Twin Dragons (1992)

Twin Dragons (1992)
Aka: Brother vs. Brother
Chinese Title: 雙龍會
Translation: Double Dragon Club

 

Starring: Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk, Nina Li Chi, Teddy Robin Kwan, James Wong Jim, Sylvia Chang Ai-Chia, Kirk Wong Chi-Keung, David Chiang Da-Wei, Mabel Cheung Yuen-Ting, Alfred Cheung Kin-Ting, Johnny Wang Lung-Wei
Director: Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam
Action Directors: Yuen Woo-Ping, Stephen Tung Wai, Tony Leung Siu-Hung, Tsui Siu-Ming, Chris Lee, Jackie Chan

In Clyde Gentry’s Jackie Chan: Inside the Dragon, Gentry places his remarks about this movie in the chapter reserved for “Jackie’s other children.” That expression is used to describe the Jackie Chan movies that, up until 1997, had been directed by others who didn’t quite share Jackie’s approach to moviemaking. That would include Gordon Chan (Thunderbolt), Wong Jing (City Hunter) and Kirk Wong (Crime Story). Gentry more or less summed up the chapter by stating that Chan himself hated all these films, although he showed a bit of ambivalence toward Drunken Master II (directed by Lau Kar-Leung). The criticism with this particular movie is that despite having two critically-acclaimed directors running show—Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam—neither of the men’s style really show through. Instead, it feels like a standard Jackie Chan action comedy whose detours into goofiness rival the dumbest moments of My Lucky Star.

There is a certain reason for Twin Dragons feeling like less of a movie than usual. That is that it was meant as a fundraiser for the Hong Kong Director’s Guild, specifically to get said organization its own office. Despite the moving making 33 million HKD at the time—placing it at #9 for that year in a particularly strong year for domestic films—apparently the Director’s Guild didn’t get their office built. In any case, it is mainly a disparate collection of action scenes and sight gags, held together by a thin story and tinge of romance.

I came across this some time during my junior year in high school, circa 1999. I had stopped by the S-Mart Supermarket located behind my school and was just looking around when I noticed a bargain bin full of VHS tapes. Lying right on top of the pile of tapes was Twin Dragons, priced at $9.99. I don’t even remember why I was even at the market. I saw that and stroked my chin. I didn’t buy it immediately, but after re-reading Clyde Gentry’s remarks on the film, I went to S-Mart again the following Friday after school and bought it with my lunch money.

Now, the funny part is that a couple of months after I bought this, Dimension Films released this with an all-new dub—presumably with Jackie Chan dubbing himself—to American theaters. Although by this point, I was making it a point to support Asian stars in whatever they could get released in the States, I decided to not do that with this one. Instead, I got the gang together at my friend Peter’s house and we just watched my VHS (which had the international dub, plus 15 minutes of footage not to be seen in the new release). The movie only made 8.3 million dollars in the US and Canada (losing about 40 dollars in revenue because I didn’t take my friends to see it), but was successful in Pan-Asian markets, as Chan films were wont to be at the time.

I’ll forego my usual semi-detailed plot synopsis, both because I’m pretty sure my base has already seen it and because trying to sum up the “story” is a bit of thankless task. Needless to say, Chan plays a dual role as renown pianist, John Ma, and a kung fu-fighting car mechanic, Boomer. The latter has a run-in with the local Triads and as that problem spirals out of control, John is sucked into it as well. There is also a subplot in which John falls for Barbara (Maggie Cheung), a karaoke singer whom Boomer’s friend, Tyson (Teddy Robin Kwan) already has the hots for. Meanwhile, a series of mishaps involving mistaken identity places Boomer in bed with Tammy (Nina Li Chi), a hot young lady whose father is trying to marry her off to John for his own benefit.

