Van Dammage: Belief Fire

"I'm hard on myself always.  I'm very insecure.  But I believe in my dream and I was pushing every day to make it happen.  So when I hear people complaining about jobs or not having work, asking for money, it's a bunch of bullshit."
     Jean-Claude Van Damme

Con-Man: Postcards VS Buttons

When I first started going to Cons, there would always be a few people selling postcards.  Cards adorned with awesome comic art, movie posters, famous figures and the like.  Then in the late 2000's, postcards started to become scarcer and scarcer.  In the last couple years, those "throwaway" art examples became buttons and now buttons are everywhere with everything from movies, actors, musicians, cartoon characters, slogans, memes and whatnot.  The latest trend sees makers using actual pages from comic books as the image.

Postcards were nice because they were like mini-posters.  You could hang them on a wall, a cork board, the fridge, your office cube and send them to friends as unique and tailored hellos.  Buttons are a little trickier, you're either putting them on your purse/Indiana Jones satchel/computer bag or on hoodies and jackets.  I only have so much button real estate so many of them are just sitting on display on my bookshelf with random toys and swag.  I'd like to see postcards make a bit of a comeback on the Convention scene but I just don't see it happening as many local vendors are making their own buttons and selling them by the handful while I'm sure postcards take a little more doing.  It'll be interesting to see what new swag will be available at San Diego Comic-Con in addition to those little Funko's, graphic tees and oh so many buttons.

Take it away Etsy:

Summer Cinema: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

While Summer doesn't officially begin until June 21st, the cinematic season started last weekend on Friday, May 2nd with the release of Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  If you'll recall, Sam Raimi had directed 3 chapters in the Spidey-verse with Tobey Maguire playing the brilliant but struggling and lovelorn genius Peter Parker and his radioactive spider bitten heroic alter ego Spider-Man.  After budgets continued to climb and quality lowered, plans for a 4th Raimi directed Spidey adventure were scrapped in favor of a reboot by 500 Days of Summer's Marc Webb that would allegedly put more focus on the awkward teen still reeling from the mysterious disappearance of his parents.  Coming in at a hefty $230 million, The Amazing Spider-Man wasn't a bad time at the movies, it just didn't seem that different from the 2002 version.  Instead of being a nerdy photographer, Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker is just more of a loner.  Not an emo or goth kid, not an outcast, just a kid who wears hoodies and rides a skateboard.  Which today, doesn't seem that odd.  Instead of the vivacious redhead Mary Jane, we get Parker's first love from the comics, Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone. 

Part 2 of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's comic creation adaptation starts out by delving further into the origins of Peter's father, Richard.  If I'm not mistaken, you don't hear much about his real parents in the comics, he's just with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben from the start.  But now, everything has to be connected with some grand threat and inherit legacy involved blah blah so Richard Parker is shown to be a scientist working for Norman Osborn who doesn't want his top secret work on regenerating spiders weaponized so he dumps young Peter with his relatives and goes on the run.  I don't know what it is that we have to explain everything about everyone these days as Man of Steel was arguably more about his two dads than it was about him.  Here, large chunks of the narrative hinge on Peter finding out what dad was up to.  Are our current heroes so bland their stories can't fill the runtime of their own movies?  Maybe the makers should consider trimming these movies down to 2 hours even so you could save a good 20 minutes from having to up the stakes at the cost of our protagonist.

Anywho, Spidey comes across overlooked, overworked and socially awkward Oscorp electrical engineer Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) who after a horrible accident at the office, harnesses the power of electricity and becomes Electro.  Meanwhile, childhood bud Harry Osborn comes back to the city to greet his dying father Norman and becomes obsessed with using Spider-Man's blood to find a cure for a disease he and his father share.  The opening of the film is quite fun with lots of wisecracking from Spider-Man but right away the movie lost me a bit because they have Spidey rescuing this person and that, his saving Max Dillon and showing him kindness is a story jump off point but then he just lets a rampaging semi run right into traffic causing what looks like horrific accidents.  I know they need to blow shit up to keep our attention but couldn't they at least had the truck driver escape the hero instead of just being let loose to cause havoc and innocent bystander deaths?

