Van Dammage: Leg Meat Perfection

In honor of the huge success of Dolph night, today's Van Dammage is a double pump of Jean-Claude Van Damme reflections and wisdom from the Universal Soldier experience:

"I was surprised by the power of his legs, he has powerful legs 

cause he's got big meat.  He's got long legs."

Being 6'5", Dolph Lundgren has always seemed larger than life on the big screen.  Throw in the muscles and athletic prowess and you have a comic book style superhero who doesn't need a costume.  I've always loved some of his signature moves like the step in sidekick we saw in flicks like Showdown In Little Tokyo and Universal Soldier where you feel like he could send some poor goon through a frigging wall.  I Come In Peace features a beautifully thrown and cringe inducing spinning back kick as Lundgren's Houston detective stops an armed robbery with his feet.  Apparently it looks so good because the actor missed his mark and Dolph slipped coming in so the kick made contact and knocked the guy down.

"When you make a film as a director, you do the best you can. Because time is in the issue.  

So you do the best you can.  But then you will always feel sorry.  

Something is missing always because perfection exists.  Somewhere."

That sentiment sums up my experience with Dolph Night and part of my life philosophy in general.  Guys like Arnold, Van Damme and Dolph showed me that self belief comes from self improvement so whether that's changing yourself physically or learning a new skill, we can only move forward when we challenge ourselves and know what we are capable of.  While things can always be worse they can also always be better.  I have to work on simply enjoying the moment as the days and weeks leading up to Dolph Night were tiring and filled with frustration due to my day job.  I tried my best to keep my mind clear and focus on what was arguably one of my life's most successful personal accomplishments but it was hard for me to relax as I kept thinking everything could fall apart at any moment.  Of course it didn't and a great time was had by all but I couldn't help but see all of the flaws of the evening instead of all of the great things that were happening.  Now that I've had a few days to reflect, I can learn from the evening and come back stronger for next time while giving myself a little credit.  Onto Live Event # 3!

Ask Me (Another) Question: Universal Soldier w/DOLPH LUNDGREN

I gotta tell you, it's a bit of a trip and I hope someone has video of it but to be standing in front of a crowded theater and be joking with one of your child to adulthood idols, I can't even describe it.  I've got a big mouth but every time I'm on a microphone people can't hear me.  So I had Dolph himself shoving the mic in my face and telling me to speak up, good times.  While introducing the flick we learned that Andrew Davis was fresh off directing Gene Hackman in The Package and wanted to turn Universal Soldier into an elaborate, political, European set revolution story that saw Unisols Luc Deveraux and Andrew Scott in bit parts.  Baumgarten balked and Davis said the young producer was about to get fired.  The next day, Davis was gone.  Roland Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin produced 30 pages of treatment in 2 days and the movie was back on track.  Dolph talked about making his character a bit off the wall and discussing with Emmerich his ideas like throwing grenades and squawking like an Indian or celebrating like a baseball pitcher.  His impression of Emmerich chain smoking then saying "very interesting, I like it" in a German accent was hilarious.  Dolph did an English accent next when telling a story about the first day shooting with Jean-Claude Van Damme.  The scene called for The Bulging Belgian to kick a gun out of Dolph's hand and on the first take, JCVD kicked hard and the gun went flying.  Dolph was a little shocked at the full bore take but shook it off.  Next take, same thing.  That's when Dolph's English karate instructor simply said, "knock him out" if it happened again.  That message was relayed to stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong whose eyes got wide as did Van Damme's when he was told.  Next take?  JC delivered a pillow tap of a kick.  The rest of the shoot went great and the two have co-starred in an additional 3 films.

We had a section of seats reserved for Dolph and Craig's party while Dammaged Goods had an entire row behind them.  Sitting behind Dolph while watching the opening of Universal Soldier?  There's only a few things left I need to accomplish in my cinema fan life.  You could tell he enjoyed the movie, the warped sense of humor and brutal 90's violence as he laughed and whispered to his friends as the memories came back.  The print was a bit soft at the start but got better throughout.  The story of two soldiers in Vietnam who kill each other but are brought back to life by "hyper accelerating dead flesh" 25 years later as super soldiers part of the Universal "Unisol" Soldier program then face off once again when their memories return, Unisol is a prime example of what made the 90's action era so great.  The film looks big with great production value from the rain soaked jungles of Vietnam (a converted golf course in Arizona), the Unisol introduction scene at the Hoover Dam with high falls and rappelling face down the huge dam to the giant, mean looking, expanding Unisol truck to the destruction of just about every location via machine gun fire, explosions or bar fights, Universal Soldier packs a punch but still has room for laughs and even a quiet dramatic beat or two.

Universal Soldier is definitely one of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph's best films.  It's a real movie with a decent budget and a talented crew.  Germany's Roland Emmerich was hungry to show what he could do in America and really pushes it as the film is more or less an exciting, prolonged chase scene.  Beyond that, the film contains one of JC's best performances and maybe Dolph's greatest in his career.  Van Damme is youthful, innocent and funny while Dolph is just plain crazy and sickly hilarious.  From the necklace made from human ears to the sudden bursts of violence balanced with evil yet comedic brooding, Dolph delivers a fantastic performance.  The supermarket scene where Sgt. Andrew Scott talks about "kicking or kissing ass and busting heads" has always been one of my all time favorite moments in this or any film.  I had to jump out and catch the D-train so I missed their epic rain and fire filled clash but escorted Dolph back into the theater and got to watch him watch Van Damme kick him into a combine and throw the switch.  Again, hilarity.

Geoff and I had discussed some talking points since we really wanted to make the night and Q&A a tribute to Dolph's inspirational life and awesome career.  They took the stage and were recorded for the Humans From Earth podcast and Dolph was simply wonderful.  Funny, smart, animated and gracious.

- Stallone was so famous around Rocky IV that he needed a police escort.
- When Dolph's boxing boots were the wrong color scheme, Stallone flipped out, called the Adidas factory in Germany, had them open over the weekend, make new boots and ship them to Vancouver for Monday's shooting.
- On way into Rocky IV, was on the arm of Grace Jones, after the film people are looking at him and now she's on his arm.  Life changed completely in 90 minutes.
- Back in the day directors didn't have video village of monitors and just had to know what they were doing and Emmerich was a great director.
- John Woo sat behind 8 monitors chain smoking and direction consisted of walking up to Dolph, getting really close, then walking away.
- Back in his day, you had to do more yourself and could only have a stunt double for long shots.  Today, a good actor with a good stunt coordinator and 4 doubles can be an action hero.
- Cites Stallone, Chuck Norris, Arnold, Clint Eastwood and Robert Mitchum all had real life experience and played characters closer to their personalities and skills as "tough guys".
- Sly had made Drago a sympathetic villain and the call to play All-American hero He-Man was difficult and a lot of pressure.  Almost froze wearing costume that was the size of a stamp and couldn't go out in public because of his mullet hair extension.
- Has liked working out since a teen and it's part of the business, also keeps him young.
- Likes producing, on it from day one and get to shape the project unlike a director or actor who sometimes just get the call and show up.
- Skin Trade came from reading an article years ago about a van full of women being brought to America from Mexico, abandoned and suffocated to death.  Wrote the script never thinking it would be made but just finished in Thailand and in post production.
- Sex Trafficking is 3rd biggest criminal enterprise in the world behind drugs and guns.
- Craig Baumgarten came up to discuss more about Skin Trade and the great cast: Tony Ja's first English speaking film, Michael Jai White, Ron Perlman and Peter Weller.
- Weller had a comical fit on last day of shooting as all of the stars were on set and Weller came late and got the smallest trailer.

Dolph said he would do some signing so we didn't need to whisk him away.  As soon as the Q&A ended, wow, a rumbling herd rushed Dolph so we moved to the lobby where things could be a little more orderly.  Dolph was great as he signed and took photos for quite a while.  Getting him out of there was a bit nuts as there was still a mob after him and I was one of those guys who walks in front of celebs clearing the way and saying stuff like "get back" or "we're done" and "don't get hit by a car".  All in it was a crazy, fun, memorable and educational night that I still haven't quite processed yet as I had to be back at work the next morning at 8:30AM.

Thanks Dolph, Craig, Lori, Grant, Christian, Tammi and Geoff.  Victory!  We'll do it again soon.

Ask Me a Question: Universal Soldier w/DOLPH LUNDGREN

WOW.  What a night.  My brain hasn't quite computed everything yet but I'm told Dolph Night was a rousing success, we had a great enthusiastic crowd and the D-Man was awesome.  I'll put up a full post later but thank you to everyone who showed up last night.  The American Cinematheque, BeyondFest, Humans From Earth and Dammaged Goods all worked together like a movie bro Expendables to make for one hell of a night.  Now let's rewind.  The night started off running around getting things set, anticipating Dolph and producer Craig Baumgarten's arrival.  I had posted up outside in the courtyard where several Dammaged Goods, StalloneZone, VanDammeFan and plain ol' action fans introduced themselves and I handed them a custom shirt for the night.  Later inside, I look up and one of the guys who got a shirt said, "he's here!" and there was Dolph, in all his muscular, suave and cool guy glory.  He, Craig and their party actually arrived early so we whisked them away to chat about the evening and I got to hear some stories about Carolco, the production and original director Andrew Davis' script that was ultimately rejected.

Dolph, fan, custom shirt!

Then it was time.  Grant and Geoff from the Egyptian Theatre and Humans From Earth gave us a lowdown of what's coming up, that the first HFE podcasts are up and then it was my turn.  I welcomed the crowd and told them how my first movie in theaters was 1987's Masters of the Universe starring none other than Dolph Lundgren and that I'd been a lifelong fan ever since.  So it was a pleasure and kind of bewildering to be in a giant, beautiful, historic theatre about to watch him on the big screen.  As a thank you, I had prizes but you had to earn them!  Up for grabs were an original 1992 Universal Soldier button, a VHS signed by Dolph and Craig and a custom shirt for the night.  I was really sweating it if my questions would be too hard but the audience knew that Dolph did Kyokoshin karate, Sgt. Andrew Scott's designation was GR-13 and that Roland Emmerich directed the movie.  Then Dolph and Craig came up to say hello to the audience and I asked them what first memories came back to them when they heard Unisol was being screened.  Craig elaborated on the Andrew Davis debacle while Dolph regaled the audience with the story of threatening to knock Jean-Claude Van Damme out on their first day.

More later...

Dammaged Goods Round Up!

Tonight's Shirt!

Holy crap what a week.  Pulled a 17 hour day yesterday and working through weekend but it doesn't matter because Dolph Night is here!  It's not a bad Friday when you see that both Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme have shared the event you've help put together to about 14 million peeps!  I'll be doing intro, trivia and prizes tonight so if you're there, please say hi, we action movie fans must stick together!

Just so you know, Dammaged Goods is now on Facebook and Twitter so come talk some trash!

Tonight, I'll be handing out custom Dolph shirts for Dammaged Goods supporters and trivia winners.  Then, go pick up a WWJCVDD? shirt and have your own Universal Soldier and The Expendables week!

Workout of the Day: Double Pumped & Dolph Week!

On top of it being Dolph Week, I'm also in the midst of a huge project at the office that will require 11 straight long days of work.  No big deal, I've planned the work and will work the plan.  Remember, be a Doer!  To maximize my daily output, I've set myself on a sleep schedule from 12:00 - 6:00AM because once you're mentally prepared, the body will follow.  With time being of the essence, my training needs to be short and sweet and fit into my day whenever it can.  Whether that means yoga and jumping rope in the morning, a quick weight session at night or taking 20 flights of stairs at work, it's up to me not to use a busy schedule as an excuse to pig out all week.  Dolph would not approve.  A while back I posted a routine where I did two exercises for the same body part in a row and dubbed it the Double Pump, you fine readers seemed to enjoy it so here's a workout I got in over this past weekend that got me swole up in record time.  The key is to do two exercises that don't tax the muscles in the same fashion.  That way you're not wearing out your joints and tendons, risking injury.

