10 Films You Won't Believe Were Released At Christmas

Release Date: December 23 1994

Hard to believe now, but Jean-Claude Van Damme was once so popular that a major studio (Universal) was willing to open his latest picture at Christmas against remakes of Little Women and The Jungle Book. In retrospect, you can see the logic: Street Fighter made more money than either.

Even though he’s holding hostages for $20 billion, all General Bison (Raul Julia) really wants to do is create the perfect genetic soldier with which he can “Crush every adversary, every creed, every nation, until the world is in the loving grip of the Pax Bisonica, and peace shall reign and all humanity shall bow to me.” Something of an eccentric, he also plans to establish Bisonopolis, whose currency bears his likeness and at some point kidnap the Queen of England for ransom.

“Allied Nations” commando JCVD is of course having none of this and delivers a Richard III-style call to arms: “I’m not going home. I’m gonna get on my boat and I’m going up river and I’m going to kick that son of a bitch Bison’s ass so hard that the next Bison wannabe is gonna feel it! Now…who wants to go with me?”