Maximum Risk
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Movie Reviews of Maximum Risk
Movie Review: action pack ride!
Summary: 5 Stars
one of van-damme's best, with full non stop action, the fight scenes are awesome,especially with that blonde guy that he confronts a few times,really gets the blood pumping when watching this type of movie.Movie Review: Good Movie!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie didn't get enough credit in my opinion. Lots of action and a good story.
Movie Review: It's got Natasha, who cares about anything else
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie has Natasha Henstridge in it, who cares how bad the rest of it is.Movie Review: Ringo Lam's rock solid Western debut . . .
Summary: 4 Stars
Hong Kong action film director Ringo Lam, makes his American film debut in Maximum Risk (1996), a gritty crime drama, that mostly stays in touch with reality. Action star Jean-Claude van Damme, has a dual role playing twin brothers, Alain Moreau and Mikhail Suverov, separated as children. Mikhail, a former member of the Russian underworld, is killed while trying to escape his criminal past in the south of France. Alain, a member of the French police, was unaware that he had a twin brother, and after his investigations reveal cover-ups, arson, and a connection to New York, he borrows his brother's passport, and heads over the Atlantic, to the Big Apple.
Mistaken for his brother, Alain hooks up with Mikhail's girlfriend Alex (Natasha Henstridge), and has the local Russian mafia stirred up, gunning for him. The FBI is also in the picture, as what everyone seems to be after, is a secret list in a safe deposit box, in a bank in Nice, France. Alain looks to make peace with the Russian mafia boss, but subordinate Ivan Dzasokhov (Zach Grenier) stages his assassination and a major purge, that almost costs Alain his life. The fight scene in a sauna, is probably the most unrealistic action sequence in the film, but it is still rather entertaining. Alain escapes, but is taken into FBI custody, and forced to take part in a plot to retrieve the secret list from the bank.
The tone of Maximum Risk rarely wavers from being deadly serious. Jean-Claude plays it straight, and does not get too cute. The situations mostly stay within the limits of believability, resulting in a very tight, and credible film. The action sequences don't really go over the top, yet there is enough edginess to keep things from being too pedestrian, even by 2010 standards. Nicely paced, and bolstered by solid performances by van Damme and Henstridge, the film comes full circle, finishing with a violent flourish, in the south of France. Things must have clicked between Lam, and van Damme, as they would also team up in Replicant (2001), and In Hell (2003).
Movie Review: Woefully Uneven
Summary: 4 Stars
Legendary Hong Kong action director Ringo Lam tries his shot with Van Damme and does an outstanding job.
Van Damme, as a French cop, finds he has a twin brother he never knew about. Problem is, he finds out after his twin is already dead. He needs to dig deeper into his bro's cause of death and when he does he finds his brother was in deep with both the Russian mob and the FBI. He has dirt on both of them, hence his untimely death. Now he needs to get himself, along with his late brother's girlfriend (played by Natasha Henstridge), out of the deep doo-doo his brother was in.
This movie starts out at full throttle and rarely lets up. In true Ringo Lam style you are treated to some of the best directed and choreographed fight scenes, chase scenes and shoot-em-up scenes ever. One way cool fight scene near the beginning of the film takes place inside a burning room. I'm still trying to figure out how they pulled that off.
Unfortunately there were also some bad decisions made. For instance: One of the FBI agents is such a grossly overweight buffoon you know there was no way he ever was or ever would be in the FBI. One of the stunts in the climax is so laughable it's difficult to imagine Lam let it pass. Now, I like seeing Henstrige naked as much as the next guy, but the love scene between her and Van Damme needed to be inserted with a crow bar. It was just poorly timed and totally gratuitous.
These quibbles aside, this is still on heck of a ride. For those into the action genre of films this is right up there near the top. Order some pizza. Crack open a beer and buckle up.