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van dam
 Delibes - Lakm¸«± / Dessay, Kunde, van Dam, Petibon, Haidan, Konsek, Legu¸«±rinel, Plasson $32.98 I just finished listening to this Lakme recording for the first time. I am mesmerized by both the cast and the music. [...]. The beauty of this recording is that there are no weak links. Dessay, Kunde, and Van Dam, all turn in performances that are practically perfect. Dessay seems to have been born to sing this role to perfection. She gives a youthful believable Lakme; her voice... that brilliant coloratura soprano... is exquisite and well suited to this role. [...] It is the recommended recording in Ted Libby's The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music both for the opera, and for Delibes' work in general. Lakme has to be in the top 5 of French operas. If you are adding French opera to your collection, I would highly recommend this recording.  Bloodsport $12.97 Frank Dux (Van Damme), a Karate student of a Japanese master, decides to compete in a no holds barred sparring tournament in Hong Kong referred to as Kumite. He strives to win this bloody tournament in order to keep the legacy of his Karate master. Before we judge this film, we need to keep in mind that it is an 80s film, meaning that the action delivered should not be compared to the action we get in 2009 movies. However, I still wasn't very pleased with the action since the movie was obviously a low budget one and could have been made much better. Take for example "Best of the Best" and "No Retreat No Surrender" movies, which were made in the same period however delivered better action scenes. However lets also remember that this was one of Van Damme's first movies where he is the main star and perhaps not many wanted to bet on it being a success, this is why not much was spent on producing it. There was no real story to tell. There was no main plot. The whole movie was packed with punching and kicking scenes that got quite repetitive after a while. I think the best part of the movie is the final fight between Van Damme and Bolo, which was full of amazing fighting techniques. However, one of the reasons why this movie is so popular is that Van Damme made some great shows with his amazing techniques. Take for example his flying kicks. This is also one of the first movies to illustrate no holds barred mixed martial arts competitions where you get fighters from different arts in competition. Perhaps this movie and others like it inspired the people who introduced to us the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the early 90s. Based on the success of this movie, Van Damme starred in other great movies afterwards such as Kick Boxer and Double Impact. It was surely a great start for him. Van Damme is currently starring in a new film called "Karate", which is somehow similar to the idea of bloodsport. He will be playing the role of a Karateka who is fighting in a tournament against Mixed Martials Artists and will surely give them a lot of beatings. He will be somehow like UFC's light heavy weight champion, Lyoto Machida. This should be an amazing film. |
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