When the western martial arts movie scene was becoming stale, with the same old bland shennanigans, it was all starting to get old, fast. It had been 12 years since Bruce Lee had left the big screen and a large hole needed filling. Van Damme brought to the scene what other martial arts actors couldn't, charisma. This along with his incredible flexibility (5 years of ballet) and excellent Karate skills, transferred really well to the screen. His first big role was in the 1985 movie No Retreat No Surrender, starring as the bad guy. He really stood out, but it wasn't until he approached Producer and Director, Menahem Golan; impressing him by performing a spinning kick over his head, that he was given the lead in Bloodsport, which for many years was the second most successful martial arts flick ever. His career continued to progress peaking in 1994 with the movie Timecop which took $100,000,000 worldwide. With a new generation of people coming through wanting a different kind of movie he was relegated to straight-to-DVD affairs. He doesn't spew out an endless line of forgettable movies though, making only one a year max, and with the recent high acclaims of JCVD he has had a resurgence. His movies may not be Oscar worthy but they are stylishly action packed and certainly entertained me as a teenager...oh who am I kidding, they still do.
