Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Natash Henstridge, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Zach
Grenier, Paul Ben-Victor, Frank Senger, Frank Van Keeken, David Hemblen
Director: Ringo Lam
Action Director: Charlie Picerni, Mark Stefanich
Maximum Risk continues the trend of Hong Kong action directors establishing themselves in Hollywood via a Van Damme film. This time the honor goes to Ringo Lam, best known for his "On Fire" films--City on Fire; School on Fire; and two Prison on Fire films. He also had the last word on the Heroic Bloodshed genre with the ultraviolent Full Contact and acquired a strong following among kung fu fans for his borderline horror/martial arts hybrid Burning Paradise. Like John Woo, Lam was wary of what might become of Hong Kong cinema after the 1997 handover, so it was off to Hollywood to him. The experience must not have been positive, as he was soon back in Hong Kong making films like Full Alert and The Suspect.
The movie begins with Jean-Claude Van Damme running through the streets of Nice, France, being chased by a pair of men in suits (The Corruptor's Paul Ben-Victor and The Professional's Frank Senger). The three men move through apartments and drive cars through GINORMOUS fruit markets before Van Damme flies out of his vehicle and through the windshield of another car, killing him. We then cut to Van Damme again, this time a French cop who's attending a colleague's funeral. His boss, Sebastien (Jean-Hugues Anglade of Taking Lives), is surprised to see him there: if he, Alain Moreau, is at the funeral, then who is the fellow that died. That turns out to Mikhail, Alain's long-lost twin brother. Alain learns from his mom that she did indeed have twin sons, but one of them was taken by a Parisian lawyer and given to Soviet diplomat parents when she was in dire straits.
Alain and Sebastien take a train to Paris to visit the lawyer and find out more about his brother. When they arrive at the office, the place is on fire and the laywer has a bullet lodged in his skull. The assassin (Stefanos Miltsakakis, Martial Outlaw and Best of the Best II) is still on the premises and a fight breaks out. Alain repels the man and saves the lawyer's secretary, who hands him Mikhail's adoption papers. It seems that the diplomats defected to New York after a spell, taking their adopted son with them. Alain follows the trail to the Big Apple, where he learns that his brother was hot sh*t with the Russian mafia in Little Odessa. Well, to some extent. The mobsters aren't happy to see Alain, although they think he's Mikhail. Also mistaking him for his deceased brother is Mikhail's lover, Alex (Species's Natasha Henstidge). It doesn't take long for the two to have a target placed on their backs.
But if the Russian mob weren't surprised to see "Mikhail", who were the two men back in Nice? Those are FBI agents Pellman and Loomis, who are on the payroll of Ivan (Zach Grenier, of Fight Club and Swordfish). Ivan is second-in-command of the local chapter of the Russian mob, and has plans for a hostile takeover of the entire outfit. It seems that Mikhail left some important documents back in Nice, and both the FBI and the mob will want those documents before a lot of guilty people end up in jail.
Ringo Lam is best known for his gritty thrillers that explore the darker underbelly of modern society. Despite his reputation as an "action movie director," he doesn't quite fit that particular mold. I admittedly don't know a whole lot about the man's filmography, but what I know suggests that he can wallow in the muck when need be. Even his one kung fu movie is known for its grim imagery and strong graphic violence as much as it is for its actual fighting. It thus feels a bit disappointing that his talents would be funneled into a project whose story feels like the sort of thing Steven Seagal would be making during the aughts. To give credit where credit's due: it was Van Damme's idea to bring in Lam, so at least he recognized talent.
Lam does bring a strong visual style to Maximum Risk. The photography doesn't feel experimental like Van Damme's collaborations with Tsui Hark, but the movie is appropriately stylish and looks polished. It isn't as violent as some of his Hong Kong movies, and definitely lacks a truly grim tone. But there are some bloody moments amidst the carnage. Just don't expect Ivan to rip off the skullcap of a stripper with his bare hands before raping Natasha Henstridge. The violence is a bit more...uh...conventional, I guess.
As Van Damme is playing a Frenchman, there's no need to go into some strange backstory to explain his accent. He does well within his element, even though Lam reportedly told journalists at some point that Van Damme couldn't act worth a damn. Natasha Henstridge is mainly around to look sexy, having made it big with Species the previous year. She was definitely on her way to being the Sharon Stone of the second half of the 1990s, a reasonably good actress who'd get by on her willingness to show her breasts onscreen.
The action duties are handled by Hollywood veteran Charlie Picerni, whose career goes all the way back to the late 1960s(!). Picerni worked a number of times with Van Damme, including Street Fighter and Double Team. The action is nicely balanced between dangerous car stunts, explosions and burning structures, and the expected martial arts. Maximum Risk has gotten some attention in recent years for being one of the prototypes for incorporating jiu-jitsu and grappling into the usual repertoire of fancy footwork and karate punches. Van Damme's main opponent is Stefanos Miltsakakis, who also played the Greek fighter in The Quest. Miltsakakis gets three separate fights with Van Damme, including a claustrophobic scuffle in an elevator that utilizes a lot of groundfighting. He definitely gets a better showcase for his talents than he did in The Quest, in which he was defeated by baddie Abdel Qissi in a few seconds. The two also fight in a burning building and in a Russian bathhouse. JCVD does do some of his patented kicks, but also does more take-downs and breaks than he usually does in his films.
The film mainly sputters at the end, with the final boss being a character who wouldn't last more than a few moments in the ring with Van Damme. Lam and Picerni try to even the odds by giving the guy a butcher's chainsaw (I never realized there was such a thing, but okay), but it's definitely not Tiger on the Beat. It's not even the 1985 The Protector. The showdown ends much too quickly and there definitely is a feeling of "That's it?" hanging over the climax. Despite Lam's natural visual talents and some good fight scenes, the plot is forgettable Eurotrash villain fluff and the climax is anti-climatic. So this is "good" Van Damme, but not "great" Van Damme.
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