The flick moves at a nice clip and there's sweet, nearly saccharine scenes between Garfield's Parker and Stone's Stacy as they try to make their relationship work in the midst of going to college, Peter promising her dying father to leave his daughter alone and him being Spider-Man in general.  Everything is set up pretty quickly which is nice, you get a sense of the drama and issues and it's a jump off point for the story and action to come.  Simple beats of Foxx's put upon and lonely Dillon lead up to his wild outburst when he's granted super powers and wishing to be finally noticed while Harry Osborn quickly deals with his father's ailing health, taking over a $200 billion dollar empire, swimming with corporate sharks, having a friend in Peter and a suddenly fast moving flesh eating disease.  There are plenty of nods and straight giveaways to future cinematic Spider adventures with Doctor Octopus' arms, The Vulture's wings and a suit of armor for The Rhino as part of Oscorp's secret, military style division.

If you've read the books, you know that Gwen Stacy doesn't make it and Amazing Spider-Man 2 addresses that head on.  The scene came as a shock as I had forgotten that piece of Spidey's history.  It gives the film a bit of weight and I commend the filmmakers for having the balls to do that to such a major character played by a famous actress instead of just making everything work out fine in the end.  Divergent's Shailene Woodley shot scenes as future love interest Mary Jane but were cut so we'll see if she pops up in part 3.  Facing some stiff competition in the form of Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, Spidey 2 has taken a bit of a tumble at the box office and won't scale the financial heights of it's Sam Raimi helmed predecessors but is cleaning up overseas so more web slinging, city swinging, wise cracking, Spidey-sense tingling (only used once, lame) shenanigans should be on the way.

Workout of the Day: Time Me

It's been a Damme busy 6 weeks or so and my workouts have suffered.  Sure I've trained at all of the different hotels we stayed at but eating clean wasn't exactly high on my list.  This past week was particularly challenging as the Van Damme double features over 3 nights meant I was up late and not getting the greatest of rest.  To help me get back into the groove, I tried to take my mind out of the equation and just train for a set time.  That way I wasn't thinking about sets or reps, I was only focused on moving from exercise to exercise until time was up.

After a warm up of jumping jacks, mountain climbers, shoulder rolls, etc I started my 6 exercise circuit that I would continue for 20 minutes.

1)  Goblet Squat - Holding a 40lb dumbbell at my chest
2)  Chins - Switching grips each time to work more of my back, biceps, forearms, etc
3)  Push Ups - Switching hand grips each time, narrow, regular, wide, hands out, in, etc
4)  Jump Lunge - Get into a lunge position then jump up and switch lead legs and lower into a lunge
5)  Straight Bar Curls - Doing Larry Scott style "burns" after designated reps
6)  Dips - Elbows in close, slowly lowering and pushing up

To keep me going, I only did 5-7 reps per exercise, 20 for push ups and in the end completed 6 full rounds and was dying.  My legs started to get sore from the Jump Lunges later that night.  After the 20 minute blast, it was time for some abs, twists and calf raises followed by some time on the bike and a few hundred jumps with the rope.

It's a new day, a new hour, a new beginning so get swole!

If this doesn't get you jacked and ready to go every time, I don't know what will:

Straight Netflix'ing: Arrow

It all started at WonderCon during a panel on writers and showrunners.  One of them worked on Arrow and during the sizzle reel I spotted action hero/martial artist/bodybuilder/Black Dynamite  Michael Jai White as a member of the Suicide Squad.  I know Smallville ended up doing a TV version of Justice League but I hadn't kept up with it's 10 year run and just felt it was too late to jump back in.  But Arrow had only been on the air a couple years I thought and I kept seeing it on Netflix.  Byron Mann, an actor I've tried to keep up with since seeing him Van Damme's Street Fighter, The Corruptor and Michael Biehn's American Dragons, had a recurring role on the show so that was a plus.  I was unfamiliar with Manu Bennet's work or existence until seeing him at Calgary Expo where he seemed like a cool yet macho kind of guy, a rarity in today's era of skinny leads and lady boys.  I haven't seen him in Spartacus but found out he plays Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke on Arrow so it seemed like I had enough reasons to check out the show between the three action actors.

One thing I really didn't realize was that Arrow has full seasons.  I figured CW only did short, 13 episode arcs a la cable to save money but nope, Arrow is full on with 23 frigging chapters.  That gave me pause because I think that's one of TV's problems, the seasons are too long so you just get filler.  I still haven't checked out an episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. because it looked so boring and lackluster.  Who gives a shit about that smirking bland-ass Agent Coulson?  Where's the actually interesting men of action like Dum Dum Dugan, Jimmy Woo, Clay Quartermain or Gabe Jones?  I don't want to see a bunch of boring, unknown actors solving Podunk mysteries on a weekly basis.  I want to see interesting characters working for a super secret para-military/international police force using fancy toys and kicking ass!  Maybe I'll go back and check out the Bill Paxton episodes because, bro, Bill Paxton...  Dude, Bill Paxton.

