January 11th, 1991 @ The Theater | Wide Release Films | LIONHEART AND NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER

You may have been in New Jersey watching Ric Flair win the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship from the evil surfer Sting or watching the US Congress authorize the Gulf War on this crazy weekend in history. I am going to pretend I went and saw these films even though my age precludes me from that event. Just go with and let’s watch the films released 30 years ago TODAY!

The first up is JVCD in LIONHEART. Coming in first at the box office in nearly 1500 screens with seven million plus dollars. The film is a mediocre Van Damme film with some solid action. These kinds of films were becoming a dime a dozen by this time and this film is no exception to the pump it out until it isn’t profitable thing all film sub genres go through. The film did go on to make a few bucks short of 25 million so the art + product gamble paid off. You can watch the film FREE on CRACKLE if you want to. It really is, when all is said and done, a revenge movie and the revenge is sweet. Van Damme does his thing in his prime and it is worth the watch for action and martial art film fans alone. The drama is a little over the top in areas but again, watching a guy like JVCD try to tackle this stuff is where the gold can come from. I recommend beers and friends and whatever else you can, trust me, it will help and you may even enjoy yourselves.

CLASSIC VAN DAMME ARM FLEX POSE/10

Second on this release list is NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER — An all to obvious Hollywood dream of a gal going to Iran to visit her husbands family only to find that her husband and their family intend to keep her and their daughter there forever. The film is a based on a true story, well, story, and the way you feel about a film like this is the level at which you buy in. In my opinion, the film rings hollow and does have much to say at all. I know people who think that it is thrilling and gets close to an ARGO level of discomfort in the plot. Maybe it feels just to early 90’s for me, but it certainly does not feel like a thriller. You can’t really be mad or sad at it in any way. It just sort of, is. I would not recommend this film but I would recommend reading reviews of the film. I would imagine that the more recent the more fun to read. The film did not pull in well at the box office either, raking in just under 15 million, coming in under half of that of Van Damme’s attempt at making a film. He beat this movie like Doctor Octopus beats Forrest Gump’s moms in NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER.