"Director: Danny Mulroon"

• Desert Heat | DVD | (12/04/2004) from £6.97   |  Saving you £-0.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Versatility, thy name is Van Damme! So Arnold cries in End of Days? Hah! In this relentless revenge actioner, Jean-Claude not only cries, but has a drunk scene, suffers suicidal despair, does a little slapstick, and still manages to flash his ubiquitous butt. Which, of course, is what his legion of fans want to see him kick plenty of (other people's butts, that is; not his own). Van Damme may no longer generate any box-office heat (like 1998's Legionnaire, this bypassed cinemas to go straight to video), but he at least gives his fans what they want. Originally titled Coyote Moon, Desert Heat recalls that guilty pleasure Road House, as Eddie Lomax (Van Damme) comes to the rescue of a gallery of colourful characters terrorised by slobbering, drug-dealing bikers and rednecks in a dilapidated desert town. And this time, it's personal. As one denizen ominously observes, "There's trouble on the hoof and it's coming this way" for the three ill-fated bullies who beat up and shot Eddie and left him for dead. Despite its desert setting, Heat is an oasis for great character actors who pick up Van Damme's considerable slack. They include Danny Trejo (Con Air) as Eddie's Native American friend Johnny Sixtoes, Pat Morita (The Karate Kid), Larry Drake (Darkman), Vincent Schiavelli (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ghost), Bill Erwin (Candy Stripe Nurses), and luscious Jaime Preslly as Dottie the waitress. The director is credited as Danny Mulroon, a pseudonym for John Avildsen, the Academy Award-winning director of Rocky. His career, too, seems to be on the ropes, but he keeps punching with some welcome eccentric touches. At one point Johnny gives the recuperating Eddie a foot massage (didn't he see Pulp Fiction?). And the script offers such goodies as a lovelorn bus driver (Tom's brother, Jim Hanks) inviting Dottie to see Yojimbo, and one biker's plea for mercy from a local tough: "Jessie, we were in high school together. I signed your yearbook". --Donald Liebenson, Amazon.com

• Derailed/Legionnaire/Desert Heat | DVD | (19/02/2007) from £3.49   |  Saving you £11.50 (76.70%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Derailed (Dir. Bob Misiorowski): A train rockets across Eastern Europe. On board are agent Kristoff (Van Damme) and Galina a beautiful high-tech thief. Holding the passengers hostage are a band of terrorists who have come to steal the bioweapon on board. With the train off course and on a collision course for danger Kristoff becomes a one-man army taking on the terrorists and trying to save the lives of everyone on board. Legionnaire (Dir. Peter MacDonald): The year is 1924 and Alain Lefevre (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a headstrong boxer who has been declared the victor in a heavily wagered boxing match. Two people are dead and the blame has fallen at his feet. With his pockets stuffed with cash he runs through the alleyways desperately hiding in the shadows hunted like an animal. As both the Police and a mobster's henchmen close in Lefereve escapes to the French Foreign Legion. By dawn he is launched into a brutal conflict in a strange and unfamiliar country. What he learns there will change the course of his life forever. Desert Heat (Dir. Danny Mulroon): International star and martial arts master Jean-Claude Van Damme kicks into high gear in Desert Heat a scorching high-intensity action thriller. Desperate to flee the inner demons raging inside him mysterious loner Eddie Lomax (Van-Damme) rides to the last outpost of an abandoned desert highway prepared to end it all. But when a savage gang steals his prized cycle and leaves him for dead Eddie's life is saved by a soulmate from his past. Burning with a new reason to live Eddie sets off on a one-man search-and-destroy mission against his attackers. Fuelled by Van Damme's powerful performance Desert Heat is an explosive and sensational adventures from first to last.

• Knock Off / Desert Heat / Street Fighter | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Street Fighter: Based on the hit Capcom Arcade game Street Fighter 2. Shadaloo South-East Asia 1995. As civil war enters its seventh month warlord General M. Bison (Raul Julia) virtually brings about global warfare when he takes 63 Allied Nations relief workers hostage and threatens to execute them unless a ransom of billion dollars is paid. It is the mission of Colonel William F Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme) to rescue the hostages but he has to locate them first! As part of an audacious plan to track down the General and his futuristic fortress Guile and British Intelligence Officer Cammy (Kylie Minogue) recruit to the forces two renegade heroes. However their entire plan is nearly quashed when GNT news correspondent Chun-Li-Zang intervenes and she wants much more than just a story. Action reaches fever pitch as Guile Bison and their forces clash in a fierce battle and the fate of the free world hangs in the balance... Desert Heat: Desperate to flee the inner demons raging inside him mysterious loner Eddie Lomax (Van-Damme) rides to the last outpost of an abandoned desert highway prepared to end it all. But when a savage gang steals his prized cycle and leaves him for dead Eddie's life is saved by a soulmate from his past. Burning with a new reason to live Eddie sets off on a one-man search-and-destroy mission against his attackers. Fuelled by Van Damme's powerful performance Desert Heat is an explosive and sensational adventures from first to last. Knock Off: Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in an explosive thriller set in Hong Kong's shady manufacturing scene during the 1997 handover to China. When a shipment of jeans to the US proves counterfeit Marcus Ray the King of the Knock-Offs (Van Damme) finds himself at the centre of a Russian Mafia plot to hold the United States' security for ransom. Thousands of tiny micro-bombs disguised within other manufactured goods are schedules for departure from Hong Kong to America. When Ray's company's jeans are found to be the housing for the explosives he's the one man the CIA can count on to prevent certain disaster! In a territory where loyalty can change hands overnight Marcus Ray's survival will depend on him knowing the fakes from the real thing!

