Thanks for checking out our Forgotten Fridays feature. This is a feature to review some older films that maybe you have forgotten about or maybe never got around to seeing that we just want to share. They may not be old, maybe not forgotten, but they are not new. Just fun to share.
Today, we review No Retreat, No Surrender
Genre: Action
Directed by: Corey Yuen
Staring: Kurt McKinney, Kathie Sileno, Jean-Claude Van Damme
Released: May 2. 1986
THE GENERAL IDEA
Jason Stillwell, a Bruce Lee fan, is beaten numerous times and trains from the ghost of Lee. Jason then must use his newly acquired skills to save Seattle from a crime syndicate, whose top martial artist is the deadly Ivan.
THE GOOD
Nothing. But that’s what makes this work so well. Its a bad movie, bad acting, and cheesey as all hell.
The guy gets trained by the ghost of Bruce Lee! Jason’s getting serious!!
That and this is the first actual role for Jean Claude Van Damme. While Van Damme was in Breakin as an extra 2 years before this (and a couple French films), this is his first role as a character in the film. Mind you, he is just the hired martial arts thug for a crime lord, and doesn’t speak in the movie short of some now iconic Van Damme grunts and splits, this is his first role.
THE BAD
Everything. But its so bad its good. Honestly. I cant call it bad when it contributes to the super cheese of this film.
OVERALL
So bad its good, you have to see it. And if you are a Van Damme fan and HAVEN’T seen it, then shame on you.
If you can find it, rent it. If I see this, its getting bought. I still cant find it in stores.
Since all of these Forgotten Friday reviews are going to be what I would already give a high rating to, I had a Tv, Rent or Buy scale going on, but it would seem that an overwhelming majority of my picks get a BUY rating. So with every Forgotten Friday you see from now on, you get to rate your anticipation for yourself!
TV – If you are at least a little curious, catch it if it comes on TV.
Rent – If it is something you have heard of and forgotten, or just remember enjoying this as much as I did once upon a time, go rent it.
Buy – But if you are like me, and you agree with my review you should go buy it. If its featured here, I already have.
I have seen this once and it was enough for me. I watch a lot of Martial Arts/Kung Fu/Samurai films so the thought of viewing this a second time is outta the question for me. For a first time viewer it could be quite fun if you enjoy these types of films.
All hail the Yuen Clan!
Yeah this is a really fun and cheesy movie, but Bloodsport is still Van Damme’s best martial arts movie.
Saw this one at the THEATERS! (Might be dating myself with that comment!)
Didn’t know until recently that it was a VanDamme film.
My favorite Van Damme film!
I dug it for the underdog story of the kid and had the same poster of Bruce Lee on my wall
Never heard of this movie but I can see what you were saying Rodney. It looks so cheesy. Nothing like a low budget crappy B Movie.
The film was so bad that Van Damme talked McKinney out of appearing in the sequel, also directed by Corey Yuen. They had to change the story for the sequel, have a new cast. It turned out to be better cheese.
Yuen, of course, has directed other -and far better- movies.
No fucking way!! I remember and loved this movie as a kid! hahaha. Rodney, please tell me you’ve seen Gymkata?
Gymkata was awesome too! Guy combines gymnastics with Karate? How awesome is that. I remember the scene where he is fighting a group of guys and finds a rock or something that just happens to have the handles like a pommel horse and he does windmill kicks on it.
Pure cheese!
haha gymkata, i love the old eastern euro foggy town scene with the baddies chasing him…and that hair do he rocked was as hardcore as him walking up n down the stairs on his hands.
Or, how about the random ninja stars that would kill everyone around that dude!? So ridiculous! You should do a month of forgotten fridays with nothing but terrible martial arts films. Gymkata, American Ninja 1 and 2, Avenging Force, Showdown in Little Tokyo…best month ever!
haha, yeah, i remember this movie… was a small kid when i first saw it, and then i caught it on HBO sometime back and found it so damn bad that it grew on me!! the scene where the guy’s best friend comes in got me hooked!!
“If you can find it, rent it. If I see this, its getting bought. I still cant find it in stores.”
Its not that copies are getting bought its that the movie was so bad it was decided to just stop making copies. This movie is the martial arts film equivalent of a bad horror movie.
i agree in every way here with you. i loved this movie when i was seven, at the end fight scene i’d be jumping up and down like an idiot shouting. if i watched it now it would probably ruin it for me lol
this movie is so fucking horrible that you need to see it at least once for the fight scene at the end haha