Chest: Push up and DB Fly - To build, stretch and shape the pectoral muscles
Back: Chin and Barbell Row - For lat width and upper back thickness
Triceps: Dips and DB Side Extensions - For mass and definition of the horse shoe
Biceps: Barbell Curl and DB Hammer Curl - For density, shape and width along with forearms
Delts: Arnold Press and DB Side Raises - Shape, mass and definition

Since I was under a time crunch, performing the exercises back to back got my muscles engorged quickly while keeping my heart rate up.  That's 10 exercises per Giant Set and I repeated the circuit 3 times for a total of 30 sets to work my entire upper body.  Later that night, I started to get a bit tight and sore which is always a good sign and then I slept like a person who likes to sleep a lot.

Wanting to get some cardio in and work my legs, I took a page from Dolph's Maximum Potential and completed the Warm Up, Cardio, Leg Sculpting and Abdominal portions and jump roped during the Upper Body section since I had just trained Chest and Biceps at 6:00 AM.  You wouldn't think 12 sets of body squats, lunges and calf raises would be very difficult but boy howdy, the pace Dolph sets and doing 4 sets straight for one body part had my legs screaming and I was dripping a sweat.  During the Abdominal part I paused the video after each exercise and got in 300 quick skips with the rope and threw in an extra set of trunk twists with a pole on my back.  Now it was time for some meditation to slow down my brain and some salmon, rice and salad for dinner before doing some more work.

(Pre) Ask Me a Question: DOLPH LUNDGREN in Person! Universal Soldier & Rocky IV

After the nerve wracking fun of The Van Damme Double Dip, Dammaged Goods Live is getting serious...and prestigious!  Very excited to announce that I've teamed up with The American Cinematheque, the non-profit organization that runs the historic Egyptian and Aero Theatres in Hollywood and Santa Monica, for a night of cinematic clashes of the titans and Expendables 3 prep with Universal Soldier and Rocky IV on the big screen!  Chemical engineer, karate champion, action movie icon, director, producer, author and all around Perfect Man Dolph Lundgren is scheduled to attend for a Q&A between films!  We've also invited studio executive turned producer turned manager extraordinaire Craig Baumgarten to join us for the evening so we can hopefully hear some crazy stories about working with Van Damme, Dolph, Carolco and more during the good ol' 90's.  As with the Van Damme night, I will be doing trivia and prizes before the movie, giveaways for the first people in line as well as unveiling custom Dolph shirts for the evening!

After Universal Soldier, I'll turn it over to Geoff Boucher, the former LA Times and Entertainment Weekly writer who now runs Humans From Earth, a monthly screening and podcast series, for the Q&A.  Our host, The American Cinematheque is a non-profit organization out of Los Angeles dedicated to the public presentation of the Moving Image.  Created in 1981, the Cinematheque launched its first screenings in 1987 hosting festivals, tributes, retrospectives, independent films and more.  Since 1998, the Cinematheque has been presenting programs from Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, following a $12.8 million dollar renovation.  The 600 seat theater is gorgeous and even sports a smaller screening room inside named after Steven Spielberg.  Built in 1922, The Egyptian holds the distinction of holding the first ever Hollywood film premiere, Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood, in 1922.  Four years later, Grauman built his even more famous Chinese theatre just down Hollywood Blvd.  The Egyptian's courtyard has held movie premieres, dinner receptions, masquerade balls and more.  Over the years I've seen awesome programming there including The Back to the Future Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Terminator double feature and a Tribute to John Carpenter among dozens of other titles, many for the first time on the big screen.  Dolph Lundgren will be the latest guest the Cinematheque has hosted following an impressive run including Steven Spielberg, Mel Gibson, Nicolas Cage, George Clooney, Al Pacino, Michael Mann and oh so many more.

See you there!  Now get your tickets!

http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/universal-soldier-rocky-iv