolutely no way of knowing if George Miller watched The Passion Of Joan Of Arc and got inspired to pay (visual) homage to it in his Mad Max reboot but just look at the similarities. These frames aren't identical (and images don't have to be identical in order for something to be an homage or a copy), but between the shaved head, teary eyes and the tilts/angles of their heads - it does make you wonder (plus George Miller being familiar with Carl Theodore Dreyer's work isn't the most far-fetched thing someone could imagine).


But I'm not going to bore you all with talk about artsy arthouse filmmakers like Jarmusch, Melville & Dreyer. We're going to delve in to Kickboxer and it's unrecognized rip-off: King Of The Kickboxers.

Kickboxer is hardly the first movie to do what it did. There are plenty films about a novice/above average martial artist seeking out a grumpy older martial arts master to train them in order to get revenge on someone. But it is my belief that director Lucas Lowe bypassed all the films that went in to influencing all the direct-to-video underground fighting tournament movies that were so popular in the 80's & 90's, and he just took directly from Kickboxer.
King Of The Kickboxers isn't a rip-off like Mac & Me was to E.T. but it's still a rip-off. In fact, the plots to both films are so similar that I can easily talk about them interchangeably. Kickboxer/King Of The Kickboxers are about American expat novice martial artists living in Thailand looking to enter the underground kickboxing scene in order to earn a fight with the man responsible for the crippling (Kickboxer)/death (King Of The Kickboxers) of their older brother (Van Damme does maintain his Belgian accent but I think it's implied that he's still American).

Both movies have the same exact pacing, plot points and minor details....

both films start out similarly with the main characters celebrating in the ring with their younger brothers after a big win

Kickboxer/King Of The Kickboxers
But things eventually turn sour when they cross paths with the big bad villains

Notice how Billy Blanks uses the same exact move from Kickboxer (left) to take out the main character;s brother

the main characters are left holding their brothers and vowing revenge...

so they seek out training from an old martial arts master...

We eventually get our showdown...

note the visual similarities...

note the similar gut shots used to take out the villain...

and our heroes eventually come out victorious.

And I'm well aware you're going to have a lot of the same imagery in any fighting movie. Raising your fists in celebration after winning a fight is certainly nothing that Jean Claude Van Damme invented. However, we all know Van Damme is the KING of the splits. So when I see stuff like this (below) combined with the similar plot points & details I just showed you - a serious red flag goes up...

There's also a subconscious/borderline metta element to all of this because Billy Blanks (the man who plays the villain in King Of The Kickboxers) and Jean Claude Van Damme (the star of Kickboxer) worked together after both of their respective movies were released...

Lionheart

There's another layer of influence/rip-off/homage/whatever in that both Kickboxer & King Of The Kickboxers went on influence famous video game characters in Street Fighter...

which would eventually be adapted in to a live-action film starring Jean Claude Van Damme...

Now...I don't mean to take anything away from King Of The Kickboxers because it is an entertaining action movie. It's very goofy and kind of dumb but still entertaining nonetheless. The movie also stars legitimate martial artists which is something Kickboxer cant really say.
If you're in to fun mindless action movies then King Of The Kickboxers is right up your alley. And if you're a fan of vintage Van Damme movies then it isn't inconceivable that you couldn't enjoy a knock-off Van Damme movie.

So when you have some free time head on over to youtube (be sure to rent these so you get the better quality) and watch this is a double feature in the comfort of your home with a friend or two.

KIDNEYS ON FILM PART FIVE: POUND OF FLESH

Jean Claude Van Damme & Kidney transplantation. Two key elements that make up the fabric that is Marcus Pinn.

Like any young boy that came up in the late 80’s/early 90’s, I grew up on Van Damme’s filmography (Cyborg, Bloodsport, Lionheart, Kickboxer, etc). And as some of you know, I had a kidney transplant back in 2007 (December 18th to be exact), so it’s really special to see one of my childhood heroes tackle kidney disease when so many other films still haven't.
It’s also pretty cool to see that Van Damme is still pulling off new innovative ways to do the splits in all of his movies...

Ever since I started doing the Kidneys On Film Series, friends often ask me whether or not kidney disease/kidney transplantation is accurately portrayed on film, and, with the exception of Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, it usually isn’t (I still find it odd that Uncle Boonmee gives such an honest portrayal of kidney disease because the rest of the film is incredibly strange).

one of the few scenes from Uncle Boonmee that shows the tedious dialysis procedure...