Although the real-life Jackie Chan has never been a squeaky-clean guy, he always does a good job at playing that sort of role in his movies. At the very least, he’s a regular, likable Joe who happens to have awesome acrobatic kung fu abilities. Playing dual roles allows him to play up to that good boy image while simultaneously playing against type in the form of Boomer. Boomer is a working-class fellow with a ponytail, a smoking habit, and a penchant for getting into trouble with the wrong people. Early dialog suggests that he’s also active on the illegal driving circuit, which comes up later in the film, albeit not in the way one might initially imagine. As I understand it, Armour of God (1987) featured Jackie Chan’s first love scene, which he admitted was even scarier to him than almost dying. Twin Dragons would thus feature his second love scene, although it’s quick and played mainly for laughs. Later on, Nina Li drops her towel in front of John before getting into a bathtub with him. In other words, Jackie presumably got to see what Jet Li was seeing at that time. So, would that make Jackie Chan and Jet Li eskimo brothers?

Maggie Cheung plays the fourth side of the bizarre love “rectangle.” Despite Tyson’s attempt to “stake a claim” on her Barbara character, she initially falls for Boomer. That makes sense, as one is a martial arts dynamo and the other is an annoying klutz—I’m pretty sure 9 out of 10 people will agree that Teddy Robbin’s character is the low point of this movie. However, after meeting John (despite thinking he’s Boomer), she falls for him instead. What I like about this movie is that it didn’t make Maggie Cheung the nagging (or angry or concerned) girlfriend that the Police Story movies made her. She is given a meatier role than her recurring role as May in those films.

Villainy is provided by several actors. Initially, the Triad boss is Yung, played by actor-director Alfred Cheung. As a director—most of the cast are veteran HK directors—Cheung is best known for the Her Fatal Ways series[1]. Interestingly enough, Boss Yung is forgotten about some 30 minutes in after a goofy sight gag involving a mannequin bouncing back and forth against two vehicles. His cronies, played Shaw brothers veteran Johnny Wang Lung-Wei[2] and actor-director-producer Guy Lai[3], then pick up the slack. Then wait! In the last act, we learn that Boss Yung (who has since disappeared from the script) has a boss, played by director Kirk Wong[4]. Kirk Wong’s character was the same guy who caused the separation of the Ma twins at the beginning of the film. How coincidental is it for him to be the head of the same Triad some 27 years later!

As there are dozens of directors in supporting roles and cameos throughout, it comes without surprise that there are a half dozen action directors attributed to Twin Dragons, too. And it goes without saying that these men also had varying experiences as movie directors, too. Yuen Woo-Ping needs no introduction, having directed a number of classic old school movies and modern-day action films. Stephen Tung Wai had been working as an action director since the late 70s, and had directed his first movie, the supernatural action film Magic Cop, a couple of years earlier. Chris Lee, a former Sing Ga Ban member, had started his directing career the year before with Queen’s High. Tony Leung Siu-Hung, brother of Bruce Leung Siu-Lung, was a dependable B-list choreographer with A-grade potential, and had directed at least one movie by this point. Finally, Tsui Siu-Ming was a seasoned director, directing crazy stunt action fests like Mirage and Bury Me High.

Despite the combined talent of these men, much like the collaboration of Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam, there isn’t a whole lot of their individual styles that show through in the fights. It’s mainly Jackie Chan doing what Jackie Chan does best. An early fight at a karaoke club has some nice kicks and wince-inducing use of glass panes, including Wang Lung-Wei breaking a pane over Jackie’s back. A short fight against Tammy’s boyfriend, played by Shaw Brothers stuntman-turned director Jamie Luk[5], is played for laughs, although Chan once more does some nice kicks. After the first set piece, the fighting is turned down until the 15-minute climax, set at a car-testing center. In the meantime, there is a boat chase and a well-done car chase, full of nice car stunts and general vehicular mayhem.

