'Kickboxer: Vengeance' Trailer: Jean-Claude Van Damme Is Ready to Brawl (Exclusive)
In last year’s Creed, Sylvester Stallone returned to the screen as an older, more grizzled version of boxer Rocky Balboa, who was tasked with training a promising young fighter. Now, another legendary action icon is mimicking that strategy in a remake of one of his early genre classics. And as the exclusive first trailer above indicates, he’s bringing along a serious Hollywood heavyweight with him.
The icon about whom we speak is none other than the “Muscles From Brussels,” Jean-Claude Van Damme, who’ll take on the teacher role in Kickboxer: Vengeance, a faithful re-do of his 1989 bruiser. As before, the story concerns a mixed martial artist named Kurt Sloane (stuntman-turned-actor Alain Moussi) who seeks revenge after his brother dies in a match in Thailand against bruising Muay Thai champion Tong Po, here played by Guardians of the Galaxy’s Dave Bautista with the same long-ponytailed hairstyle that the character boasted in the original. Haywire’s Gina Carano also factors into the proceedings, which promise to be a nostalgia-tinged throwback to JCVD’s heyday. (And at least according to this trailer, the star will be wearing his hat and sunglasses in every one of his punching-and-roundhouse-kicking scenes.)
Directed by John Stockwell (Blue Crush), Kickboxer: Vengeance probably won’t attract serious award-season attention like Creed did, but for those interested in no-nonsense beat-‘em-up action — much of it coming courtesy of the enduringly awesome Van Damme — the film seems primed to satisfy when it elbow drops its way into theaters on Sept. 2.
