Double Team
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Movie Reviews of Double Team
Movie Review: one of van damme's best
Summary: 4 Stars
this is a must own for van damme fans. the action will please action fans a lot. should i mention the plot? no,the plot's not important.Movie Review: "You look like a carrot with earrings"
Summary: 3 Stars
At this point in time, NBA superstar Dennis Rodman had the world on a silver platter: not only was he getting away with conduct and eccentricities that would have gotten others banned, but he was getting cheered for it in the media. In addition to TV shows and pro wrestling appearances, he was hooked up with Jean-Claude Van Damme in order to boost the martial arts hero's slowly-descending movie career. Completing this strange package was action legend Tsui Hark (Once Upon a Time in China) making his directorial debut in Hollywood, adding himself to the growing list of Hong Kong filmmakers who broke into America by using the gamely Van Damme as a vehicle. The resulting movie was a refreshing change as far as Van Damme's career goes, but not enough to save him from his eventual DTV detour and definitely not as awesome as it could have been.
The story: CIA agent Jack Quinn (Van Damme) returns from retirement to track down his nemesis, the terrorist Stavros (Mickey Rourke, Iron Man 2), but is debilitated and left dead to the world at the end of the mission. Awakening in the clutches of an ex-agent organization called the Colony, he must first retrain himself and then find a way to resume pursuing his target, along with the help of an eccentric arms dealer (Rodman.)
While Van Damme would never make a true Hong Kong action movie, "Double Team" (along with his following Hark collaboration, Knock Off) comes reasonably close with its flashy presentation, strange plot devices, and spiffed-up martial arts content. That last aspect is what made me want to see the movie: to see Van Damme's moves wrangled by legends like Xin Xin Xiong (Time and Tide) and - the biggest brother of all - Sammo Hung (Ip Man). Sadly, this stuff isn't at all as amazing as it ought to be. Van Damme has about four solid fights while Rodman has one, but while the basketball player gets point for having his bout come across decent in regard to his lack of experience, the karate champion gets a booing for not really doing anything out of the ordinary. His initial fight with Rourke was pretty good and featured minimal doubling, but their climatic rematch featured stretches which were clearly shot without having both performers on the set at the same time. The only true Hong Kong-style battle occurs when choreographer Xin Xin takes to the screen himself and fights Van Damme while holding a switchblade twixt his toes; that was awesome, but it was the exception. Oh, and Van Damme also fights a real tiger, but believe it, this too isn't entirely memorable.
Two things I was surprised by: Mickey Rourke really isn't in the movie a lot and Dennis Rodman doesn't do too badly as an actor. Yes, I know Rodman received several Razzis for this movie, but hey, if you're up to listening to Van Damme accent his way through a film, then Rodman will come across just fine. Rourke's character starts off great with his vendetta against Jack for accidentally killing his son, but then becomes enigmatic with only a handful of scenes to himself. This is a shame, seeing as he's the best performer in the show, but that was pretty much a given. I remain fuzzy on the story, which should've been simple enough but becomes overly convoluted with the introduction of the Colony and Jack needing to escape via airlift; straight arrow would've been better. Also, the Van Damme/Rodman pairing wasn't taken advantage of properly: they jabber and make fun of the other's quirks, but there's no real sense of either camaraderie or rivalry between them and a promised fight between the two is cut short. Shame.
In the end, "Double Team" is neither as bad as the critics blasted it as nor as good as I was hoping it to be. It's just another Van Damme movie: a bit more exotic than his usual big budget work, but still just another vehicle. Buy it to complete your collection, but don't count on it changing your image of the man.
Movie Review: Same ole plot, just worse
Summary: 3 Stars
Every movie Van Damme stars in has the same plot: someone is holding his family and he's trying to get them back. Besides the same plot setting, Double Team marks the second movie Van Damme made with the word "Double" in it (aka Double Impact) but entirely different storyline. As the word suggest, it's double the disaster.
Van Damme stars as Jack Quinn, an ex-CIA agent who gets thrown into stopping world domination but it gets personal when an old nemesis captures his pregnant wife. The movie has many cheesy lines where Van Damme argues that he doesn't want to fight - like most of his movie - yet he goes on some sort of rampage beating everyone up and shooting people. Unlike his other movies, I think Double Team lacked consistency and flow. Although I have no idea, I think because of the fact that the movie is only 1 hour and 30 minutes, they had to cut out a lot of content just to fit that time frame. As a result, the movie had horrible flow. From one scene to another without any sort of sense to tie it together. I think just adding in about 5-10 minutes of content would have helped this movie out greatly to tie everything together.
Rodman stars in this movie as a smart R&D weapon expert in the likes of Dr Q. However, I think Rodman is considered anything but smart, especially with weapons and complex gadgets. Looking at similar career of basketball player, I can think of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who starred in the movie Airplane. In that movie, Kareem at least had a interesting and funny plot line as a co-pilot while using his basketball career as a funny story. Rodman in Double Team is clearly used as a draw in for people to watch the movie. If I remember right, about the time Double Team come about, Rodman was in the media at full blast and was the hottest story. The part that gave it away was when Rodman made this basketball like parachute, but it wasn't anything like a parachute, just a cocoon in the shape of a basketball. Rodman also picked up a USP pistol and said it was completely automatic, which it isn't. Also, Rodman used a skull in the catacombs as a free throw joke when he was trying to hit the detonator on some C4.
