The real twist here is that Scott and Jones are
enemies. Jones wants to kill Scott
because he believes Scott got his brother killed during some battle in the Middle
East. The bad guys come along just at
the right time to break up the execution and now Jones and Scott have to team
up to survive. It’s not the worst
premise I’ve ever seen but it doesn’t totally work for me. I think the main problem is that while we
spend some time to get to know Scott we don’t get to know Jones at all. He literally shows up and wants to kill a
dude with no context. And it’s not like
we learn much about him over the course of the film either. So the central idea that the plot’s supposed
to be based around falls completely flat.
Scott and Jones are really weird casting choices too. I remember Jones being a comedy guy so to see
him fighting brawny French-Canadian drug smugglers was something I couldn’t get
used to. Plus he’s supposed to be the
angry one of the two. He’s raging from
the death of his brother and wants nothing more than to see Scott dead. Jones produced this though so he may have
been a little biased in casting himself.
But as strange as it was to see Jones broody and punching
guys he wasn’t as out of place as Scott.
He plays the nice wholesome park ranger part fine but his backstory
involves him being an ex-Navy SEAL that had to hold up in the mountains for a
while to escape his haunted past. That’s
right, Guy Patterson, the drummer for The Wonders, knows martial arts and how
to set booby traps to kill bad guys ‘n shit.
I don’t buy this for a second. It
doesn’t help that they hid Scott’s face most of the time during the fight
sequences so I can’t even say “shit, he actually pulled some moves off”. Tom, buddy, I’m sorry but I don’t think
action is your thing.
| Look at this guy, he's havin' a ball! |
Of course the main event here is Van Damme. He has one pretty damn good fight with some Feds
and some just ok encounters throughout the rest of the picture. He really plays up the eccentricity of his
character which was entertaining but also incredibly silly. He’s an extreme environmental advocate, a vegan
and a ruthless killer. Every once in a
while he’ll rattle off a pollution or environmental fact and then murder a fella. I’m kinda torn because I like that he’s goddamn
crazy but at the same time he’s so goofy that he doesn’t feel like a very
threatening villain.
My favorite part was the story that Van Damme told about how
he became a vegan. Long story short, his
grandmother cooked his pet goose and he ate it without knowing. Well, I mean his grandmother told him, that’s
why he turned vegan. The way Van Damme
tells the story and just the story itself is fucking badass.
This is Peter Hyams latest offering and his fourth time
teaming up with Van Damme. They made the
fun but not great Timecop, incredible
Sudden Death and Hyams was
cinematographer on Universal Soldier:Regeneration. They have a helluva
history and that’s the main reason why I absolutely had to check this one out.
But the heavy handed environmental message, the
underdeveloped characters, the miscast leads and the surprisingly choppy
editing during the fight scenes (Peter’s son John Hyams is the editor and I think
he’s one of the best action directors to come along…well…kind of ever and he
edits his own stuff and that shit (UniversalSoldier: Day of Reckoning, Universal Soldier: Regeneration) is fantastic so
I don’t know what was going on with this film) bring this thing down. But hey, a Hyams Van Damme movie is tradition
at this point so even though it wasn’t that good I still kind of enjoyed it.
Really I can’t wait ‘til the next Peter, John and
Jean-Claude project. It would be a shame
if this was the last thing they did together.
They need to keep going.
By the way, this is an incredible trailer that makes the film look way better than it actually is:
By the way, this is an incredible trailer that makes the film look way better than it actually is:
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