Luckily, Arrow has been pretty interesting through the first half of the season and is only getting better.  The story of Oliver Queen; a rich, vain, thoughtless playboy who is cheating on his girlfriend with her own sister.  On a leisure cruise somewhere in China, the yacht sinks and Oliver is left on a life raft with his father Robert, a powerful businessman who admits to his son that he's failed their city and helped destroy it.  Father Queen gives his spoiled son a list of all the names of people who helped poison Starling City and instructs him to survive.  Washing ashore on an unknown island, Oliver is taken in by the mysterious Yao Fei (Mann) and later comic based character Slade Wilson (Bennett) who teach him to fight and survive.  Turns out the island is actually a former prison and through flashbacks we see Oliver adapting and escaping. 

5 years after the sinking of the family yacht, Oliver is rescued and returns to Starling City where he's reunited with his mother, sister, former girlfriend and best friend.  The show does a good job of mixing in the family and former lover drama like any CW show should with Oliver's vigilante antics as he dons a hood and uses a bow and arrow to fight those who have helped destroy his city.  At first, it all smacks deeply of Batman.  The rich kid, big house, unlimited resources, inspired by his dead father to take revenge, etc.  But slowly, Arrow differentiates itself as he deals with his affluent family, his sister's despondent fall into drugs and trouble and the fact his mother had something to do with the sinking of the yacht.  More tinges of Batman come out as Oliver taps resources from his father's vast business empire and of course, the "Applied Science" department helps him out a la Morgan Freeman's Lucious Fox in Batman Begins.  The pinches aren't blatant enough to make your eyes roll, they just help keep you in the right frame of mind of the show's story and world.  The show's action is pretty solid with lots of hand to hand, parkour infused mayhem happening each episode.  Production values are high as Vancouver looks great with locales for the 1% style luxurious, woodsy natural and seedy urban aspects of the show.

I had seen Stephen Amell on the last season of Hung, where he played a nice yet shallow rival gigolo to Mr. WeirdCool Thomas Jane's.  On Arrow, his Abercrombie & Finch handsomeness and action figure physique are put to good use as the rich kid façade and for the shirtless training scenes.  In the first half dozen episodes, Amell's lack of a dignified hero voice a la Michael Keaton or straight Christian Bale growl was really jarring in the Arrow scenes but now seem to be modulated to give him a kind of monotone, ominous motif instead of the gee whiz, nice guy quality his voice naturally has.  Since superheroes and villains are all the rage right now, Arrow hasn't shied away from using colorful characters like revenge seeking The Huntress, assassin China White, eye patched super gunman Deadshot and so on.  A drug dealer known as The Count gets a syringe full of his own supply and is carted off at the hospital so you know he's gonna come back looking all freaky and cray cray in the head.  I'm unfamiliar with the comic book version of Oliver Queen beyond knowing The Green Arrow shared a title with The Green Lantern at one point and was praised when sidekick Speedy was depicted as a drug addict so I have no idea if this is paying homage to the panels.  That's not a bad thing because there are no preconceived notions and if anything will inspire me to pick up a few issues to expand my comic knowledge since I've always been a Marvel guy.

Apparently the show is doing quite well, being CW's highest rated new show in 5 years and receiving positive critical reception along with garnering award nominations from The Saturn Awards, IGN, The Leo Awards and more.  I wonder if interest in bow and arrow shooting has risen in the last 10 years what thanks to Legolas in Lord of the Rings, Thomas Jane's throwback to Rambo in The Punisher, Arrow, Hawkeye in The Avengers and of course, Katniss in The Hunger Games.  Season 2 has just wrapped up while a 3rd year was green lit.  Spin-off The Flash was picked up recently along with Fox's young Commissioner Gordon series, Gotham and Constantine on NBC so while Marvel is winning the cinematic battle, DC can claim victory on the small screen.

Train In Peace: Larry Scott

Not sure how I missed this in March but bodybuilding and fitness has lost one of it's most inspirational figures, Larry Scott.  Born in Pocatello, Idaho in 1938, Scott was bodybuilding's first Mr. Olympia, the prestigious title that was later won by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane and Franco Columbu.  Possessing a clean cut, All-American handsomeness and some of the best arms and shoulders in the game, Scott was the premiere bodybuilder of the early 1960's.  After winning the Olympia title a 2nd time in 1966 at the young age of 28, Scott abruptly retired to focus on his personal life.  A devout Mormon, Scott had set up shop in Salt Lake City, Utah where he ran gyms, spas and supplement stores.  He died at age 75 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.  He is survived by his wife of more than 40 years and their 3 remaining children.

