Lionheart [AWOL: Absent Without Leave] ** (1990, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Deborah Rennard, Harrison Page, Lisa Pelikan) – Classic Movie Review 13,505

The 1990 American martial arts film Lionheart [AWOL: Absent Without Leave] proved Jean-Claude Van Damme’s breakthrough as a movie star in North America.

Director Sheldon Lettich’s 1990 American martial arts film Lionheart stars Jean-Claude Van Damme, Deborah Rennard, Harrison Page, Lisa Pelikan, Brian Thompson and Ashley Johnson in her debut.

This time The Muscles from Brussels (Jean-Claude Van Damme) plays Lyon Gaultier, a French foreign legionnaire in East Africa, who goes to New York absent without leave when he hears his brother has been mortally injured in a drug deal gone wrong.

Penniless in New York, Lyon joins the illegal street fight scene run by Joshua Eldridge (Harrison Page), and rich bitch Cynthia Caldera (Deborah Rennard) turns him into her star prizefighter called Lionheart so that he can give money to his sister-in-law and nephew.

Lionheart is slick, professional but basic film-making, really just a series of lusty kickboxing bouts, strung together with a reasonable plot. But it is entirely acceptable on that level, and the deservedly popular Van Damme then seemed to be improving with each movie.

The film premiered in France on 1 August 1990, and opened in the US on 11 January 1991, proving Van Damme’s breakthrough as a movie star in North America.

It was released in the UK as AWOL: Absent Without Leave, and in Oceania as Wrong Bet.

Sheldon Lettich was previously one of the writers on Van Damme’s 1988 film Bloodsport.

Lionheart [AWOL: Absent without Leave] [Wrong Bet] is directed by Sheldon Lettich, runs 107 minutes, is made by Wrong Bet Productions and Imperial Entertainment, is released by Guild (UK) and Universal Pictures (US), is written by Sheldon Lettich, Jean-Claude Van Damme and S N Warren, is shot by Robert C New, is produced by Ash R Shah and Eric Karson, is scored by John Scott, and is designed by Gregory Pickrell.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,505

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