The big climax is vintage Jackie Chan, complete with great martial arts and some neat stuntwork from Chan the man. The stunts include running onto a moving car as it races toward him. Some versions show the stunt at regular speed, while others show it in both slow motion and regular speed. Another stunt has Chan barely jumping out of the way as a car smashes against a wall behind him as part of a crash test. In another display of agility and timing, Chan rolls under a car and out the other side as the villains kick out the jacks holding it up, narrowly missing Chan on both sides. The first part of the climax, which involves a series of mistaken identity gags in a carwash room and heating room of the factor, goes on a bit long. But once they’re in the garage, there’s some neat stuff on display. But to get there, there is a lot of silliness that you’ll have to wade through. Is it worth the trip? Or did Dimension films have the right idea in streamlining the whole affair? You be the judge.

  

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[1] - Cheung’s biggest hit was All’s Well, End’s Well ’97, which made more than 40 million HKD and came in at #3 at the domestic box office that year.

[2] - By this point, Wang had also established himself as a director, making brutal action films like The Angry Ranger; Widow Warriors; and City Warriors.

[3] - Lai’s most successful film as director was Sister Cupid, starring Maggie Cheung.

[4] - Kirk Wong was known for his gritty and brutal action films, like Crime Story and Organized Crime and Triad Bureau. In Hollywood, he directed the action-comedy The Big Hit (1998) and was originally slated to direct the project that became Snakes on a Plane.

[5] - Luk is best known for directing the cult film Robotrix. His most successful film, however, was the Carol “Dodo” Cheng ghost-comedy Guests in the House.

Maximum Risk (1996)

Maximum Risk (1996)

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.

Touch and Go (1991)

Touch and Go (1991)
aka: Point of No Return
Chinese Title: 一觸即發
Translation: One Touch Immediately

 

Starring: Sammo Hung, Teresa Mo, Vincent Wan Yeung-Ming, Tommy Wong Kwong-Leung, Irene Wan Pik-Ha, Ann Mui Oi-Fong, Lam Chung, Billy Chow Bei-Lei
Director: Ringo Lam
Action Director: Yuen Tak

Sammo Hung’s films from the late 80s and 90s are often uneven efforts, struggling to juggle comedy, romance, and superior kung fu action, with frequent forays into the darker corners of humanity. Even his masterpieces, like The Pedicab Driver, suffer from this sort of identity crisis, although the quality of the action and acting often make it easier to forgive these jarring gear switches. A similar problem dogs this 1991 action drama, brought to us by director Ringo Lam. Lam is best known for his gritty, brutal crime films, like Full Contact and City on Fire. And much like Jackie Chan and Kirk Wong in Crime Story, we have what might be a vicious action thriller about a man who’s torn between doing the right thing and saving his own hide, but the film’s tendency to dip into typical Sammo Hung humor keeps it from being a better movie.

Sammo plays Fat Goose, a humble noodle maker whose sassy mother lives in an elderly home. She’s eager for him to get married and have children, and Fat Goose pays his slutty neighbor to act like his girlfriend to keep his mother calm. One evening, Fat Goose witnesses a murder: a trio of thugs led by “The King of Hell” stab a cop to death after he takes incriminating photos of important people frequenting a brothel—a brothel staffed by illegal Mainland immigrants. Fat Goose ends up fighting off the thugs and escapes.

The lead cop on the case—whose partner was the victim—finds Fat Goose and convinces him to come on the case as an eyewitness. Initially reluctant, Fat Goose accepts the responsibility once the King of Hell tries to kill him and the cop in traffic. This makes life especially complicated for Fat Goose when he’s placed in the same room as the suspect—where the heck are the one-way mirrors?—and then the suspect is released on bail by his solicitor, the weasly Mr. Kam. Watching this, Righting Wrongs, and Flash Point, I can safely say that I’d never be a witness in Hong Kong. Their witness protection doesn’t work for s***.

That evening Fat Goose’s home is bombarded by Molotov cocktails, forcing him to stay with the cop and his reporter sister, Angel (Teresa Mo), until the trial. At this point, Fat Goose is adamant about not testifying, although the villains don’t care by this point. The situation quickly escalates as the killers target the cop’s other partner, and then his sister as well. Fat Goose will quickly need to decide whether or not he’ll help fight for justice or remain on the sidelines, hoping that the King of Hell will let bygones be bygones.

