Brandon Coale Notes

I enjoyed rewatching an early Jean-Claude Van Damme movie called No Retreat, No Surrender. It was released in 1986. Thanks to my parents driving me to lessons, I signed up doing Tae Kwon Do in 1988, so it brings back a lot of memories from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Karate Kid movie from 1984 was the fifth highest-grossing film in 1984 and was so successful that it was a huge boost to the martial arts schools back then and to these types of movies, so this movie clearly road on the success of the Karate Kid movie. NRNS actually was released a month before the very successful Karate Kid Part 2, so it is not a rip off of the Karate Kid movies, it is original in its own way.

My uncle Alan was in Tae Kwon Do and introduced the movie Blood Sport to my dad. After that introduction, my dad, brother, and I along with our friends liked watching Van Damme movies, and I remember my dad renting this earlier Van Damme movie from the video rental store. NRNS is a low budget movie and there are some problems with the script but it has a lot of action and is so cheesy that it is fun to watch years later. The 1980s must have been a fun, no nonsense time in Hollywood since they didn’t have all the competition that they have today with the internet and streaming. The opening scene in the karate dojo practicing definitely brings back memories of us in our TKD dojo practicing our blocks, punches, and kicks, and one step sparring. This movie is a very loving tribute to the late Bruce Lee, so it is a must see for Bruce Lee fans.

Van Damme was so popular after Blood Sport that I remember seeing Double Impact in August 1991 in the movie theater with some of the people from the TKD class. I remember going to the theater with my dad and brother to see Hard Target in 1993, and then seeing Timecop in 1994 with my friend Jake. Even in high school I remember my government teacher Mr. Staley mentioning 1992’s Universal Soldier, so among movie fans, Van Damme was a huge name back in the late 80s and early 1990s.