Workout of the Day: Van Damme Week

Too much boozing and eating had me feeling pretty damn (Damme) lazy but it being Van Damme week and all I figured I owed it to the Muscles From Brussels to get in a few sweaty sessions.  I once read Van Damme lost up to 14 pounds of sweat in one workout, I've only been able to drop 10 myself.  I guess we're both hot men, like Sean Connery (who did a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in his boxers because he "sweats very easily").

A.M. Session:
- Dumbbell swing/Close grip push up/Close grip chin ups/Good morning/Concentration curl/1-Arm tricep extension/1-Arm preacher curl/1-Arm side extension

8 exercises performed non-stop for 3 circuits equaling 24 sets that worked shoulders, legs and lower back with a focus on triceps and biceps

P.M.  Session:
- Squat/Lunge/Deadlift/Calf raise/Jump squat then 1-2 minute intervals of jump rope, shadow boxing and recumbent bicycling for 4 rounds

Both sessions were immediately followed by a whey protein shake and a few glugs of Gatorade post shower.  Oh and I popped in Double Team for the P.M. session, the crazy 1997 spy action thriller starring Van Damme, Dennis Rodman and Mickey Rourke directed by Tsui Hark.  Allegedly Van Damme was at the worst of his coke years during production.  Besides some obvious doubling in fight scenes, it still holds up as a kinetic, bright, ridiculous and action packed flick.

Home training with Jean-Claude:

Van Damme Week: Bloodsport

Having just secured his first leading role, Van Damme realized he was in deep shit.  He needed an agent, a lawyer and if the film was going to shoot in America, a Green Card.  Luckily the film wound up being shot in Hong Kong but not before Van Damme nearly lost the role when his newly acquired lawyer balked at Cannon's 3-picture deal worth $25, 50 and $75,000.  When said lawyer thought it was a bluff and stalled the deal, Golan became upset and Van Damme signed on immediately, knowing this was his shot after so many years of waiting.

Shooting for two months in Hong Kong, Bloodsport is the (now debunked) true story of Frank Dux, a martial artist who participates in a secret, underground fighting tournament dubbed, The Kumite.  Co-starring as villain Chong Li was Bolo Yeung, a Chinese bodybuilder and on screen fighter who had previously appeared opposite Bruce Lee in 1979's Enter the Dragon.  Donald Gibb, Ogre from 1984's Revenge of the Nerds played Jackson, Dux's fellow American fighter and eventual broheim.  Future Oscar winner Forest Whitaker shows up as a young investigator on Dux's case while Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom villain Roy Chiao plays Van Damme's mentor and karate spirit instructor, Senzo Tanaka.

With little acting experience and a thick accent too boot, Van Damme's portrayal of Dux draws more from his own charisma and physical abilities than thespian skill.  His soon to be trademarks like the full split (shown 7 times as grueling training, meditation and during a fight among others), graceful kicks, jump spinning helicopter kick and butt shot (watch as he pulls his underwear up twice) are all highlighted.  His performance wouldn't win him any Oscars but you can see the effort in both emotion and action driven scenes.  Helmed by career Assistant Director Newt Arnold (Blade Runner, Godfather II, The Abyss), Bloodsport would make excellent use of the exotic as well as dingy Hong Kong locales and give audiences plenty of what they were looking for, brutal martial arts action.

 A template for video game phenomenon Street Fighter II, Bloodsport cast colorful international characters of all shapes and sizes implementing a variety of disciplines like karate, kung-fu, muy thai, sumo and animal styles against each other in full contact combat to find the greatest fighter in the world.  One could even make the connection of creating the early inspiration for today's boom of UFC led Mixed Martial Arts which started as a competition between the best fighters of respective styles going head to head.

After deeming a rough cut "very bad", Golan shelved Bloodsport.  Van Damme, knowing it was his ticket to Hollywood, begged the mogul to let him re-edit the film in a bid to salvage his now dwindling career.  Working in secret with The Towering Inferno editor Carl Kress, Van Damme reshaped the film into it's current cult classic form.  Throw in a memorable soundtrack by Paul Hertzog featuring Stan Bush and Michael Bishop and you now have a perfect time capsule that surprisingly stands the test of cinema. Still not convinced was Golan who sold the rights to France and Malaysia where it hit number one in both countries.  Van Damme paid his own ticket to France for promotion and Golan knew he had a hit on his hands.  Once released in the US, Bloodsport would gross $11 million on a $1 million budget and Van Damme was officially on the map.

Studios came calling but Van Damme was now stuck in a low paying contract with Golan who knew he had a hot commodity.  Instead of giving Van Damme a raise and making him part of the Cannon family along with $1 million earners Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson, Golan only paid him the original $50,000 and $75,000 contracted fees.  It wouldn't be all bad memories though, through Bloodsport Van Damme met writer/director Sheldon Lettich who would go on to work with Van Damme on at least 8 films.  Villain Bolo Yeung would pop up in VD's first big budget picture, Double Impact in 1991 and the flick remains a classic in the martial arts genre while arguably being Van Damme's most well known film.

Pseudo music video:

Ripspirational: Van Damme Week

"Passion can kill you.  It hurts your eyes, your nose, your arteries, your bones.  But I prefer to live for passion than to be careful.  Passion can make you squat, a mountain."
     Jean-Claude Van Damme

Van Damme Week: Humble Beginnings

The story of Jean-Claude Camille Francois Van Varenberg is the stuff of Hollywood legend.  Or TV movie of the week for sure.  Born in Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Belgim, Jean-Claude spent his youth as a hyper kid who hated school and history, was an awkward, bespectacled blonde runt with a lisp.  Skinny and not physically gifted, Jean-Claude's father, Eugene, sent him to train in shotokan karate with Claude Goetz at age 11 to "make him into a man" after seeing the David Carradine television show, Kung-Fu.