Like Twin Dragons, this is a case of the director(s)—in both cases, Ringo Lam was involved-- and the lead actor having such conflicting persona that the final result isn’t a good showcase for either. This is frequently an intense film with sleazy undertones—the villains like to get public officials laid with sex-traffick victims and document those encounters with hidden cameras for blackmail purposes. People are tortured, beaten with baseball bats, stabbed, shot, etc. A woman has her face mutilated by one of the main villains and is almost raped at another point. The King of Hell is a menacing villain, played by an actor who’s even uglier than Shing Fui-On was! Surely these are the trappings of a classic—or at least solid—action thriller.

But then you have some out-of-place comic elements that don’t sit well with the more serious stuff. There’s an extended comic interlude where Fat Goose takes Angel to meet his mother, asking her to play the role of his girlfriend. During the visit, the mother and another lady subject Angel to all sorts of tests to determine if her body is ideal for having children! And during the climax, Sammo is given a traditional broadsword as a weapon, but ends up leaving it behind in the car. When the car eventually explodes, the weapon flies through the air and lands straight in his hands. Goofy stuff like that would be fine in a Lucky Stars film, but stands at odds with the rest of this movie.

On the subject of swords and explosions, the question regarding the quality of the action is an important one, since quality action can salvage an otherwise messy film. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of that in this. Former Seven Fortune Yuen Tak handles the fight scenes, and despite the quality work he did at the same time with Saviour of the Soul and Shanghai Shanghai, he seems to be at a loss as to how to balance realism and quality choreography.

Sammo Hung gets three fights, although they’re all fairly brief.  During the first major fight, Sammo and the detective wreck the former’s apartment when he mistakens the flatfloot for an assassin. There’s some painful stuntwork here, but the moves themselves feel sloppy, as if they were shooting for a more realistic match. Much later, Sammo fights off a bunch of henchman at the villains’ lair, including Billy Chow. For a minute or two, the quality of the action approaches the level of his other late 80s/early 90s movies, and Chow makes a welcome addition to the crew, even if he’s just a nameless stuntman here. At the end, Sammo fends off a couple of men armed with choppers, while one of his arms is incapacitated in a sling. It’s a decent fight, and Sammo finishes off one guy with a nice flying backfist. The rest of the action consists of explosions, car chases, and a fight scene involving the detective. This latter sequence is interesting, as it’s set at the exact same restaurant as Jackie Chan’s introductory scene in Dragons Forever. I recognized that place immediately.

Touch and Go is a mediocre entry in both Ringo Lam’s and Sammo’s respective filmographies. The ingredients are there, but nobody knew what exactly to do with them. If the violence had been toned down a little and the fight scenes extended more, this might sit comfortably with the likes Pantyhose Hero and Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon. If the comedy scenes had been excised and replaced with more scenes developing the leader of the gang—the King of Hell’s boss—and their hooker racket, and then upping the brutality of their comeuppance a couple of notches, than it would be more in line with Ringo’s other films and make for an interesting contrast with Sammo’s previous offerings. As it stands, it’s an oddity mainly for die-hard fans of the star or the director.

Replicant (2001)

Replicant (2001)

Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Michael Rooker, Catherine Dent, Brandon James Olson, Pam Hyatt, Ian Robison, Marnie Alton
Director: Ringo Lam
Action Director: Martin Zounar, Scott J. Ateah

 

Replicant is a funny film when you think about what it represents. It marks the third time that Ringo Lam made a movie with actors in dual roles [1]. It was the third time that Van Damme starred in a movie where he played dual roles--make that four if you include his present and future selves at the climax of Timecop (1994). It was the second time that Ringo Lam directed a movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme in which the latter plays dual roles. I find it amusing that in the 13 years since Van Damme hit the big time, he had this many dual-role movies under his belt, where it took Steven Seagal theater nearly three decades to do his first--the awful sci-fi thriller The Perfect Weapon (2016).

Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Luc Savard, a serial killer dubbed "The Torch" by the press. The nickname stems from his modus operandi, in which he beats his victim to death with his bare hands before dousing the corpse in inflammable liquid and setting them on fire. His targets are women--specifically mothers--whom The Torch judges to be bad mothers. We open with The Torch executing one of his victims and detective Jake Riley (Michael Rooker, of The Replacement Killers) arriving at the scene. Riley is able to save the victim's toddler before he dies of asphyxiation. Riley gives chase to The Torch and comes close to catching him, but gets run over by a car before he can shoot him down.

Well, that was Jake's last chance of bringing the Torch in: he has retired and decides to spend the rest of his life running a boat repair business. That is, until the NSA shows up and invites him to tour one of their more top-secret facilities. The agency was able to retrieve one of the Torch's hairs from a murder scene some years before. With that hair, they produced a clone (also Van Damme) whom they think might establish a sort of psychic link with the real Torch and lead the authorities to an arrest. While the NSA doesn't deal with local criminals, they think that it will be a good experiment before moving on to terrorists and other more "international" menaces. They want Jake to babysit the Replicant, as he is called, and help him develop the sixth sense that would be necessary to find the real killer.

Jake reluctantly accepts the job and initially sees the Replicant, who still possesses a childlike innocence, as being no better than the real thing. The two gradually come to trust each other as the visit previous crime scenes and the Replicant finds itself with access to his originator's memories. Meanwhile, the Torch eventually figures out what's going on and decides its time to close the book on Jake, his arch-nemesis.

Replicant is one part science fiction movie, one part serial killer thriller, and one part martial arts action flick. That is a lot to digest in a single 100-minute feature. As such, it often feels like each aspect of the film is stepping on the toes of the other two. This goes especially for science fiction movie portion, which glosses over all the questions one might have about the central premise. Accepting the basic Jurassic Park premise of DNA = cloning potential, the movie doesn't really explain how they got an adult clone in two-three years' time. Moreover, the movie is almost Lamarckian in its science, supposing that all of the agility and muscle that the Torch developed through years of training would automatically be inherited by his clone. I call shenanigans on that. The movie does ask if a clone of a psychopath will inevitably become one, although the movie ultimately implies that "nurture" is far more powerful than "nature." 

This movie does get credit for allowing Van Damme to stretch his acting muscles more than any movie he made prior to JCVD. He hadn't played a villain since Black Eagle, so it's interesting to watch him play the sort of serial killer that dominated Hollywood films in the late 90s and early 00s. I actually like Van Damme the villain, especially in the second Expendables movie. He seems a natural at it, especially as he gets older. Better still is his performance as the Replicant, in which Van Damme seems to nail the childlike, borderline mentally challenged, personality of the clone who has only been alive for a few months (or weeks). His scared and confused facial expressions, physical acting, and limited dialog really sell the role. It was nifty watching Van Damme play a character as emotionally vulnerable as the Replicant and kudos goes to both Van Damme and Ringo Lam for directing him that way.

The action was provided by Martin Zounar, a Czech martial artist who worked with Van Damme on both Maximum Risk and Street Fighter. I'm assuming to the two were friends of sorts during the 1990s and early 2000s. The action set pieces include a handful of fights, a well-staged vehicle stunt sequence involving an ambulance, and some pyrotechnics-filled scenes set in burning rooms. The ambulance scene is probably the best action sequence of the film, but the fights are pretty decent. Van Damme's Luc Savard, as we learn later in the film, is an ex-Special Forces operative and fights using basic punches and kicks, plus throws and take downs. The flashiest moves he generally uses are roundhouse kicks--no aerial kicks for Jean Villain here. On the other hand, the Replicant uses a more acrobatic style, as he was raised watching gymnastics videos. So you have a no-frills Van Damme and a borderline Venom Mob Van Damme. I like the contrast. Only in the final fight do they start trading spin kicks as you'd expect in a regular Van Damme movie. These above-average set pieces, on top of an uncharacteristic performance from JCVD, serve to make Replicant worth a view.