Lionheart

Cinépix Film Properties (CFP) | Release Date: January 11, 1991

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

41	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Mick LaSalle

I found myself enjoying Lionheart, mostly because Van Damme is appealing and easy to root for. I like the steady, oddly unjudgmental look that crosses his face when he's about to beat someone to a pulp. [12 Jan 1991, p.C3]

Jean Carey

Van Damme, who co-wrote the script, set out to make a punch-packed, entertaining action film, and succeeded. [18 Jan 1991, p.10]

Ty Burr

By never fessing up to its own bloodlust, Lionheart is, at bottom, chickenhearted. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Although it's possible to enjoy isolated sequences of LIONHEART, this is not one of martial arts superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme's better kick-ass vehicles. Sleekly produced and densely plotted, it lacks the excitement of the earlier Van Damme flicks which had a less calculated aura about them. Read full review

Richard Harrington

Unless you're a Van Damme or martial arts fanatic, you're more likely to be thinking: No, merci. Read full review

Susan Wloszczyna

But there are kicks a-plenty besides the times J-C flings his tootsies of terror at opponents. [14 Jan 1991, p.6D]

Michael Wilmington

Being able to kick people in the head, at least while they’re standing up, is no negligible talent--though Lionheart is a pretty negligible movie. It has that grotesquely off-scale exaggeration of many post-'80s action movies. Read full review

Michael Upchurch

Performances are lively, the story is incredibly stupid - and if you've seen one fight you've seen them all. Van Damme should market his next film as offbeat comedy - go for the laughs he'd get from the art-house crowd. [11 Jan 1991, p.26]

Janet Maslin

Van Damme, who has nonetheless made eight films in six years, including "Bloodsport," "Cyborg" and "Kickboxer." His looks are memorable but his acting skills stunningly limited, confined mostly to the flexing, seething and pouting realm. Should anyone be in the market for an all-new Hercules, Mr. Van Damme might at the very least take a number. But when it comes to even the minimally dramatic events of Lionheart, he's in over his head. Read full review

Johanna Steinmetz

Van Damme himself, a graduate of the blank-stare school of acting, is so without emotional inflection on the screen that his most affecting moment in this film, if one is to judge from a preview audience's reaction, is when he drops a bathrobe for a couple of seconds of magnificent gluteal exposure. Read full review