Double Impact

Actors are a bit…self-involved. That’s not exactly breaking news. So for a particular breed of thespian, playing opposite themselves is probably quite a kick. Which might explain why Jean-Claude Van Damme has arranged that very scenario three times in three different movies: Double Impact (1991), Maximum Risk (1996) and Replicant (2001). In retrospect, probably not the best idea for an actor who needs all the help he can get to emote convincingly. But it can still be awful fun to watch, especially his inaugural adventure as Chad and Alex, twins separated at birth who reunite to save their father’s legacy in the aforementioned Double Impact.

Raised in L.A., Chad is a happy-go-lucky womanizer who discovers his parents were murdered by a triad in Hong Kong where his twin, Alex, has been slumming for the past 20-plus years. This odd couple is brought together by Frank (Geoffrey Lewis), the former family bodyguard, in search of hard evidence to implicate the murderers responsible. But Chad and Alex aren’t quite on the same team, especially when it comes to Alex’s girlfriend, which has the duo fighting each other just as much as the bad guys.

A frequent Van Damme collaborator, director Sheldon Lettich is a far cry from Hong Kong legends like Ringo Lam and Tsui Hark. As such, his take on the material hews closer to typical American action fare of the early ‘90s while interjecting some clumsy two-fisted gunplay and flying leaps. Double Impact saves the good stuff for the final half hour, which includes a rematch between Van Damme and his Bloodsport nemesis Bolo Yeung along with female bodybuilder Corinna Everson. Even with twice the “Van Dammage” it’s the villains who take center stage in this one.

MVD delivers a doozy of a 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray special edition, complete with a two-part Making Of that interviews all the essential cast and crew (including JCVD) and runs nearly two hours. There’s also a full hour of deleted / extended scenes, a stunt scene breakdown, legacy featurette, archival interviews and trailer. The film itself looks terrific, quite an improvement on the transfer for Knock Off released a few weeks back. Packaging includes a slipcover and fold-out poster.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hollywood 90028

Image
While everyone praises a film that is timeless, those that are  of their time  an inevitably more interesting. And  Hollywood 90028  (1974) occupies a singular moment of L.A. cinematic history written by the early generation of UCLA film school grads; an urban desert of sleazy peep shows and dashed artistic aspirations populated by Midwest transplants looking to make it big.  Director Christina Hornisher’s obscure addition to this tragic catalog was sold as a sexed-up piece of violent exploitation (and retitled  The Hollywood Hillside Strangler  and  Twisted Throats ) but this low-budget effort is really anything but.   Mark (Christopher Augustine) is a frustrated filmmaker shooting dirty movies to pay the bills, unable to put together a highlight reel that will get him out of the celluloid gutter.  Michele (Jeannette Dilger) is on the other side of the camera, ashamed of her “performances” but lured by the easy money. ...
Read more

School in the Crosshairs

Image
A pop-music confection of psychic powers, first love, and invaders from Venus, 1981’s School in the Crosshairs is a mainline rush of anime aesthetics and pre-MTV aspirations. And if you think that’s a mouthful, wait’ll you get a look at the film itself! Director Nobuhiko Obayashi ( House ) stacks plot devices like Jenga pieces, relying on the charisma of super-producer Haruki Kadokawa’s handpicked pop princess to keep it from collapsing under its own weight. That secret ingredient is star Hiroko Yakushimaru, the cherub-faced schoolgirl who’d break out later that same year in Sailor Suit and Machine Gun . Here she plays Yuka, the most popular girl in school, who discovers her telekinetic abilities have drawn the attention of a power-hungry alien bent on enslaving her fellow students. With help from a mysterious new girl on campus, the villains drain all the fun from Daii Academy, transforming it into a fascist state devoted entirely to academics.   Based on an oft-adapted novel by ...
Read more

Terminus

Image
Road Warrior   rip-offs are legion. After the success of George Miller’s post-apocalyptic actioner, every two-bit producer with access to a stretch of desert and a box of leftover shoulder pads scrambled to cash in. In the U.S., Roger Corman unleashed   Battletruck , Charles Band gave birth to   Metalstorm   (in 3D, no less), while Italy cranked out so many copycat productions it’s a wonder the Colosseum didn’t wind up with a gun turret and a flamethrower. But France—ah, France—they just might have delivered the most bafflingly sideways homage of them all: 1987’s   Terminus . Set in a near future where a tricked-out truck must pass through hostile territory to reach a predetermined “terminus,” the story begins with its hired driver (Karen Allen) captured and killed by rival gangs. That leaves Stump (Johnny Hallyday), a mysterious ex-con, to complete the journey—accompanied by a mute 8-year-old named Princess. Their mission is guided by an AI system called Monste...
Read more