Scott had one of the great physiques of all time as he was massive yet not lumbering with huge cannonball delts and a narrow waist.  His arms were always center of attention with their dense, football shape but his thick, V-shaped back, wide, slab like chest, statuesque thighs and calves were always up to snuff.  Working with Vince Gironda and Rheo H. Blair, Scott became one of the first bodybuilders known for attributing as much success to nutrition as training.  Scott is said to have taken in 2 cups of Blair's special protein a day with heavy cream and a gallon of milk a day, that's 16 cups of milk!  Back then a breakfast would consist of hamburger patties, whole eggs and cottage cheese.  High protein and fat with low carbs and few vegetables were the norm.

Larry Scott loved preacher curls, so much that people started to dub them "Scott" curls.  Using the angled bench or the reverse flat "spider" side helps take the deltoids out of the equation and helps pump up the brachialis, the rope like muscle between the biceps and triceps on the side of your arm.  Preacher curls also help tie in the lower bicep near the interior elbow joint to give your arms a fuller, thicker appearance.  Remember, some of us have a low tie in while others have a high tie in.  A low tie in usually means longer, thicker biceps with less peak while a high tie in has more space between the bicep and inner elbow for a bigger peak.

Some training routines from The Legend:

Fry your Deltoids:  Sit on a bench with dumbbells in hand, raise them laterally until they are over your head and nearly touch.  Do 4 reps here.  Without resting, raise the DB's out to the side but stop at ear level then bring them together in front, return them to the side and lower.  4 reps here.  Still without setting them down, burn out and do regular side raises until you feel like your shoulders are ready to fall off.  That's the Larry Scott way!

Build a better Bicep:  2 Arm Preacher Curl w/Dumbbells, with your shoulders wide and your elbows on the bench tight, lower the DB's all the way to the bottom then curl up, flexing at the top.  After 6-8 reps, Scott would perform 3-4 half reps or "burns" to really tear the fibers.  Regular Preacher Curls were next with full reps and more burns.  Reverse curls, either standing or on the Preacher bench were next to fry the forearms and brachialis. 

Scott would usually select 4 exercises per body part and complete 5 sets which is a bit much for us non-competitive types.  I usually aim for 3 sets of 3 different exercises per body part, working at least 2 a day like Chest/Biceps, Back/Triceps, Shoulders/Legs, etc.

My condolences to the Scott family and much respect to one of the early prototypes.  Train In Peace.

Dammaged View: Fitness Hipster

While talking about developing a wellness committee in the office, a co-worker called me a "fitness hipster".  You know, someone who says they did something before it was cool?  This of course, faux-infuriated me beyond belief and I had to go into Credible Hulk mode. Working out is one of those weird things, to me, you either have it or you don't.  In the office, it has to be non-threatening so small steps like learning how to sit Ergonomically, doing some stretches, getting up from your desk and taking the stairs or some quick body weight exercises so no one feels ostracized or self conscious.  Not everyone is inspired by Arnold or Van Damme and that's just fine.  I was a chubby, awkward youth and wanted to change.  Thanks to guys like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane and a supportive high school coach/teacher, I hit the weights after school three times a week along with some Tae Kwon Do lessons.  In high school you're just lifting blind, doing what the football and track coach tells you to do with no plan for eating or progression.  In college, I had nothing but time.  Seriously, the first two years of college are a joke, if you have time to underage drink, you have no excuse for not being in shape as well.  Anyway, I started reading more about nutrition and work out plans from the greats and started to refine my methods.  In time of course, I gained strength and lost weight, easy as that.

I've always liked lifting weights but working out regularly gave me a stigma.  I was the weird guy who woke up before 7:00 AM to go to the gym and had inspirational pictures of Arnold and Van Damme around instead of some half naked woman which made some people think I liked guys.  There's nothing wrong with liking dudes, I just love women and can appreciate other men.  That's called being evolved.  When I moved to L.A., the steroid jokes started to come out and I didn't really know how to take them.  I've never used anything more than whey protein regularly.  No fat burners, no creatine, no cell volumizers, no nothing.  Why?  Because I was poor as shit and I've never been close to making money off of being in shape so why get on a bunch of stuff then have to deal with the emotional and physical stress of coming off later?  That's what happens to "steroid" users, their ego and self confidence balloons with their inflated muscles then crashes when they come off.  It's basically a lion versus a house cat mentality.  As you get older you realize people are jealous so they try to cut you down.  But thanks to the examples from JCVD, Arnold and Zane, I've learned how to handle it.  From Jean-Claude: believing in yourself, knowing your body and who you are.  From Arnold, the same things but also, how to throw ANYTHING back in people's face, with a smile of course so they can't call you a jerk.  Zane's calming poetry and outlook on training proposes a symmetrical approach that goes up and down with the seasons, reminds us that the body needs time to recuperate and that nobody, no actor, athlete or whoever is in shape all the time.

