Title: UNTIL DEATH
Description: latest Van Damme (SPOILERS)
Description: latest Van Damme (SPOILERS)
Mark Tinta - May 3, 2007 11:23 PM (GMT)
Couldn't find any comments on this so far....
UNTIL DEATH, the latest DTV Jean Claude Van Damme is out and it's a mostly acceptable time killer that should please his fans, ranking alongside IN HELL and WAKE OF DEATH as "not necessarily great, but much better than they should be" Van Damme outings. Our Belgian friend actually turns in a strong, believable performance as a scumbag, alcoholic, junkie New Orleans narcotics detective who, when he isn't scoring smack or cheating on his wife (Selina Giles) with prostitutes or ratting out fellow officers, is obsessed with nailing his ex-partner (Stephen Rea), who's now, well, he's a bad guy of some sort--what he does (drugs? guns?) is never really clear, but he was a bad cop who's no longer on the force.
SPOILERS!
When one of Rea's goons shoots Van Damme in the head, Van Damme ends up in a coma for seven months, and re-emerges a changed man, even winning back Giles, who was about to leave him for another man (and the father of her unborn child) before he got shot. But, of course, his past comes back as Rea kidnaps Giles, forcing him to take action.
END SPOILERS
As far as straight-to-DVD action movies go, this UK-Germany-Bulgaria-USA co-production is fairly enjoyable stuff as long as you try not to notice the gaping plot holes or the lapses in logic and/or continuity (the opening stakeout sequence has a caption reading something like "1:24 am" and someone immediately mentions that it's 8:30 pm), and the teenager (Wes Robinson) who helps Van Damme by keeping tabs on Rea could not possibly be more ill-defined, and his ultimate fate comes from some unacceptably lazy writing (or bad editing--according to imdb, the film once ran 113 minutes, but the Sony DVD is 101, so it's possible some things got cut out--Van Damme's female bartender friend is another badly-drawn character with unclear motivations). Furthermore, we see periodic newspaper headlines (unfortunately, they don't spin into view like they did in the 1930s) talking about Rea's crime spree, no one knows where he is or can catch him, but he makes no attempt to hide and is always seen in public places.
Rea is absolutely godawful in this, often relying on that same bizarre accent he used in FEARDOTCOM, or sometimes resorting to his version of a Brooklyn accent, even though they're in New Orleans. Rea is a good actor, but he needs to stop doing American accents. In some scenes, some of the actors (mostly British) seem dubbed--it's hard to tell. There is some actual location shooting in New Orleans (surprisingly, Hurricane Katrina is never mentioned, though it's possible this was shot before), but there is one set that I recall seeing in the opening Zoot Suit Riots sequence in THE BLACK DAHLIA, so the bulk of this was probably shot in Bulgaria.
It's nice to see Van Damme still plugging away. His movies are much better than the usual straight-to-DVD fare, and it's nice that he actually seems into the proceedings, unlike Steven Seagal who pretty much lets his stunt double handle everything but the closeups at this point. I don't know if we'll ever see Van Damme on the big screen again (wasn't he supposed to play the bad guy in RUSH HOUR 3 at one point?), but for his old fans looking for some throwback action movie comfort food, UNTIL DEATH should do the trick.
UNTIL DEATH, the latest DTV Jean Claude Van Damme is out and it's a mostly acceptable time killer that should please his fans, ranking alongside IN HELL and WAKE OF DEATH as "not necessarily great, but much better than they should be" Van Damme outings. Our Belgian friend actually turns in a strong, believable performance as a scumbag, alcoholic, junkie New Orleans narcotics detective who, when he isn't scoring smack or cheating on his wife (Selina Giles) with prostitutes or ratting out fellow officers, is obsessed with nailing his ex-partner (Stephen Rea), who's now, well, he's a bad guy of some sort--what he does (drugs? guns?) is never really clear, but he was a bad cop who's no longer on the force.
SPOILERS!
When one of Rea's goons shoots Van Damme in the head, Van Damme ends up in a coma for seven months, and re-emerges a changed man, even winning back Giles, who was about to leave him for another man (and the father of her unborn child) before he got shot. But, of course, his past comes back as Rea kidnaps Giles, forcing him to take action.
END SPOILERS
As far as straight-to-DVD action movies go, this UK-Germany-Bulgaria-USA co-production is fairly enjoyable stuff as long as you try not to notice the gaping plot holes or the lapses in logic and/or continuity (the opening stakeout sequence has a caption reading something like "1:24 am" and someone immediately mentions that it's 8:30 pm), and the teenager (Wes Robinson) who helps Van Damme by keeping tabs on Rea could not possibly be more ill-defined, and his ultimate fate comes from some unacceptably lazy writing (or bad editing--according to imdb, the film once ran 113 minutes, but the Sony DVD is 101, so it's possible some things got cut out--Van Damme's female bartender friend is another badly-drawn character with unclear motivations). Furthermore, we see periodic newspaper headlines (unfortunately, they don't spin into view like they did in the 1930s) talking about Rea's crime spree, no one knows where he is or can catch him, but he makes no attempt to hide and is always seen in public places.
Rea is absolutely godawful in this, often relying on that same bizarre accent he used in FEARDOTCOM, or sometimes resorting to his version of a Brooklyn accent, even though they're in New Orleans. Rea is a good actor, but he needs to stop doing American accents. In some scenes, some of the actors (mostly British) seem dubbed--it's hard to tell. There is some actual location shooting in New Orleans (surprisingly, Hurricane Katrina is never mentioned, though it's possible this was shot before), but there is one set that I recall seeing in the opening Zoot Suit Riots sequence in THE BLACK DAHLIA, so the bulk of this was probably shot in Bulgaria.
It's nice to see Van Damme still plugging away. His movies are much better than the usual straight-to-DVD fare, and it's nice that he actually seems into the proceedings, unlike Steven Seagal who pretty much lets his stunt double handle everything but the closeups at this point. I don't know if we'll ever see Van Damme on the big screen again (wasn't he supposed to play the bad guy in RUSH HOUR 3 at one point?), but for his old fans looking for some throwback action movie comfort food, UNTIL DEATH should do the trick.
JEFFREY ALLEN RYDELL - May 4, 2007 12:19 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Mark Tinta @ May 3 2007, 06:23 PM) |
| wasn't he supposed to play the bad guy in RUSH HOUR 3 at one point? |
Well, Van Damme was *rumoured* to be up for a role, but it turned out that he was the one who started it, as he sheepishly admitted!
No matter, in the actual film, Roman Polanski gets a simultaneous decking by Chan and Tucker, which is way more awesome, obviously:
William S. Wilson - May 4, 2007 03:36 AM (GMT)
Thanks for the review Mark. I've missed the past few Van Damme outings to hit DVD (HARD CORPS, SECOND IN COMMAND) because I've heard they are just so-so. Glad to hear this one is in line with the tough duo IN HELL and WAKE OF DEATH.