MovieChat Forums > Savate (1997) Discussion > Wow, that was terrible.

Wow, that was terrible.

posted 19 years ago by Ozpunk
9 replies | jump to latest

I switched to this steaming pile earlier on Starz when it was about half way through, and had to IMDb to figure out what the hell it was after I recognized R Lee Ermey looking all badass as some western sheriff. Then not long after that I was like, holy sh*t is that the Beastmaster?? And surely enough Marc Singer lent his acting prowess to this celluloid atrocity, dunno who the lead actor was but some VanDamme clone...

.Ozpunk .
"I even thought I was dead, turned out I was just in Nebraska..."

[–] KnatLouie 19 years ago

Yeah, this movie is pretty bad, but has a good bunch of semi-good actors in it to keep it interesting.

Olivier Gruner (Not even half as good as Jean-Claude Van Damme, and that's bad)
Ian Ziering (now that Beverly Hills is over, so is his career apparently)
Don(ald) Gibb (from 'Bloodsport' and 'Revenge of the Nerds' to this?? Damn)
Marc Singer (Beastmaster) was okay in this, but still...what an ending!!
Ashley Laurence does a lot of these kind of low budget-flicks, she's hot.
Not to mention James Brolin and Rance Howard too! They should be better than this!

I wonder why R. Lee Ermey was uncredited in this, his own wish perhaps??

The music was good though, perhaps a bit *too* good, if you know what I mean?

-This is my John Hancock?

[–] sdell 19 years ago

olivier Gruner is Kickboxing Champion of the World in 1987, before retiring from the sport undefeated. He is a real fighter you can't compare him to Van Damme who's just flexible and don't know S***t about fighting. Van Damme Poses everytime he fights, watch him right befotre throwing his kicks and you'll see, I never believed any of his fights( who have the same formula, he begins winning, he gets his ass kicked and we think he's loosing he then miracuoulsly he comes back stronger tham ever and beats his opponent) he's aware that the Camera' there. Olivier Gruner gets into his fights and forgets about the camera. Gruner also a very nice guy bI met him and I don't need to talk about Van Damme's attitude, we all know it. Also a movie got made. How many people just talk about making one and never do.

[–] KnatLouie 19 years ago

Don't get me wrong, I think Olivier Gruner is a cool guy, and his fighting skills are amazing, but some of his acting is very 'wooden', and his accent is very thick, so sometimes it's a bit hard to understand what he's saying.

I will say this though, I loved him in 'Nemesis', but a lot of his movies are crap. (I buy them anyway, just got 'Intercepter Force 1+2', silly but enjoyable movies)

It's cool you've met him, I bet he's a lot less ego-inflated than Van Damme is, but Van Damme is still a better actor. (Actor, not fighter.)

Secundus: I loooove children!

[–] sdell 19 years ago

It seemed to me that you were describing Van Damme when you said "but some of his acting is very 'wooden', and his accent is very thick, so sometimes it's a bit hard to understand what he's saying". thery're both on the same boat, but.....
Van Damme worked hard and got Lucky. if you know his story how he edited Bloodsport himself cause Golan hated it and would not do Cyborg with him and the took it to his home country and Europe, and Of course the FAmous Split( Dude how many splits did ho do in Bloodspot alone, he was just doing them for the hell of it)then the movie was huge in Europe and they brought it back here. Van damme's movies a bad B-movies, they shoulda gone straight to video for the exception of Universal Soldier and Time cop. and as far as his fhighting skills are concerned, he just poses, just watch him right before throwing those middle Kicks. Did Bruce Lee ever pose in his fights? No, he was in the moment. and that's why Van damme's career did not last, people got tired of seeing the same s***t na dthe same split over and over.
I've been studying acting for quite sometime now and I'm also a martial artist and I must tell you that Van Damme is a real bad terrible actor and his accent is thick too.
he's been expirmenting lately and trying to imitate Steve Mc Queen(watch in Hell and Legionnaire.

[–] KnatLouie 19 years ago

Well yeah, they both had bad accents in the beginning of their careers, but they've managed to become better later in their lifes (unlike say, Arnold Schwarzenegger), but somehow their bad accents have become trademarks, which belongs to them. Perhaps that's one of the reasons that their latest movies haven't gotten much popularity, since they don't have that same 'fun vibe' to them.

I have seen the documentary about Van Damme's life story, which was quite interesting. I wish someone would make a documentary like that about Gruner too.

I've seen Legionnaire, and must admit that despite all the stupid clichés, I still liked it. (But not enough to buy it on DVD though.)
Bruce Lee was *the* martial artist. I love to see his "Clones" fight in crappy B-movies. (Bruce Lai, Bruce Le, Bruce K. L. Lea, Bruce Thai, Bruce Li, Dragon Lee, Jaguar Lee, etc.)

I wish you luck in your future martial acting career, it better be good.

Secundus: I loooove children!

[–] englisher101 15 years ago

While I agree, I think Van Damme is one hell of a performer. He knows how to pose for the camera as you put it, and for a movie I think that's much more important than Gruner's fighting skills even though I am a Gruner fan.

[–] maddskilzz 18 years ago

this movie was pretty good and up until the last fight scene, all the other fight scenes were pretty bad. comical, but still not that good. the good thing about this movie was ashley laurence. she was hot so it made this movie watchable.

[–] kristenc-1 18 years ago

I'm not sure how this turned into a Gruner vs. Van Damme thread...I wanted to comment on the sheer atrocity of the film.

First bad sign: as I began to watch it, I said it was clearly an 80s film. Then I checked the back cover and saw that it was made in 1995. Oops!

Let's see...every single scene was pathetically overacted, and yet boring at he same time. "Let me squeeze every drop of drama into this line in a phony Western accent." This includes the orchestral swell when Gruner has to shoot his wounded horse at the beginning. Marc Singer was even worse, overacting in a fake German accent. Ian Ziering was just awful. Upon meeting a wounded soldier speaking a foreign language, he actually delivered a line akin to, "French? Mexican? They're all the same to me." I'm glad I never had a crush on him in his 90210 days. ;)

At the risk of including a spoiler, Gruner possesses a small object which saves his life, not once, but three times. The 'friend' who made me watch this fine cinematic achievement, actually called out, "You saved me, cliche'!"

The movie culminates around a Tough Man competition, which features some truly stereotypical fighters. Sadly, in the credits they were too embarrassed to give the names of the fighters, but I believe the black one was actually called Choco.

Did I mention predictable? As soon as Cain & Mary met the wounded French soldier, it was clear that Mary & the soldier would fall in love by the end. When certain lines were delivered, I was left thinking, "Hmm, could this be foreshadowing?" and sure enough, it was. You can actually say what's going to happen in the final scene (after the climactic fight), with astounding accuracy.

While this was a truly awful film, I still recommend it--you should all have to sit down and experience this thing, so you can appreciate the steaming pile of dung that it really is.

[–] qrz94 10 years ago

First off any movie with Olivier Gruner and Marc Singer getting top billing should leave you with low expectations going in but come on, this movie is great. It has ever western cliché, martial arts cliché and at least 10 of the top B movie stars of the 90's. What's not to love?