There, Goetz's inhuman training (running 10s of miles, wearing a padded suit to wrestle dogs, torturous flexibility exercises) began to shape the young lad.  But to Goetz, endurance wasn't enough, to create powerful striking, Jean-Claude needed resistance training for strength.  Adding in ballet for grace and stretching (as well as lots of beautiful girls), Jean-Claude transformed himself into a 200 pound beast who could jump spin kick over your head and do a full split before dropping out of high school and opening his own fitness mecca, California Gym.  Not content with the gym business and winning karate tournaments, having seen big sweeping epic movies like Lawrence of Arabia and Ben-Hur and motivated by his ability to be picked out a crowd for modeling and bit parts; Jean-Claude left his family, business and first wife to pursue his dream:  To become a movie star.

After collecting business cards from producers and distributors at the Milan Film Festival, Jean-Claude headed to Hong Kong where he briefly met Jackie Chan but struck out in the movie industry.  His next cache of cards was from Americans so Jean-Claude landed in the pancake of lights known as Los Angeles, saw a limousine with two wheels on the back and knew he was in the right place.  Working with childhood friend Michel Qissi, Jean-Claude lived hand to mouth for years on the streets performing odd jobs like teaching karate, bouncing bars, laying carpet (where he married the bosses daughter), driving limo's and as a masseur.  He would train at Gold's Gym in Venice at 4:00AM when nobody checked membership and then take a free shower.  When he wasn't working, Jean-Claude would spend hours chasing producers and going to auditions.

Believing he needed a more American moniker, Jean-Claude Van Varenburg became Frank Cujo.  Unfortunately an adaptation of the Stephen King novel, Cujo was released in 1983 so Van Varenburg became Van Damme, the name of a friend from Hong Kong.  A chance meeting with Chuck Norris saw young Jean-Claude Van Damme auditioning at Norris' home to become his trainer.  Impressed with JCVD's kicking skills, Chuck took him on where Van Damme trained Norris for months, for free.  Norris eventually got VD a job at his wife's restaurant, Woody's Wharf, in Newport Beach and took JC on two movie shoots.  Van Damme would land his first on screen credits in 1984 as the Gay Karate Man in Monaco Forever and a scene stealing dance extra with Qissi in Breakin'.

Responding to an open audition for martial artists, Jean-Claude would knock out a loud mouth bullying other hopefuls and landed the role of Ivan the Russian in Seasonal Films' No Retreat, No Surrender.  Playing the villain to a high school transplant trained by the ghost of Bruce Lee, NRNS is far from classic cinema but is entertaining with some of VD's greatest fight scenes.  Made for well under $1 million, NRNS earned $5 million in the US alone and garnered Van Damme some attention.  Around this time Van Damme met superstar female bodybuilder Gladys Portugese on a photo shoot in Mexico.  Apparently, she fell in love with his affinity for wearing suspenders.  The two married and had their first child in 1987.

His personal life going well, it was time to ramp up his professional output.  Jean-Claude ran into 80's super producer Menahem Golan at a restaurant on La Cienega.  Golan was one half of Cannon Films, the go-go mini-studio of the 80's.  Where some studios had 10 movies in development, Cannon had 100.  According to Van Damme, he saw Golan leaving the restaurant with some Asian buyers fresh from the American Film Market happening in Santa Monica.  Jean-Claude threw a kick over Golan's head, pointed to himself and introduced himself as "Jean-Claude Van Damme, karate guy".  The crowd impressed, Golan gave JC a card and set a meeting for the next day.  According to Golan, VD was a waiter at the restaurant and while holding a bowl of turtle soup, kicked over Golan's head without spilling the soup.

The next day, Van Damme would visit the penthouse of Cannon Films, the most successful independent studio of all time.  Golan and his partner Yorum Globus were kings of cheap, exploitative fare, reusing sets and foreign pre-sale funding while also taking risks on edgier, artistic fare from known talent.  Sylvester Stallone had just signed a $10 million deal to star in Over The Top, the arm wrestling/father-son/road trip opus.

After 7 hours, Jean-Claude finally had his meeting with Golan and was nearly in tears.  After struggling for five years, Van Damme sold himself as a young Chuck Norris, maybe a Stallone.  He was very cheap, Golan could buy him for a piece of bread and make money with him.  To accentuate his boasts, Van Damme took off his shirt to reveal his muscles then placed two chairs beside him and did the splits between them.  Impressed, Golan laid down the script for Bloodsport, telling Van Damme, "you want to be a star, I'll make you a star".

Bloodsport would launch Jean-Claude Van Damme's career but it almost never saw the light of day.  Stay tuned as we look at the movies that changed Van Damme from a karate kicking Arnold wannabe action star to a critically praised, self destructive actor and household brand.

Promoting Bloodsport:

Elbow Rocket! Van Damme Week! With Arnold and Stallone!

Monday, October 14th, 2013.  Just another day?  Not quite, for today marks the start of Van Damme Week!  Co-Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.

On Friday, October 18th, Jean-Claude Van Damme will turn 53 (still ripped) years old.  Also, the King of Kings, Arnold and the Italian Stallion, Stallone's latest film, Escape Plan (formerly The Tomb) hits theaters.  If this isn't cause for you to be motivated already I'm bout to give you Samoa (Get it?  You don't get it.)

So anytime your day gets tough, things aren't going your way, you feel the world is against you, you think you're being overlooked, just remember:

"Hey, this is the American dream here.  This is the land of opportunity.  Anyone can come over here, marry a Kennedy and become a millionaire."
     - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Now get out there and take what's yours, Internet.

Escape Plan is out on Friday.  It's a fun flick with solid roles for Sly and Arnie: