Wake of Death
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Philip Tan, Simon Yam, Tony Schiena, Valerie Tian Director: Philippe Martinez Brand: Sony Writer: Philippe Martinez Producer: Alan Latham Producer: Andreas Klein Producer: Anton Ernst Writer: Kristina Hamilton-Grobler Writer: Laurent Fellous Writer: Mick Davis DVD: Region Code 99 Audio: English (Unknown); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed) Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen Picture Format: Widescreen, 1.78:1 Running Time: 91 minutes DVD Release Date: 2004-12-28 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment |
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Movie Reviews of Wake of Death
Movie Review: (2.5 Stars) His Best in Years But Still Needs Something More
Summary: 2 Stars
The title 'Wake of Death,' new film of Jean-Claude Van Damme, is rightly given to the very violent contents. Van Damme plays a bouncer Ben Archer who is quitting his job after seeing what he doesn't want to see for 20 years. But he has a beautiful wife Cynthia (Lisa King, 'Home Alone 4') and a kid at home, and all he wants is just a quiet life.
Anyone who knows some rules about action flicks will detect what will happen to his family when kind-hearted Cynthia (who is an INS officer by the way) takes home a little Chinese girl found among the refugees from China. And the little girl is connected with a Chinese triad, in fact, a daughter of a ruthless boss Sun Quan (Simon Yam, 'Tomb Raider 2'). And these events occur at the night when Cynthia and Ben are sleeping together in bed, showing part of their bodies in the ill-lit room.
[TYPICAL REVENGE STORY] Yes, Van Damme is getting more and more serious these days, as you have seen 'In Hell' recently. 'Wake of Death' goes similar course, but this time it's a revenge story with more violent actions with shoot-outs and car-chases. Though the script is a standard one, one inventiveness is found in the relations between Van Damme's hero and his former associates French mafiosos. These French gangsters give a timely help or two to Van Damme's character in a more bloody fashion than the Italian guys who were seen helping Arnie in 'Eraser.'
So how good is this film? It depends on your expectaions. 'Wake of Death' shows fairly good car stunts and shoot-outs, but the lack of imagination on the director's side is too obvious. My opinion is, it is much better than 'Derailed' (his worst), far below 'Timecop' (arguably his best), on par with 'The Order.' But it's just my idea. The point is, Van Damme shows pretty good acting here, but the actions, or the logics behind them, look awfully disjointed. The bad guy's motive to bring back his daughter at any cost is never explained, and the relations between the characters are very confusing. (Case in point. You get a glimpse of two veteran actors Burt Kwouk, 'Cato' of 'Rerurn of Pink Panther' and Jacqui Chan, 'The World of Susie Wong,' but the moment they appear on the screen, they get killed, without leaving no impression on us.) But most damaging thing is the film's shoddy editing that virtually killed some of the good stunts such as two motorcycles running in a shoppoing mall. I still do not know what happened at certain point of the story.
Philip Martinez, formerly producer of B action films such as 'Dot Kill' or 'House of 9,' gives his second film as director. (Incidentally, his first feature was, the imdb says, 'Citizen Verdict'(03) starring Armand Assante and Jerry Springer!) As to 'Wake of Death' he decided to shoot this film in South Africa though the story is set in America.
Fans of Van Damme might hail the film as his come-back. I don't know, for I still fondly remember joyful thrills when I watched his 'Timecop' or 'Universal Soldiers.' 'Wake of Death' is good as Grade-B, straight-to-video actioner, but it's not good enough for me.