STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful
Interpol operative Russell Hatch (Jean Claude Van Damme), is left burnt out after a raid, in which informant Esther (Chika Kinamoto) is killed. His only resolution is to act as a father figure of sorts to Jayden (Emerson Min), her estranged son, who is being eyed for recruitment by local gang leader Hyun (Peter Jae.) This is just as an all out gang war is brewing between them and a rival Russian faction, led by Lazar (Andrey Ivchenko.) Hatch must draw on all his resources to prevent a bloodbath of terrifying proportions.
Although his star power has waned somewhat since his heyday, it would seem Van Damme still has the capacity to churn out new movies of sorts. And why not, since he's still in fairly good shape, albeit noticeably a bit podgier than of years gone by. But in writer/director James Cullen Brassack's straight to DVD action thriller, the action is notably sparing, and the one martial arts fight scene he seems to pull off is filmed from inside a car, with what seems like a stand-in doing the fighting.
There doesn't seem to be a notable plot as such, and what there is seems to be hurdled along by VD's drawling, slurry voiceovers, spouting pseudo philosophical wisdom, and trying to give the plot more substance than it really has. For a plot so piecemeal, and with action so infrequent, it doesn't help having a length that could have been trimmed by about at least ten minutes. VD's surviving fan base must have a familiar formula that still keeps them coming, but this is just clutching at straws.
It's a nostalgic experience to see a new Van Damme film, and obviously he still has some sort of drawing power, but this is a threadbare, dull effort, that even his most ardent fan will struggle to remember. **
Interpol operative Russell Hatch (Jean Claude Van Damme), is left burnt out after a raid, in which informant Esther (Chika Kinamoto) is killed. His only resolution is to act as a father figure of sorts to Jayden (Emerson Min), her estranged son, who is being eyed for recruitment by local gang leader Hyun (Peter Jae.) This is just as an all out gang war is brewing between them and a rival Russian faction, led by Lazar (Andrey Ivchenko.) Hatch must draw on all his resources to prevent a bloodbath of terrifying proportions.
Although his star power has waned somewhat since his heyday, it would seem Van Damme still has the capacity to churn out new movies of sorts. And why not, since he's still in fairly good shape, albeit noticeably a bit podgier than of years gone by. But in writer/director James Cullen Brassack's straight to DVD action thriller, the action is notably sparing, and the one martial arts fight scene he seems to pull off is filmed from inside a car, with what seems like a stand-in doing the fighting.
There doesn't seem to be a notable plot as such, and what there is seems to be hurdled along by VD's drawling, slurry voiceovers, spouting pseudo philosophical wisdom, and trying to give the plot more substance than it really has. For a plot so piecemeal, and with action so infrequent, it doesn't help having a length that could have been trimmed by about at least ten minutes. VD's surviving fan base must have a familiar formula that still keeps them coming, but this is just clutching at straws.
It's a nostalgic experience to see a new Van Damme film, and obviously he still has some sort of drawing power, but this is a threadbare, dull effort, that even his most ardent fan will struggle to remember. **