Rodman and Van Damme are teamed up to stop a madman named Stavos (Mickey Rourke) who is a very dangerous ex-agent. Apparently, Stavos used to work for the US, yet for reasons unknown, he decides to turn against the world - yet he wants to live in Rome and can travel the world freely. He lives in Rome and walks the streets freely. You'd think that with such a dangerous, worldwide wanted man, he would want to stay in hiding. Yet he has a home in the city and nobody gives a second look or anything; also he can fly worldwide to gather people yet no body at the airport noticed him. He also has a Glock with a red dot on it and is able to make precision aim with it to where he can hit someone through the scope of a rifle from more than a 100 yards, yet he's unable to hit someone standing right in front of him. At the end of the movie, Stavos makes up this clever, complex and insane mine field where he wants to fight Van Damme in a final showdown instead of just shooting him when he had a chance.
Overall the movie is a disaster. Like I said above, the basic of the story is Van Damme trying to get his wife back. In between it, throw in random snipers, some crazy Chinese ninja guy capable hold a knife with his toes to stab someone instead of just stabbing them using his hands, and you got Double Team. The movie lacked any sort of flow and consistency, but it's still overall funny and good. Van Damme has made some good movies using the same basic plot line - trying to get home - but I think after doing it so many times, you just can't think of anything better so you make something ridiculous and silly like Double Team.
Movie Review: Personal Foul - Dennis Rodman
Summary: 3 Stars
The Jean Claude Van Damme Review Matrix (JCVD-RM)
1. Who is he? Jack Quinn, anti-terrorism expert
2. Which family member/friend must be avenged? His kidnapped wife, his unborn son
3. Does he take his shirt off? His opening scene is straight out of the shower, and into the swimming pool
4. Does he have sex with a C-List actress? How do you think his wife got pregnant?
5. Is there a tournament? No, but Dennis Rodman thinks there is
6. Is training needed for this tournament? No, but Dennis Rodman should have taken some acting classes beforehand
7. Does he do the splits in training or in the tournament? Constantly. This might be the most splitastic of all his movies.
8. Does he punch someone in the balls? As if JCVD was attempting to sabotage this movie, he leaves out one of his classic moves.
9. Does he do a series of flying or 360 kicks? So much so that in a deleted scene he gets dizzy and pukes
10. Is his enemy unbeatable? For the role, Mickey Rourke looks buff, not tough
11. Does he overcome an injury or other hindrance? Just Rodman's acting
12. Does he win? As lamely as possible
Coaxed out of retirement to capture his arch-nemesis Stavros (Rourke), it's up to Quinn to ensure he is prepared with the latest weaponry. Quinn makes his way to the local source of all sexual and social deviation in Antwerp. Bikers, hippies, extreme tattoo artists and piercing specialists, trannies, hookers, body modification oddities, freaks and geeks. Naturally, he'd run into Yaz (Dennis Rodman) in a place like this. And, of course, Rodman is an exotic arms dealer, an extraterrestrial version of James Bond's trusty Q.
Now supplied with a weapon that can, "shoot the d*@k off a hummingbird", Quinn sets up Stavros in the first ever carnival sting. When the plan goes awry - not to mention the best fight ever in a hospital nursery - Quinn is sent to The Colony, a top secret, pseudo-retirement home for special agents who still monitor world events.
Ironically directed by Tsui Hard, the reason this film fails is that it tries too hard. Some nice slow-motion, Matrix-esque bullet dodging scenes, and the JCVD kicks are always classic, but there's just too much to truly enjoy. From an ATV in southern France to plutonium stolen in Croatia, from a plane shot down by the North Koreans, and on to Rome, Antwerp, etc...it's pointless for the film's progression, as if the director simply wanted to collect frequent flyer mileage. The dialogue between JCVD and Rodman is atrocious. Delivered in a completely unpleasant hiccup staccato style, it's difficult to ascertain who speaks worse English. Made worse by the insistence of inserting basketball jargon into every possible sentence, it's simply painful. And I'll only briefly mention the pathetic attempts to insert the burgeoning internet into the mix, the fact that JCVD kicks a tiger, and the insulting Coca Cola product placement at the end.
I recommend this for only the JCVD zealot.
Movie Review: Not Topnotch, but still Fun
Summary: 3 Stars
Double Team is one of those films that had more bashing than there are actual viewers of the film.
The film, starring actionstar Jean-Claude van Damme and basketbal pro Dennis Rodman, is directed by Hong Kong FilmLegend Tsui Hark. Even though the film has had so many negative words, it is stil a pretty fun ride to experience. I myself also had mixed feelings when seeying it for the first time, but that changed with a second viewing.
The first things that comes to mind when watching the film is that it stars two men who aren't known for topnotch acting. Van Damme is good on action but is most of the time considered average with his acting skills. In Double Team this is no difference: his acting is ok but not great. But when it comes to action, he is on the right spot.
Then there is Dennis Rodman, a probasketball player next to Van Damme. Now he is clearly not a born actor and this shows. Still, his attitide and one-liners are enjoyable and him teaming up with Van Damme is all part of the fun. Seeying them annoy each other and both (Yes, also Rodman) kicking around bad guys is, admit it, an ok way to kill some time. Rodman also plays around with his reallife basketball image, all good fun.
Then we have the story: Easy and pretty Cheesy.
But hey, there are hunderds of films with this kind of plot. But even though it is cliche sometimes, who cares, it works and entertains fine doesn't it? The same is with this film: just put your mind and zero and simply enjoy.
Tsui Hark is known for his actionpacked Hong Kong films and shows his talent with this American film. The way the action is filmed and edited is sometimes true Hong Kong action cinema style. The action is therefor well shot and on a good level. Some good fighting, big explosions and running around.
So, don't think to hard when watching this film, sit back and just let it entertain you. Cause even though the characters haven't got that much backround written for them, the story isn't difficult or highly original, it still has some fun aspects that actionfans can enjoy.