I would never expect a straight-to-video action film to be 100% medically accurate in the vein of Human Centipede, but there are a few things that did make me throw my hands up in disbelief and go “Oh c’mon!” while watching this...

In Pound Of Flesh Jean Claude Van Damme plays a kidnap & rescue agent currently in the Philippines to give his niece one of his kidneys. But after a wild night of partying, he wakes up in a bathtub of ice only to discover that one of his kidneys has been stolen. With the help of his estranged brother and an old buddy who happens to live in the area, he now has 10 hours to get the kidney back so he can get it to his niece in time.
Only a few hours after having his kidney ripped from his body, we see Van Damme roaming the streets & kicking ass in an effort to track down his stolen organ. Now...I’m no endocrinologist but I feel like no one, not even Jean Claude Van Damme, would be able to pull off roundhouse kicks & deadly throat punches HOURS after losing a kidney in what was probably a sketchy surgery job to begin with (his kidney is stolen while he’s asleep in his hotel room which can’t be sanitary. You mean to tell me he didn’t get any kind of an infection? Isn’t that why doctors scrub their hands before an operation? I feel like kidney thieves don't wash their hands thoroughly).

On the flipside however, Pound Of Flesh touches on certain technicalities of kidney disease & kidney transplantation that I have yet to see any other movie touch on. Even with all the terrible-looking CGI gun shots, green screens & predictable dialogue, this is the first movie I’ve seen that touches on the fact that transplant recipients have to take medication for the rest of their lives.
Taking anti-rejection medication for life is not that bad. In fact it’s not bad at all. All you have to do is take 20-30 pills daily for life (depending on the dosage). If that honestly sounds like a hassle, imagine plugging your stomach, neck or arm in to a dialysis machine on a regular basis. Any time I hear of a kidney rejecting from a recipients body due to someone not taking their medication I literally have NO sympathy. In fact it pisses me off. Someone gave you an organ in order for you to live and all you had to do is take some pills at various times throughout the day. Sounds like a good deal to me. It blows my mind that some folks can’t even manage that (if you feel like complaining about the ridiculous number co-pays you're stuck with for the rest of your life...then I understand)

Pound Of Flesh also shows that just because you’re a blood relative doesn’t always mean you’re going to be an automatic match. There’s a common belief that an immediate family member can donate a kidney with no problem but that’s not always the case (I received my Kidney from my uncle by law). In the film, Van Damme’s brother isn’t a match for his own daughter (there’s a little bit more as to why that is but I won’t say anymore). 

We even see a list of foods to avoid after a trasnplant (see the image at the beginning of this review). I feel like Pound Of Flesh didn't intend to be this detail oriented in terms of kidney diseas but it just kinda worked out that way (I don't see Van Damne doing organ donor research during pre-production to get in to character).

There's an interesting turn in the final act of the film when Van Damme & company figure that his kidney has probably already been transplanted and they're now going to have to steal it back directly from the mysterious recipient's body. This made me wonder why Van Damme didn't just steal the kidneys of all the various henchmen he killed off earlier on in the movie. They're dead. They don't need their kidneys anymore. The body count by the halfway mark was at least five people. Five cadavers makes the odds a little better for his niece to find a match.
This movie also cuts itself short when it came to the time frame given to retrieve the kidney. Typically, you have somewhere between 20-30 hours to use a (properly stored) kidney once its been removed from a living body instead of the 10 hour window in Pound Of Flesh. Cutting the window in half added more tension to the movie and pushed the story along (Pound Of Flesh, which clocks in at 90-something minutes, takes place over a 36 hour period).

So while on one hand this is a typical “Jean Claude Van Damme kicking ass in southeast Asia” action movie, it still shows some respect to the kidney transplant process, and it does tug at the heart strings a little bit, so I can’t completely dismiss it.

COUNTDOWN TO EXPENDABLES 2: BLOODSPORT!