One of the ideas for promoting office wellness was a group Mud or Spartan Run, you know those weekend warrior events where you get a tee shirt after completing an obstacle laden course?  That sounded fine to me but I wouldn't be participating.  Why not?  Because I don't train so I can wear a t-shirt to work on Monday that loudly proclaims I train.  Asked to expound on that and I explained how since say 2006's 300 and the rise of Crossfit and Mud Runs, fitness is just in your face now.  People who Crossfit are fanatics about it and make sure you know they do it.  A guy who did a Spartan Race wore his unwashed, still creased, completion award shirt to work on Monday.  Me?  I don't need this kind of validation.  I do things because I want to and could give a shit if someone else likes it or approves.  Then there's a "whole life" challenge going on the office as well that basically tells you can't have X, Y and Z but I haven't heard what you can have which is the problem with most diets, they're exclusion based and more about a quick fix than a long term solution or lifestyle.

There was an interesting article on Men's Journal recently talking about the need for leading men to be in shape these days.  From the ads for Arrow showing off a shirtless Stephen Amell to Hugh Jackman being allergic to shirts during Wolverine to Russell Crowe Tweeting his workouts, being Hollywood fit is now nearly a requirement for leads young and old.  During 2004's The Punisher, Thomas Jane had to punch a card that showed he attended a training session to get his full salary.  Former schlubby funny man Chris Pratt basically changed the course of his career by getting in shape to play a NAVY Seal in Zero Dark Thirty which helped him land the lead in Marvel's latest big budget offering Guardians of the Galaxy, due out in August.  Same for Taylor Lautner who was about to get recast in the Twilight saga before packing on the muscle and got paid for another four flicks.  Naturally fit Ryan Reynolds went from comedy to action sidekick when he beefed up for shitfest Blade:Trinity and Wolverine before landing the lead in Green Lantern (I like Reynolds but maybe he should reassess a little, those are three horrible movies).  Messrs Chris Evans and Hemsworth's muscles always get their moment in Captain America and Thor while part of the marketing campaign hinges on these easily exported fresh faces, pumped up physiques and huge, explosion filled, dialog free action set pieces.

But what is it about this crop of "skinny mass" leading men that helps them land plum roles but not fat paychecks?  Rich back end deals are reserved for sure bets like Robert Downey, Jr. while many of the Avengers are left in the cold.  There are plenty of famous faces today but not many movie stars.  Back in the 80's and 90's, Arnold and Stallone commanded huge sums upfront AND got a piece of the back end deal.  Arnold famously received a slightly used private jet worth $14 million bucks as part of his salary on Terminator 2 while Stallone's FIRST divorce cost him $12 million in the mid-80's.  Van Damme turned down a $36 million dollar/3 picture deal with Universal because he was burnt out and wanted to make Jim Carrey money.  Not only were they stars in America but worldwide, where 1/2 to 2/3 of grosses awaited, they were even bigger.  Arnold, Stallone, Van Damme and Steven Seagal had their own cottage industry of action films based on their physical derring-do and for the first three, their action star physiques created from boxing, weights and karate helped spark a new masculine ideal while instigating a new fitness and martial arts craze.  As I've explained their appeal many times, a joke written for American audiences can fall flat in other countries but a punch to the face is a punch to the face anywhere you go.  Not that I'm calling Stallone, Arnold and Van Damme ahead of their time or luminaries, but yeah, you can basically say that since the rest of the business has finally caught up to their understanding of foreign markets, self branding and using their muscles to help sell their cinematic badass skills.

After 300's success, WB's next foray into the swords, sandals, sand and sorcery genre was 2010's Clash of the Titans.  Star Sam Worthington refused to work out extra for the role stating that he was only being paid for one job, transforming his body would be a second undertaking and thus require additional compensation.  The movie's watchability didn't suffer from any lack of shirtless scenes and did nearly $500 million worldwide.  So while we're once again in this fitness and film craze, as usual, when it comes to Hollywood, nobody knows anything.  And when it comes to your own personal fitness, set goals and work towards them.  Don't worry about the latest fad those Don'ters are doing because they'll probably forget about it by tomorrow.

