Fighting for Family, One Blow at a Time

Read Time:7 Minute, 27 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Lionheart: Extended Cut (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray) [2-Disc Special Edition]
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Genre: Action, Drama, Sport
Year Released: 1990, 2026 MVD Rewind Collection 4K
Runtime: 1h 50m
Director(s): Sheldon Lettich
Writer(s): Stefani Warren, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sheldon Lettich
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Harrison Page, Deborah Rennard, Lisa Pelikan, Ashley Johnson, Brian Thompson
Where to Watch: available now, order your copy here: www.mvdshop.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: The setting is ridiculous, the fistfights in empty swimming pools, the crowd being oddly dressed, and Jean-Claude Van Damme entering the space with complete physical confidence. Sheldon Lettich understands that an underground-fighting movie needs more than a procession of bodies collapsing in the same warehouse. Each confrontation gets its own environment, mood, and small dose of spectacle, giving a familiar formula enough variety to keep moving.

The surprise is how little the film depends on revenge. Lyon Gaultier deserts the French Foreign Legion after learning that his brother has been brutally attacked in Los Angeles, but his real goal isn’t to hunt down the men responsible. He wants to reach the family left behind and provide the money they desperately need. That gives Van Damme a more sympathetic role than the revenge-driven men he played in BLOODSPORT and KICKBOXER. Lyon fights because every other path has closed, and the film treats his ability as both a gift and the only choice he has left.

Van Damme’s dramatic range was limited at this stage, and LIONHEART occasionally asks for more shading than he could provide. His performance works because Lyon’s feelings are written in easy-to-understand, readable terms. Guilt, loyalty, frustration, and affection. Van Damme is far better at communicating those emotions through posture and action than through dialogue. The guarded way Lyon approaches his sister-in-law, the patience he shows his niece, and the sudden force that takes over during a fight create a convincing separation between the man and the weapon everyone else wants to use.

Harrison Page supplies much of the personality Van Damme can’t. Joshua begins as a fast-talking hustler who sees Lyon as a payday, but Page gradually exposes the decency underneath the salesmanship. Their friendship becomes the film’s strongest relationship because neither man has much reason to trust the other. Joshua knows the fight circuit will chew Lyon up eventually, while Lyon recognizes that Joshua’s shortcuts come from years of surviving without better options. The affection between them develops through shared risks, arguments, and the growing realization that both men are trying to help people who have been left behind.

That gives the movie a deeper awareness; it never takes the opportunity to develop with much sophistication but can’t hide it either. The people taking the punches need money; the people arranging the fights already have it. Deborah Rennard’s Cynthia treats pain as entertainment for wealthy spectators, moving Lyon from one staged contest to another while calculating what his body is worth. The film’s images of privilege are blunt and occasionally cartoonish, though the idea underneath them remains effective. Lyon’s opponents aren’t necessarily villains. Most are workers, and people on the same level as he is, selling violence because someone richer has created a market for it.

Lettich keeps those fights distinct enough to become the movie’s primary key that keeps the film moving. Cars form one ring, a swimming pool creates another, and even a mansion turns physical punishment into an evening’s amusement. The opponents change in size, style, and temperament, allowing Van Damme’s speed and flexibility to remain the attraction without making every exchange feel identical. There’s an uncomplicated pleasure in watching him study a fighter, absorb the danger, and answer with one of those impossible-looking kicks. The choreography isn’t the most intricate of his career, but it’s presented with enough clarity to let his athleticism carry the scene.

The dramatic material surrounding the action is much less impactful. Helene’s anger toward Lyon makes sense, especially after years of disappointment involving his brother. Lisa Pelikan is asked to repeat the same suspicion long after the point has been established. The screenplay also leans hard on young Nicole whenever it needs an emotional push, and some of those scenes cross from sincere into calculated. Meanwhile, the French Foreign Legion pursuit spends much of the film functioning as a delayed complication. Their presence creates pressure early on, then hangs around until the plot decides how to fold them into the conclusion.

The A.W.O.L. extended cut doesn’t transform those weaknesses. At 1h 50m, the movie has a little more room for relationships and connective material, but its ideas were already clear. A tighter version moves with greater urgency, while this longer cut gives the supporting characters more breathing space without making them deeper. MVD Rewind’s edition treats the film with a level of care that suits its place in Van Damme’s career, building the release around a director-approved restoration and preserving an alternate version long associated with the film’s complicated international release history.

The final fight works because the story has made victory about more than proving who is strongest. Lyon is exhausted, financially cornered, and surrounded by people who have already decided how much punishment he can take. His refusal to stay down is predictable, but predictability isn’t always a failure when a movie has earned the response it wants. Lettich stages the climax as a test of character expressed through endurance, and Van Damme’s battered physicality sells that idea more convincingly than any speech could.

LIONHEART remains an uneven but likable step in Van Damme’s growth from martial-arts attraction to action star. Its family drama can be clumsy, the dialogue rarely rises above function, and the supporting women are given less dimension than the men around them. The sincerity behind the formula is what holds it together. Lyon isn’t fighting for a trophy, revenge, or national pride. He’s trying to make himself useful to people who no longer believe they can depend on him, and that modest emotional purpose gives the punches more weight than the screenplay can manage.

Bonus Materials:
Director Approved 2025 4K Scan & Restoration (2160p – 16-Bit Scan of the Original Camera Negative) of the extended “A.W.O.L. Cut” of the movie presented in 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio in HDR
Audio: LPCM 2.0 Stereo (4K + Blu-ray) and 5.1 Surround (Blu-ray)
Optional English Subtitles
NEW! Audio Commentary by Director Sheldon Lettich moderated by Heath Holland
Archival audio commentary by Sheldon Lettich & Harrison Page (4K & Blu-ray)
'The Story of 'Lionheart' (Blu-ray, HD) (Documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew including JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME)
'Inside 'Lionheart' with the Filmmakers and Cast' (Blu-ray, HD) (Featuring interviews with cast and crew including JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME)
'Lionheart: Behind the Fights' (Blu-ray, HD) (Featuring interviews with cast and crew including JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME)
Archival 'Making of' featurette (8:53) (Blu-ray, SD)
Archival Interview with Sheldon Lettich (25:52) (Blu-ray, SD)
Archival Interview with Harrison Page (13:05) (Blu-ray, SD)
'Behind the Scenes of the Audio Commentary' Archival featurette (5:40) (Blu-ray, SD)
Original Theatrical Trailer (Blu-ray, SD)
Collectible Lionheart “4K LaserVision” Mini-Poster
Reversible Cover Artwork (with original Rewind artwork on the reverse side)
Limited Edition Slipcover (*FIRST PRESSING ONLY)

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