• Desert Heat | DVD | (20/03/2000) from £10.87   |  Saving you £-4.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Versatility, thy name is Van Damme! So Arnold cries in End of Days? Hah! In this relentless revenge actioner, Jean-Claude not only cries, but has a drunk scene, suffers suicidal despair, does a little slapstick, and still manages to flash his ubiquitous butt. Which, of course, is what his legion of fans want to see him kick plenty of (other people's butts, that is; not his own). Van Damme may no longer generate any box-office heat (like 1998's Legionnaire, this bypassed cinemas to go straight to video), but he at least gives his fans what they want. Originally titled Coyote Moon, Desert Heat recalls that guilty pleasure Road House, as Eddie Lomax (Van Damme) comes to the rescue of a gallery of colourful characters terrorised by slobbering, drug-dealing bikers and rednecks in a dilapidated desert town. And this time, it's personal. As one denizen ominously observes, "There's trouble on the hoof and it's coming this way" for the three ill-fated bullies who beat up and shot Eddie and left him for dead. Despite its desert setting, Heat is an oasis for great character actors who pick up Van Damme's considerable slack. They include Danny Trejo (Con Air) as Eddie's Native American friend Johnny Sixtoes, Pat Morita (The Karate Kid), Larry Drake (Darkman), Vincent Schiavelli (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ghost), Bill Erwin (Candy Stripe Nurses), and luscious Jaime Preslly as Dottie the waitress. The director is credited as Danny Mulroon, a pseudonym for John Avildsen, the Academy Award-winning director of Rocky. His career, too, seems to be on the ropes, but he keeps punching with some welcome eccentric touches. At one point Johnny gives the recuperating Eddie a foot massage (didn't he see Pulp Fiction?). And the script offers such goodies as a lovelorn bus driver (Tom's brother, Jim Hanks) inviting Dottie to see Yojimbo, and one biker's plea for mercy from a local tough: "Jessie, we were in high school together. I signed your yearbook". --Donald Liebenson, Amazon.com

• Knock Off/Double Team/Desert Heat/Nowhere to Run | DVD | (12/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Knock Off (1998): When a shipment of jeans to the US proves counterfeit Marcus Ray the King of the Knock-Offs (Van Damme) finds himself at the centre of a Russian Mafia plot to hold the United States' security for ransom. Thousands of tiny micro-bombs disguised within other manufactured goods are schedules for departure from Hong Kong to America. When Ray's company's jeans are found to be the housing for the explosives he's the one man the CIA can count on to prevent certain disaster! In a territory where loyalty can change hands overnight Marcus Ray's survival will depend on him knowing the fakes from the real thing! Double Team (1997): Though he's the nation's top counter-terrorist Jack Quinn (Jean-Claude Van Damme) wants to get out of the spy game. But on his final mission he misses his target and wakes up in a place they call the Colony a think tank for spies who are too dangerous to roam the world but too valuable to be killed. With his target the dangerous enigmatic terrorist Stavros (Mickey Rourke) still on the loose and out to get his family. Quinn's only hope is the flamboyant but deadly gun dealer Yaz (Dennis Rodman). Desert Heat (1999): Desperate to flee the inner demons raging inside him mysterious loner Eddie Lomax (Van-Damme) rides to the last outpost of an abandoned desert highway prepared to end it all. But when a savage gang steals his prized cycle and leaves him for dead Eddie's life is saved by a soulmate from his past. Burning with a new reason to live Eddie sets off on a one-man search-and-destroy mission against his attackers. Fuelled by Van Damme's powerful performance Desert Heat is an explosive and sensational adventures from first to last. Nowhere To Run (1993): Action superstar Jean Claude Van Damme has nowhere to run and nothing to lose. An escaped prisoner hiding from the authorities Sam Gillen (Van Damme) always manages to be in the wrong place at the right time. Risking his hard-fought freedom he aids a beautiful young widow Clydie (Rosanna Arquette) and her children against a ruthless developer who's trying to drive them off their land. Hunted by both the police and the developer's hired killers Sam pulls no punches in his furious fight for survival - he'll do anything to protect the family who are protecting him. The result is more hard-hitting high kicking Van Damme action than you've ever seen!.