Do muscles really make the man?  Not at all.  Working out is a form of body armor.  People who get into training are usually shy and insecure and use the muscles as a visual defense mechanism to hide internal fears.  But through constant training, self confidence is born and you have now become a better, more well rounded person.  Sometimes, being in such good shape highlights how not tough or bland some of these guys are.  Arnold was a funny, charismatic bodybuilding champion while romantic dreamer Van Damme used karate, weights and ballet to make himself unique but what does Vin Diesel do?  Grunt and fix cars?  Stephen Amell is in terrific shape and plays a nice guy extremely well but his tough guy, hero voice and acting leaves much to be desired.  It's easy to forget but important to remember that our bodies are just an envelope and it's up to you to fill the contents.

Hey Arnold: No Easy Way Out

"There are no shortcuts - everything is reps, reps, reps."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

Or like that one song in Rocky IV, "there's no easy way out, there's no shortcuts home!".  It's been a long but very rewarding and Damme fun week after the Van Damme Triple Dip.  It took me a while to get off my duff and DO something beyond talking about events like these and once it was all over, I actually felt it was kind of easy to do.  On the list of "men who have influenced me" list, Van Damme ranks number 2 while Arnold is a close 3rd.  His can do attitude, mind for business, never settle and no "low forehead" tolerance is an inspiration to us all.  What I've learned in recent months is that you just have to go for it.  All people can say is "no".  They're not going to physically harm or publicly humiliate you or anything, know what I mean?  And if you come up short, who cares, you'll probably learn something or meet someone interesting on the way and that counts too.  Because when you believe in yourself and know who you are, the sky is the limit, right?  There can be no resolution without conflict, no knowledge without experience and no muscles without reps. 

Now get out there and do your thing!

Ask Me a Question: Double Impact w/ Sheldon Lettich

 "Hey, bro, we did it!" 

That's about how I felt after everything was said and done on Dammaged Goods' first live event, a Van Damme Double Dip featuring 1991's Double Impact and 1988's Bloodsport with Q&A featuring writer/director Sheldon Lettich.  Hosted by the awesome New Beverly theater, this whole thing came together rather quickly.  After a false start on trying to show Lionheart (Universal has no print, lame) then attempting to recruit Bolo Yeung (out of town), we forged ahead with the special evening(s).  The New Bev had a Bloodsport poster and Sheldon provided an original Double Impact one sheet for the lobby.  At showtime, my plan was to introduce myself, the blog and the movies then move into trivia with prizes like WWJCVDD? shirts and a VHS copy of Double Impact to be signed by Sheldon himself.  Upon hearing these ideas, Mr. Lettich dug into his own personal collection and came back with awesome promos from the release like industry invites, VHS release postcards and a press kit!  Questions ran the gauntlet of number of shooting days (63), number of times Sheldon has directed Van Damme (4), co-stars and more.

The print of Double Impact was quite good, some of the colors were washed out at times but otherwise very clean.  On the big screen you realize how frigging violent this movie is.  From the opening minutes massacre of Paul and Katherine Wagner to bloody, 90's style squib hits, multiple broken necks to kicks to the throat that look just a little too real, Double Impact delivers the Van Dammage.  Being Van Damme's first big budget, more mainstream affair, the action isn't just fists and feet as we get various shootouts, fights, chases on foot and water and explosions galore.  The movie is randomly hilarious, thanks to JCVD's acting as both the Hollywood playboy, karate and aerobics instructor Chad and the cigar chomping, woman slapping, mahjong parlor owning smuggler Alex who team up to take down the evil gangsters that killed their parents and stole their birthright to an expensive tunnel project.  Fighting through thugs, a bodybuilding, maybe lesbian security enforcer, a high kicking henchman with spurs on his boots for slicing throats and the mighty Bolo Yeung as Moon, Chad and Alex finally confront the men who killed their parents and separated them at birth.

One of my favorite parts in the movie is Chad's wearing of and Alex's multiple mentions of black silk underwear as an example of how soft Chad is and how hard Alex is for having been raised on the streets alone.  I asked Sheldon about the then throwaway line and he was flummoxed it's one of the most popular lines 20 some years later.  The scope of the film is much larger than anything Van Damme had done before as the exotic and grimy locales of Hong Kong are put on full display with the crowded streets, frog slicing markets, boat filled water front, jungle filled islands complete with abandoned hotels, shipping yards, cranes and whatnot.  We had a great crowd Sunday who hooted, hollered, clapped and laughed throughout.  Monday was a little more reserved but as the movie(s) continued, they got into the spirit too.

After the film, Sheldon, who is a great storyteller and has them for days, hit the audience with candid talk about meeting and working with Van Damme, working with Cannon, developing Lionheart, Double Impact, the twinning effects, his start as a writer and director and much more.  It was all kind of a blur being up front and asking him questions so here's some morsels of what I recall:

- Has a degree in Photography then studied Cinematography at AFI but switched to writing and directing after seeing how not great other students majoring in those fields were.

- Met Van Damme over the phone who was discussing the script to Bloodsport with Frank Dux in Hong Kong.  Lettich had met Dux earlier and during a car ride on the 101, Dux was telling his stories about a secret tournament dubbed "Bloodsport" which Sheldon thought was a great title.
- Cannon's Menahem Golan did not believe in JCVD.  The first cut of Bloodsport was a disappointment, potential had not been realized.  Van Damme went off to other companies to make movies and then when Blood hit, Golan came calling but still didn't think he was bankable, dubbed him "poison" and would never be a star like Michael Dudikoff.
- Talks about Frank Dux being a Walter Mitty style dreamer but never comes back to reality and had no proof he did anything notable in the military or underground martial arts tournaments.  In fact, his discharge form shows service dates so brief that he was most likely canned.  Claims to have won medal of honor but isn't on the actual public list.  Dux claims his work was so secret it has to be kept out of public record.
- Van Damme really did reedit the fight scenes in Bloodsport to make them what they became.
- Went to Paris for first time scouting for Corsican Brothers, Cannon went under and after a lawsuit, Sheldon walked away with the rights and that became Double Impact.
- Title came from Van Damme in the editing room, saying to show a punch from another angle to give it that "Double Impact".

- Twinning effects achieved in a non-CGI, computer era where each performance was shot with VD on one side, stand in on other, had a set of twins for over shoulder stuff and stunt men for fights who learned VD's kicking style, Van Damme would have to shower and change then do scenes from other side, reacting to audio from best takes then that is put together with an optical printer.
- A stunt man is hit by/throws himself at a car, looked so real, Sheldon went to see if he was still alive but the coordinator said he was just acting and held him back to not ruin the shot.
- Said the notion of playing two characters was not Van Damme's idea or an attempt to broaden his range, all started with original script Cannon had for Corsican Brothers.
- 1/3 of the film was shot in Valencia, outside Los Angeles, the Mahjong parlor, etc
- For whatever reason, got along fine with tough guys like Sylvester Stallone, Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Mark Dacascos and Steven Seagal, maybe it was from his Marine Corp. background or that they knew he wasn't direct competition in a sense.

Of course much more was discussed over two nights so I'll try to come back and do another post to follow up.  Thanks again to the staff at the New Bev, everyone on the Facebook page, readers here, the Van Damme Fans, Action Elite, Manly Movie, Twitter and Sherdog for all the positive vibes.  It was definitely a great way to start things off and we'll do it again soon.

Live Goods: Humans From Earth Podcast w/ Joe and Anthony Russo

The latest endeavor from Nerdist and former L.A. Times and Entertainment Weekly writer Geoff Boucher is Humans from Earth, a monthly movie screening and podcast series.  The inaugural event was a showing of Slither with director James Gunn appearing after for Q&A.  Slither is a great horror-comedy flick about alien slugs that attack a small town but made little impact upon release in 2006.  You'll probably be more familiar with his work after this summer's Guardians of the Galaxy hits screens in August care of Marvel and Disney.

Humans From Earth is one of Nerdist's latest podcasts.  At WonderCon, Chris Hardwick mentioned they were going from 26 current programs to something like 50.  Taking place in the cozy Spielberg theatre inside the Egyptian theatre, writer/actor/director Jon Favreau kicked off the podcast series and ran 20 minutes late into Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors Joe and Anthony Russo's slot.  Being their first time out, the show has some kinks to work out such as the online ticket sales not working, the guest line up not being announced until the day before, our session started late but then ended on time thus cutting 20 minutes out of the advertised 60 minutes and so on.

It felt a little like Howard Stern as you had the guests, host, a kid reciting the birth and death dates of actors and a co-host on the side chiming in.  Boucher informed us he at one time had 14,000 comic books in his collection and handed a few out to audience members.  I can't recall which Russo brother was the bigger comic book fan as a kid but never loved Captain America.  He mentioned having to picture Steve McQueen as the Star-Spangled Avenger in his head in order to give the character more machismo and less straight laced Boy Scout earnestness.  It was an interesting choice as 70's Cap is of course the personification of Robert Reford because even though Steve Rogers has been through a lot like losing both parents at a young age, growing up during the Depression, being sickly, rejected from the Army then becoming Cap through a crazy science experiment, watching his partner get blowed up by a booby trapped rocket hatch, going into suspended animation and being revived in an era not his own...I don't think the character lets that weigh on him in an obvious sense.  His eyes are still wide and his mind open because he can deal with his issues on an internal, brooding level, not externally obvious like McQueen's chip on his shoulder.

Beyond that, there were some tidbits about Easter Eggs in the movie as the Brothers believe it's better to have them than not.  Their prop team is responsible for most, such as the jar of Newman's own pasta sauce in Redford's refrigerator.  The comic loving Russo cited The Winter Soldier run of comics as it's Dark Knight era and how important Frank Miller's work was to him in the 80's.  It was a fun 40 minutes and would definitely attend again if the guest list piqued interest.  Boucher invited the audience to stay for the next podcast featuring Fanboys director Kyle Newman but we were off to Glendale to see Bob Peak and Drew Struzan's movie poster exhibit!

(Almost) Ask Me a Question: Van Damme Double Feature

You feel that?  Feels like it's almost time to rock n' roll!  Tonight is a night of firsts: my first time seeing Double Impact on the big screen, hosting a Q&A and of course, Dammaged Goods' first live event!  A big thanks to everyone who has helped make this idea into a reality starting with writer/director Sheldon Lettich for agreeing to appear both nights as he prepares to work on a new movie, to Michael Torgan and the staff at the New Beverly for hosting, to VanDammeFan for being the best community of JCVD supporters known to man, to The Action Elite and Manly Movie for supporting the event with ticket giveways and all of my awesome friends who have joined the FB page, tweeted it out and helped get the word out.

Tonight is going to be fun, the first 10 people in the door will receive a free popcorn, pre-movie trivia will see fans walking away with custom JCVD swag and some items from Mr. Lettich's private collection then Sheldon will be on hand between films for Q&A and questions from the audience.

First up is Double Impact, Van Damme's first big budget foray into martial arts action filmmaking from 1991.  Originally a take on Alexandre Dumas' novella The Corsican Brothers, which sees conjoined twins separated at birth who can feel each others pain, Double Impact would see Van Damme as both a city slick, hot shot federal agent and his long lost twin, a European country bumpkin armed with a shotgun and fur vest.  Things change and the released film co-written and directed by Sheldon Lettich sees VD as Hollywood karate and aerobics instructor Chad and Hong Kong street tough smuggler Alex as reunited twins fighting an evil mobster who killed their parents to take control of a lucrative construction project.  Early twinning effects, black silk underwear, spinning karate kicking, Asian mullets, exploding Cognac and early 90's non-PC name calling antics ensues.

Post chatting with Sheldon it's Bloodsport, Jean-Claude's star making role from 1988.  The now debunked story of martial artist Frank Dux, Bloodsport follows a karate kicking Army Captain who travels to Hong Kong to compete in the Kumite, a secret, underground tournament to find the world's finest warrior.  Bromance, coin tricking, underwear pulling up, gold tooth finding, brick breaking, mustard suit wearing, Forest Whitaker, Bolo Yeung pec popping, monkey VS sumo VS karate VS boxing hijinks set to awesome 80's synth pop soundtrack classicness follows.

It's going to be a good night.  See you there!

Workout of the Day: Parks and Ripspiration

Right across the street from my apartment are two parks.  One next to the Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study where you can sit down with books, press kits, scripts, posters from your favorite movies and play tennis next door.  The other houses multiple soccer and softball fields complete with a running track and outdoor body weight gym equipment.  To get ready for tonight's Jean-Claude Van Damme double feature, a visiting comrade and I got in the following after a two lap jog warmup:

- Chins and bench dips on the playground equipment x 2
- Leg Press, crunches, push ups, trunk twists, plyo jumps, machine row and machine shoulder press on the outdoor equipment
- All out sprints x 5

All repeated twice followed by a walking cool down lap and some stretching.  Feeling good and pumped, it was time for a shower and breakfast.  Being outside is a nice change of pace from the gym or your living room as you can take in some fresh air and challenge your muscles in a different way.  My legs are already burning from the sprints as I'm not much of a runner.  The sandy track is easier on the knees than a concrete sidewalk and all of the benches and ledges make for perfect spots to do push ups, jumps, 1-leg squats, bench dips and the like.

It's a beautiful day so get out there and work on that tan line, with sunblock and your white Adidas tights, of course!