Given that Hot Tub Time Machine and Beerfest have been two of the most popular blog entries in the last couple of months I think it’s safe to say that the PINNLAND EMPIRE readers aren’t the typical one dimensional, close minded film snobs that I'm use to and I have the freedom to write about a wide range of films. I love experimental, indie & "art house" films just as much as the next anthology film archives regular, but bottom line...I was watching Kickboxer and Marked For Death long before I was watching The Spirit Of The Beehive or the films of Tarkovsky. I’m writing about two Van Damme films back-to-back because as we all know his addition to the Expendables ensemble cast is the one that the fans wanted the most. Yes, even over Chuck Norris (which I honestly didn’t see coming). Don’t get me wrong, I'm excited about Norris being in the Expendables just as much as the next guy but it goes without saying that Van Damme (along with Steven Segal) represented that 2nd tier group of action stars right underneath Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger in the 90's. In my opinion Chuck Norris, who we'll be getting to in a later entry, is from a different era. Van Damme was on his way to being mentioned alongside the likes of Stallone and Willis but Timecop and a few more bad movies in a row started his downward spiral of direct-to-video releases that he wasn’t able to get out of until 2008's JCVD (which was ironically accepted more by the indie crowd more than it was accepted by your typical Jean Claude Van Damme fan). As I mentioned in my Lionheart write-up, Bloodsport is the one true iconic Van Damme film right down to that memorable VHS box cover art that any American boy born in the late 70’s/early 80’s should be familiar with...

And much like what Lionheart was to the USA network, Bloodsport was a staple on TBS & TNT in the late 80's/early 90's. When I was a kid flipping through the channels back in the day, there was a good chance that Bloodsport would be on either TBS or TNT at some random point in the day. Anyone familiar Bloodsport remembers all the famous quotes from; "OK, USA!" to "Very good...but brick don’t hit back". There's people who say "OK, USA!" and don’t even realize where that quote comes from. Little things like that make Bloodsport a classic.

Bolo Yeung/"Chong Lee"

Bloodsport, which is loosely based on a true story, is another fighting movie that predates (and inspired) stuff like Street Fighter & Mortal Komba. The movie follows Frank Dux (played by Jean Claude Van Damme at the height of his charm): an American soldier (who has a French accent for some reason) that goes AWOL from the military to participate in an underground fighting tournament with the best fighters from all over the world to bring honor to his former trainer (who's son was killed in the tournament a few years prior) and prove to himself that he's the best. What’s so great about Bloodsport is that all the fighters stand out and have their own little personalities that makes each of them memorable. You got the big Japanese sumo fighter (who clearly inspired the E. Honda character in Street Fighter), the loud, meatheaded rock n' rollin' American brawler (played by "Ogre" from Revenge Of The Nerds) and even not-so subtly racist characters like the African martial artist who trains by swinging from trees and cracking coconuts with his hands. But Frank Dux' biggest challenge in the tournament comes in the form of "Chong Lee" (Played by martial arts icon Bolo Yeung): an intimidating, sociopathic, brick house, killing machine. The character of Chong Lee, as well as Bolo Yeung’s performance, is pretty damn underrated in my opinion (seriously, all jokes aside). Bolo Yeung's overall presence and the way he casually strolls over to his opponents at the beginning of each match just before easily beating them is beyond intimidating. Not to make things too serious, but in terms of race, Bolo Yeung doesn’t get enough credit for pretty much destroying the stereotypes about Asian movie villains. From Ming The Merciless to Odd Job in the James Bond movies, the characteristics of most Asian villains were weak, sneaky and almost cowardly (even the villains in some Martial Arts movies). Bolo Yeung broke that mold. He always played an intimidating, muscular villain that would walk right up to you and beat the hell outta you. After Bruce Lee and Jim Kelly’s Afro, Bolo was the most memorable thing about Enter The Dragon (a film that inspired many future action movies, including Bloodsport). Sneaky and cowardly aren’t two words that describe the characters he played in movies (although his character does kinda cheat in Bloodsport, but at the same time he beats a guy to death with his bare hands so it kinda cancels things out). Naturally when the dust settles and we reach the finals of the tournament, Frank Dux and Chong Lee are the last two men standing.

An interesting thing about Bloodsport is that it features JUST enough scenes involving Vanne Damme doing the splits before it starts to feel a TAD bit too much...

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Another cool novelty about Bloodsport is that it’s one of the few Expendable-related movies to feature a future Academy Award winning actor (Forest Whitaker). Bloodsport is a good example of how Forest Whitaker paid his dues by playing the goofy, bumbling police detective assigned to bring Van Damme back to America for going AWOL. Think about how many actors that are nowhere to be found today that got billed over Forest Whitaker in Bloodsport...

To be honest, if you have yet to see Bloodsport you really have no business calling yourself a fan of action/"guy" movies and I cant imagine your anticipation for the Expendables sequel is that big. This is one of those movies that truly defines what the Expendables is all about.

