5 Questions: Dragon Eyes

Movie snobs will tell you that action films have no intellectual value whatsoever.

I disagree. Action movies are always making me think. And in this installment of 5 Questions, I will share the 5 thought provoking questions that came to my mind while I watched Dragon Eyes.

Dragon Eyes was produced by Joel Silver and stars Jean Claude Van Damme, Peter Weller and Cung Le…

1- Who in the blue hell is Cung Le?

I’ll admit, growing up in the golden age of action movies was a great thing but it also jaded me to today’s action stars. So it takes me a little longer to come around to the current generation of action movie heroes.  And considering I like my fights to have predetermined endings, I am not a mixed martial arts or kickboxing enthusiast either, so going into Dragon Eyes, I literally had no clue who Cung Le was.

After watching Dragon Eyes, I can safely say that Cung Le is not going to win any Academy Awards (but that’s par for the course in the action genre) but his legit fighting background gives his fight scenes some authentic physicality and he has a solid screen presence.

2- Does any genre of movie love flashbacks more than action movies?

One thing you will get plenty of while watching Dragon Eyes is flashbacks. It felt like every 10 minutes or so there was another flashback. It did get a bit annoying at times… but if you stick with it, the story all comes together and the flashbacks give us Jean Claude Van Damme…

3- How awesome is Jean Claude Van Damme?

I’ll be completely transparent with all of you, had I not see Jean Claude Van Damme on the cover, odds are high that I would not have taken the chance on this movie. But he was and I did and when I watched the movie, I was not even disappointed that JCVD was not the main character of the film. In fact, I was happy to see him giving back to a genre that made him a superstar. By working with guys like Cung Le in Dragon Eyes and Scott Adkins in Assassination Games he is giving them the proverbial rub (to borrow a phrase from the pro wrestling world).

Van Damme does well in his supporting role as Tiano, Hong’s (Cung Le) mentor in prison, he is a bad ass version of Mr. Miyagi. They say with age comes wisdom and Van Damme is making some wise character choices these days and not trying to recapture his former glory.

4- How did Hong’s landlord know where to find him?

At one point in the movie, Cung Le gets the tar kicked out of him. He takes a brutal beating! Hong manages to escape but as he’s dragging his near lifeless and battered body along, it just so happens that his landlord, Grandpa George (played by Danny Mora) drives along and picks him up and takes him to safe haven. Was he driving all over town looking for Hong? He’s actually lucky he didn’t finish the job that was done on Hong and accidentally run over the guy!

5-  Is it Kristopher Van Varenberg or Kris Van Damme?

In this movie Jean Claude’s son, Kris uses the name Kristopher Van Varenberg, a year later in Enemies Closer he goes by Kris Van Damme. In this year’s Full Love, he is back to being billed as Kristopher Van Varenberg but in recent posts about the upcoming film, The Tower, he is being referred to as Kris Van Damme.

I can see using the Van Varenberg name if he was trying to establish his own body of work, but considering nearly every movie he has been in to date has been along side his father, he isn’t really escaping from the JCVD shadow… so my advice is to just stick with Kris Van Damme.