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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 7 September 2011
This article is a review of DOIBLE IMPACT. |
“Hello, yes, I am Van Damme. My pants froze. And froze hard. So tight. Even thinking about it takes me back... Man, my pants were tight.”
So goes the recent Coors Light beer advert. Jean-Claude van Damme is having something of a renaissance lately even though he’s hardly made anything approaching a good film (with the exception of the excellent meta JCVD). He’s got his own TV show, was in KUNG FU PANDA 2, a major beverage company has acquired him as their face, and he’s going to be in THE EXPENDABLES 2. I think this is down to the aforementioned JCVD – which showed us that the “Muscles from Brussels” has acting ability, and perhaps even a self-deprecating sense of humour. It’s timely then that DOUBLE IMPACT (1991) gets a release on DVD – one of his more famous films, though probably for the wrong reasons. It is dumber than a bag of spanners, and there is a weird mixture of kitsch charm with non-politically correct crassness.
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The new Victoria Harbour Tunnel has just been opened in Hong Kong, at the time still owned by the Brits. The engineer and one of the stakeholders, Paul Wagner, is double-crossed by his partner who has teamed up with a triad boss. Wagner and his wife are murdered (quite brutally) leaving their twin baby boys – however they are separated in the melee. One, Chad, grows up in Los Angeles with Frank (Geoffrey Lewis), his parents’ bodyguard; and the other, Alex, in a Hong Kong orphanage. Within the first quarter-of-an-hour, and 25 years later, they are reunited on a mission of vengeance and to reclaim their inheritance.
Van Damme has added another film to the same-actor-playing-twins subgenre. Edward Norton did it recently and decently in LEAVES OF GRASS, Nic Cage was excellent in ADAPTATION and Jackie Chan was fun in TWIN DRAGONS. JCVD actually differentiates between the two siblings – Chad likes the good life with his Louis Vuitton luggage and preppy attire, while Alex is a hardened smuggler with slicked back hair and cigar accessory. Don’t get me wrong, this is not an acting masterclass, but his performances were better than my very low expectations. They both know martial arts and they both hilariously speak with the same Belgian accent. The movie explains Chad’s with a back-story about being raised in France, but how does Alex have his? There was no Oscar nomination for Van Damme on this project. The flick does though have his trademarks – doing the splits and round house kicks. JCVD’s oeuvre demonstrates a lack of breadth of technique. Here he does the fight chorography and it is severely wanting. Contrast the awesome Donnie Yen. Probably only a watch then for Jean-Claude’s fans, and those addicted to movies of the kung fu variety.
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