This weekend John Stockwell’s
Kickboxer Vengeance came out on VOD, digital and select cinemas this past Friday.
While it is not a work of art it is at its core entertaining. The action scenes were thrown into a blender of course, thus I believe one cannot truly appreciate the hard work that fight choreographer Larnell Stovall put into each fight. However, the film does introduce us to rising talent, Lebanese-Canadian stunt actor Alain Moussi.
Moussi has stunt doubled on many Hollywood productions. The last two X-Men films. White House Down, Suicide Squad, Warcraft to name a few. He will be expanding more into fight coordination with strike-while-the-iron-may-be-hot sequel Kickboxer Retaliation as well.
For all Vengeance lacks in comprehension there are times where Moussi’s fighting skills, talents and athleticism are noticeable. These moments happen sparingly, they somehow made it past the editing table, but they are there and it got me thinking.
So when I was asked to write this editorial article I started thinking about the film and it's star. Moussi fits the profile of a lower tier leading man. He has the good looks. He has the fighting skills. Could he be someone down the line where the mere mention of his name will get action film fans excited about a project, the way, say, Scott Adkins does? And while Adkins does not necessarily fit into the profile I am looking for, a balance of credits that skew more towards stunt work than acting work, I hope you get the idea. I went looking for my top actors in action cinema who cut their teeth in stunt work first.
In the comments below you can share with your fellow Anarchists who you like.
Zoe Bell - Revealed to us by Quentin Tarantino in his film Death Proof the New Zealand actress was working with the director long before that as a stunt double in his Kill Bill films. She would continue to work with Tarantino throughout the years but from Death Proof she found a healthy balance of work as a stunt double and actress. With her gymnastics and martial arts background the angular beauty found herself in a lead role in Josh C. Waller’s Raze. Bell would reunite with Waller in last year’s Camino beside ScreenAnarchy’s raving mad Spanish uncle Nacho Vigalondo. Her highest profile appearance was in last year’s The Hateful Eight.
Tony Jaa - Before lifting and elbow and knee to the face of international action cinema with his role in Ong Bak Jaa was a stunt actor for years under his mentor Panna Rittikrai. Rittikrai was no slouch himself and choreographed the action in Ong Bak and in Tom-Yum-Goong which featured a long-shot stairwell fight scene that no one has been able to match since. And for a while there Jaa was the young king of the action cinema world until a couple of disastrous Ong Bak sequels, contract disputes followed by some kind of spiritual retreat into the jungle. Jaa has come out of the other side on top. He has done a couple of smaller projects with Dolph Lundgren but also appeared in Furious 7, an SPL sequel with Jing Wu and was in Toronto this year to film xXx: Return of Xander Cage with action icon Donnie Yen.
Cyril Raffaelli/David Belle - These two French actors/stuntmen put Parkour on the cinematic map with their work in Banlieu13 and B13 Ultimatum. While Bell’s roster leans heavily towards acting than stunt work Raffaelli’s goes the other way. He continues to work away as a stunt and fight choreographer on some international projects, none of which have appeared on many radars. His last exposure to international audiences was in Live Free or Die Hard as the fleet footed Rand. The production utilizing his parkour skills as he ducked in and out of, well, ducts to be frank. If any Hollywood production is looking for European actors that can bring the pain and extraordinary athleticism to a role Raffaelli should be on your list.
Johnny Nguyen - Nguyen did stuntwork on many high profile hollywood productions, Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man and Serenity, before returning to his native Vietnam to help a new generation of filmmakers stake a claim in international action cinema. Nguyen would write, produce and act in Vietnamese faves The Rebel and Clash. Nguyen has bounced back and forth between American and Vietnam but continues to support the industry back in his native land in acting and action directing and coordination. He would be a perfect candidate for an Asian action lead if Hollywood would ever get itself above whitewashing.
Jackie Chan - One of the reasons I do what I do here at ScreenAnarchy is because of Jackie Chan’s legacy of work. Jackie Chan is our patriarch. Chan, like many HK actors were stunt actors first. In an industry that would appear to many to give little regard to the safety of its employees Chan was of a breed of action stars that had the training and background to do those dangerous stunts themselves. It became his thing. You watched a Jackie Chan film then you stayed for the credits because they would show how many times Chan fucked himself up during a stunt. With a career as long as I have been alive there were ample opportunities to do so. If we are watching Enter the Dragon and you cannot point out the scene where Bruce Lee tangles with Jackie Chan then there is the door.
David Leitch and Chad Stahelski - An honorable mention to these guys because both Leitch and Stahelski have been long time stunt actors. Then in 2014 they brought their years of experience together and put them into a tidy and brutal package called John Wick. No one saw this coming and the World was a little bit better after that. If anyone - ANYONE - wants to know how you shoot action sequences then John Wick is law, canon and your bible. It is one thing to know how to throw and take a punch. It is another entirely to know how to frame it so that you appreciate everything that has gone into that scene so that the hard work, athleticism and lethality of the action is on full display. It is just as important to have someone behind the camera who understands the flow and dynamics of a fight or sequence and Lietch and Stahelski have shown us that they can do that.
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