COUNTDOWN TO EXPENDABLES 2: LIONHEART!

I realize the first Expendables movie didn’t live up to the hype in some people’s eyes but I’m so confident that part 2 is going to be epic (thanks to the addition of Chuck Norris & Van Damme) that I’ve decided to do a little countdown leading up to its August 17th release. I’m still a little annoyed that Carl Weathers, Don “The Dragon" Wilson, Billy Blanks and Cynthia Rothrock have yet to be added to the ensemble cast but there’s always part 3...

Yes it’s true all classic Van Damme movies followed the same basic formula. His movies were made up of key words like; kick boxing tournament, honor, painfully average looking female co-stars, martial arts, homoeroticism among straight men, basic plots that don’t require much of a script (soldier goes AWOL to fight in a martial arts tournament, soldier goes AWOL to save his family, soldier goes AWOL to escape the army, etc), and a key scene where he either does the splits or some kind of a slow-motion roundhouse kick or a montage where he walks through the city in deep thought with some knock-off Frank Stallone-sounding song playing in the background. With Lionheart we have the story of a soldier ("Leon") in the foreign legion that goes AWOL after he discovers his younger brother has been killed in a drug deal gone bad, leaving behind a wife & little daughter with no money. Now it’s up to Leon to take care of his sister-in-law & niece by fighting in an underground circuit with the help of his token black sidekick/manager that he picks up along the way. I know this may sound like blasphemy, but outside of Bloodsport (probably Van Damme’s most iconic movie), Lionheart is probably the best of his "guy fights in an underground fighting tournament" movie in his entire body of work. It’s better than Kickboxer (I know that’s gonna ruffle some feathers with some of you), The Quest and even No Retreat No Surrender. Lionheart is a film that predates recent stuff like Warrior (which was WAY better than it shoulda been), Never Back Down, Gladiator (the Russell Crowe one and the Cuba Gooding Jr. one), Undisputed (the boxing movie with Wesley Snipes & Ving Rhames) and even Mortal Kombat (the video game AND the movie). I know stuff like Enter The Dragon and The Karate Kid predate Lionheart but Van Damme's films, specifically Lionheart, are what really elevated the genre of fighting movies to the next level.

Throughout the film Leon breezes through most of the competition (all while escaping the clutches of the two agents who are sent to take him in to custody for fleeing the foreign legion), but as the fights go on he starts to develop a serious rib injury that he keeps a secret. Then in what’s supposed to be his last fight he has to face his toughest opponent in the form a "Attila" - a monstrous, sideburn sporting, killing machine who's never lost. Lionheart has so many great scenes I don’t even know where to begin. There's the fight scene in the pool between Leon and the Tarzan guy, the lighting in the scene where Leon fights the big Scottish guy and the last 15-20 minutes of Lionheart is just one big emotional roller coaster that'll have you cheering and on the verge of tears at the same time. Lionheart is also a look at the class struggle between the rich people who bet on the fights and the poor/homeless/down & out exploited fighters who do what they have to do in order to survive. My one MAJOR complaint with Lionheart is how underused the villain from Cobra (Brian Thompson) was. You mean to tell me you have the axe murdering, cult leader who went toe-to-toe with Stallone in Cobra in your movie and you cast him as a limo driver? C'mon now. Just look at his menacing face. He's like the Willem Dafoe of C-list/straight to video villains and he gets no play in the movie.

But because this movie is so epic, and it’s the one & only flaw, I'm willing to let it go. Lionheart represents a time in the early 90's when you were bored, thought nothing was on TV, then you turn to the USA network and *BAM* Lionheart was on (what the Warriors was to TNT back in the late 90’s is what Lionheart was to USA). And it’s so good it’s not like you need to start watching it from the beginning. Lionheart is just as enjoyable if you watch it from the beginning or turn it on right in the middle when Van Damme slow motion superkicks the Hacksaw Jim Duggan-looking guy through the glass window. Lionheart represents a time when you'd go to the "action/adventure section" of the video (a section Van Damme dominated for quite some time) and you just knew by looking at that VHS cover that this movie was gonna be great. Unfortunately the USA network is crowded with a bunch of shows that no one watches yet somehow they remain on TV (seriously, do any of you know ANYONE who watches Burn Notice or Psyche?) so you're gonna have to either rent this at your local video store or purchase it on Amazon.