No Retreat, No Surrender (1986) – Kurt McKinney and Jean-Claude Van Damme

8/10 – This is one of the few movies Van Damme has done where he doesn’t play the hero role. Kurt McKinney is the hero in this movie and puts on a decent performance, while Van Damme plays the role of the main enemy and does an good job of it. This movie is packed with uplifting training scenes backed by good soundtracks (although the music varies between versions and some are far better than others). Overall it’s a low quality of acting by all but the lead characters but is a story you can really enjoy and get motivated by, like many mild-quality martial arts movies are when they have a classic action hero tale and a good lead performance.

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